Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1910-03-03
COSILYF|RE SATURDAY
VanAlStlne Bros. General Store at
RiVefdale Burns to Ground
Loss $4,000, NO INSURANCE
Firm Plans to Rebuild at Once on Same Site
A Cement or Brick Building

One of the costliest and most un-
fortunate fires in the recent history of
Riverdale occurred early Saturday
morning when the general store and
meat maket of VanAlstine Bros burned
TO the ground, and Henry fuckers
gocery store and Moblo's hadwsr re
and turn.tue store barsiv escaped.
About o'clock Saturday mornin z
Jack Moblo noticed the fire in the
Van Alstine store building and ran
through the streets CRYING fire. aud
waking up everybody be could. 1t
was not long before the whole town
was at the scene, hut the fire gained
headway quickly and before any
effort could be made to put it out was
raging in the building
Two brigades were formed one to
manage Moblo's force pump which
was brought into mmission and one
to use buckets All the pals in
Moblo's hardware store were set out
upon the front walk..where anyone who
wanted one could get it easily. A
hose was attached to the force pump
and with this an effort was made to
qench the fire in the burning building
| The bucket brigade used another pump
as their source of supply and confined
their efforts mostly to protecting the
building of Henry Tucker the grocery
man which was at tiI. es even on fire.
AS sOCn as it was seen that there wa
no hope of saving ANYTHING of the
VanAlstine building everv effort was
turned towards preventing the fire
from spreading.
Fortunately the wind was not blow
ing toward the business section. if it
had been there would have been but
little chance of saving ANYTHING along
the west side of the street at least up
to the brick buildings. BY strenu-
GUS struggle the building to the mort b
Moblo's hardware store was saved
About six O'Clock the walls of the
building was pushed in and the re-
mains allowed to burn up.
All during the fire everybody who
could possibly give any assistance
was working with might and main
but especially was this so of the
Alma high school second basket ball
team who worked their hardest every
minute The business men of River
dsie say that they never saw a bunch
of fellows go into anything more
earnestly and untiringly as did the
Alma bows. They are certainly de-
Striving of much credit for the way in
which thev stuck to their disagreeable
tasks. Thev had been staying at the
Warner hotel during the night follow
ing their basket ball game the even
ing previous.
How the fire started is mystery.
a number of probable and improbable
theories are advanced ranging from
the idea that il started from a box of
saw dust to the idea that it was set
by thieves who burglarized the stock
before setting it afire. However there
seems to be not theory which can be
supported by anything more than con-
! lecture.
The loss is severe one TO the owners
ana especially hard for VanAlstlne
| Bros. TO hear They had Just pur-
chased a fiDe new stock of goods and
had moved in the stock of dry goods
and clothing formerly carried bv e
Moblo and Co and were just getting
started nicely in the general store
! business when the fire wiped out
everything thew had in the store as
well as the building in few hours
/ They carried no insurance whatever
I thinking the risk was so slight that
/ there was absolutely no danger of loss
/ from fire. However thew are not dis
coursged but are planping Oh build
/ ing on the same site as soon as pos
siLle Thev Ian 10 put up this time
either a brick building or one of
cement blocks
The VanAlstine store was one of
the best equipped in the town. They
used all the mUdern grocery devices
such as the best refriggerators com
putting scales gasoline engine for
! their sausage AID coffee grim
ders ana so on all of which was lost
with the stock
John Youug the ieweler has
little relic of the fire In the shane of
china pitcher which went
through the whole fire without being
| cor in,,slu hnrnod IL 10 ...font L.,