Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-10-20
WRITES ABOUT
NORTHERN FIRE
John Grignon Jr. of Pitt, Minn.,
Tells of Disaster Wrought by
Forest Fires in Letter to His
Parents in This City.

John GrignOn, Jr., writing his par
ents from Pitt, Mimi, in a letterdat-
ed October 10th, he gives an account
Of their experience during the forest
fire which ragged there recently.
Friday October 7th to 10th 1910,
will be long remembered by the people
Of this part of the state as the worst
forest fire they ever have experience
l can't see how anything could be
worse. Will give you an account of
how l came out, so you can get an
idea how things stand with me- Fri
day l dug bitches around my house
and barn and buried everything that
l wanted to save, except the stove
dishes, canned goods, and other arti-
cles that wouldn't burn easy. l NOV
ed out into the clearing I had a
man with me to help, and he nearly
got lost on the afternoon of Friday
out on the main road as it was so
smoky. He had gone out to see how
VIC Ill was, puL ue SOL DdCh dIl-
right. About 4 o'clock in the after
noon the wind was blowing a hurri-
cane and driving the flames toWardI IN
place, this was from the south, but
before it got to my timber the wind
changed to the west and drove the
flames east, so we had a breathing
Cynn11
with some pals of water to my south
east corner and put out some fires
that were backing up against the win
! noticed that the sky was all red so
We went back to the house. From
there we could hear distant roaring il!
the northeast so l knew that the
fire was working around my swamp
land. About p. IN. it came back
with hurricane of wind and roar
ing sounds like hundred trains
Such a sight l never witnessed be-
fore. 1t passed thru the government
timber just north of my house so we
waited for the back fire. | soon
AANSAA u ktiiO1liCI 1OflI IIlso oOullu
from the west of the house. 1t ap-
peared to have split and was coming
down thru my slashing and sparks
were flying all around us. We got
into the we'll for safety. About p.
m. it broke thru the BaLsam thicket
near my barn and l thought sure it
n until u hn1t iy1 -four
minutes afterward noticed that it
was not burning much closer to the
house so we got out of thewen and
took the paiIs and carried water to
save the house.
My barn was burned but there was
no. much in it so that it want be a
great loss. At II p. IN. We were out
Of danger. l didn't sleep much that
night. Saturday morning we started
for Pitt, and what a sight we wit
messed along the way everything was
burned. In Pitt the only thing LETT
standing was the depot and one oiS
barn. Brother Alf. lost his store bug
lngs, cottage, barns, ice house, camps
ing outfit and sleighs, in fact not
thing was left standing. So we start
ed for Boudette. At the Winter road
River Bridge a train had gone thru
and lay in the river. Several cars
were burned and heat was scattered
all over the ground. About three miles
from Boudette there was a woman
and baby lying near the R. R. track
burned to death and a little farther
on her husband and two children lay
in the ditch dead. Everything was
burned at Boudette and Spooner, ex-
cepting a saw mill. Alfred, Bertha
and Marie were over at Rainy River,
Canada, so I crossed over there to
let them know that I was o. K. They
went to Duluth and l came back home
How many deaths resulted from the
fire I ann not able to tell you at this