The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-11-06
James Rolfe Scaled Steeple at
Marshfield To-day
AND EXTINGUISHED FIRE
Two Buildings Burned and Occupants Of
One Of Them Barely Got Out Alive.
Their Loss Nearly Total--Hard
Work Saved Bigger Loss.

Marshaeld, Nov. 6--This village was
narrowly spared fire catastrophe early
this morning, when two buildings, the
knights Of Pythias and Beckley blocks,
were burned and the Universalist church
was damaged The occupants Of the
Beckley building fed in their night
clothes when awakened from their slum-
Der BY Mrs. Cora Preston, who occupied
the lower floor Of the building and who
was awakened by the cracking Of the
fire.
Mrs Preston was awakened at about
half past three o'clock and discovered
that the building was on fire. She
rushed up stairs to call George d 0rms-
bee, the owner Of the building. and his
family who occupied the tenement there.
By great effort she managed to awaken
them, SO that they got out alive clad
only In their night clothing The Mollys
Falls Telephone company Office was also
IN this building. and Miss Glenn Little,
the central girl, lost all her clothing,
with no insurance.
Mrs Cora Preston conducted a MILL
merry and fancy goods store in the Beck
ley building and all the goods, together
with her household furnishings, we're
burned She was insured for d few
hundred dollars in the Vermont Mutual
and the Union Mutual companies. Mr.
0rnsbee carried an insurance of 81 600
on the building and his furniture, the
Vermont Mutual carrying the policy.
The Knights of pythias block stood
N.s44w tm..~ fx4,n. Tn11y3axYs l,sst4.
ing, and Ii soon caught fire. being then
burned in spite Of the efforts Of the fire.
aghters The post office was located in
this building, and Postmaster A. 7 Da-
Wis saved oil the government belongings,
stamps, all the mail, and the Official
books, The Office furniture, belonging
to Postmaster Davis, was nearly all
saved, although slightly damaged. Ey-
erything there was well insured in the
Union Mutual company.
The X. of P. building was the prop.
erty Of the Marshfeld Building associa
tion. controlled bF the Knights Of Pyth-
las The insurance on IL was S2 600,
carried III the Union Mutual. The
knights saved few OF tlleir chairs;
also the heavy lodge chairs, records and
robes All the other paraphernalia and
officers robes were burned The lodge
carried $500 insurance on the furnish
ings Of the hall The Uniform Rank,
K. 81 p, saved their uniforms. but the
lockers could not be taken ont. The
insurance there WAS $3.50 in the Union
Mutual
By hard work the little barn back Of
the Benklev building was saved. thus
protecting the school building. The
spire 81 tie t1nigersalist church caught
fire, and as the flames crept steadily
downward anxious eyes watched their
advance and anxious hearts asked, "Will
ii goi' Presently, James Rolfe. who
proved to be another "hero Of st. MI
chaels,r volunteered to save the build
Ing, and BE hraveIy scaled the spire With
the aid Of ladder and by cutting
through the roof Of the steeple he got
TO the fire and after an hour of faithful
work he extinglished the FIRE there.
Cheer after cheer greeted the young
man. and when little later Dr. H s..
Carver presented him purse of s2223,
collected III TIE watching crowd, he re
fused 70 accept the gift. He expressed
bis thanks brokenly and said Give
it to those who have lost their homes"
Mrs. Cora Preston, one Of the losers,
is In state Of nervous exhaustion,
which Il not to be wondered at mas
much as she has been through four fires
ii this village The first was when the
Bancroft house, on the site where the
Marshheld creamery now stands, was
burned % years ago; the second when
the old hotel on the site Of L. B. Adams
building went down l3 years ago; and
the third when Marshfeld lost 30 much
village property and Mrs Preston and
her invalid mother came near perishing
and lost everything on April 10, last
Mr.. Ormshee had purchased his prop
ertv Of NJ e. Becklay July last, and
he had in the house $50 which he was
about to apply on the mortgage This
money wes lost Much sympathy Is ex.
pressed for all these people in their
loss This forenoon the streets are full
Of people watching the ruins.