The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-12-17
POULTRY PLANT BURNS

Aaron & Co.'s Poultry House and
Jap Cesler's livery Barn Burn
ed Monday NIGHT.
The new poultry house of Aaron &
Co., which recently opened in this
city, following the destruction only
3 few weeks ago of the big plant Of
Swift & Co., was destroyed by fire
which was discovered few minutes
after ten o'clock Monday night, and
nothing was saved from the building,
and the livery barn of Jap >Cesler,
just west of it, was also burned.
The poultry house was temporar-
lily located in the big frame building
on east Commercial street formerly
used as livery barn and had been
fitted up for receiving and killing
plant, the upper floor of the big i'm
plement house of E! w. Hamilton on
west Commercial street being used
as a packing room, and the dressed
poultry was moved to this building
as soon as it was dressed.
The new poultry house was just
getting fairly started, but they were
receiving an immense amount of
poultry. Monday they had over thir-
ty pickers at work in the killing de-
partment and they worked until af-
ter 9 o'clock Monday night finishing
the last of the turkeys received that
day, about 45O turkeys being killed
and dressed after supper that even
ing. When the employees left they
filled up stove in the killing room
at the rear of the building to keep
the room warm over night, and the
fire started around the stove, which
either became overheated or the
door came open and allowed Goals to
fall on the floor. This room is shut
off from the balance of the building
by tar paper covered partitions so
the fire could not be seen from the
outside and the whole interior was a
seething mass of flames when it was
discovered, and nothing could be
saved from the building. In addition
to the 450 dressed turkeys which
were burned there were about 1900
head of hens, 200 ducks and some
geese in the building and all of these
were burned. A car load of new bar
rels was stored only that day in the
loft and large number of coops and
other property was burned.
1t was seen at once that the livery
barn on the west owned and occu-
pied by Jap Cesler was sure to go,
and large number of men, went to
work releasing the horses and get
ting the buggies, harness and other
property out OF the barn, most every
thing except the feed on the first
floor being saved. In the loft were
r1~ ~,
property, and Mr.. Cesler had 400
bushels of corn, Is bushels of oats,
20 tons of baled hay and 40 bales
of straw, which was all burned ex-
cept about Is bushels of corn which
was saved.
Both the burned buildings were
owned by Mr.. Cesler and he carried
insurance of $1,000 on the two
buildings, as we'll as some insurance
on the contents. He feels very CRATE
full to all the people who worked so
hard to save his property during the
fire.
! Aaron & Co. carried insurance on
their poultry house, the policies hav-
ing just been delivered to them that
day, but not enough to cover their
loss which will reach $4,000 to
$4,000.
In less than an hour after the fire
started Mr.. Manning, one of the
managers from Kansas City, who was
here assisting local manager Hanes,
in handling the big holiday rush of
poultry, was talking over the long
distance telephone to the headquar-
ters Of the company at Kansas City.
and he received instructions to get
busy and secure building and go
right ahead with the business the
next morning. Tuesday the base
ment under Jap Statzels poultry
house was used as a killing room
while the Sigler barn on south Main
street was being fitted up for use and
yesterday morning full force of
pickers were at work in the new To-
cation. Aaron & Co. are paying out
more than $1,000 week in salaries
in this city, and are employing more
than fifty people and everybody is
glad to see them going right ahead.
They will erect a big fire proof poul-
try plant in this city the coming
spring.
After the fire had burned down
the fire boys returned to the fire en-
gine house to dry their wet clothes
aud care for the hose, and about IL
O'Clock a second alarm was turned
In. a small barn just southeast of the
burned buildings being on fire, but
the boys soon had this in hand and
only a part of the roof was burned
n /. 81 Il u . = q 80