The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-11-23
BIG GARDEN GROVE FIRE
Six Brick Business Houses Burned
Early Sunday Morning with
loss of over $4,000.
, The business district of Garden
sove suffered big loss early Sun

ESEa by ulOFUluS, Wucu SlA UIlCh UuSl-
less houses were destroyed by fire.
the total loss being estimated at
about $4,000, with insurance of
about $4,000. A peculiar thing
about the fire was that every build
ling destroyed was owned by widow,
Mrs, Chet Dilsaver owning two of
them, Mrs. G. w. Murbarger one and
I Mrs. M. Grinspan, of st. Joe, Mo-,
three. Among the buildings destroy
ed were the old D. & A. B. Stearns
buildings which" were erected during
the war. 1t is a severe blow to Gar
den Grove, as none of the owners OF
the burned buildings will probably
rebuild.
The fire was discovered by J. J..
McClung, who lives short distance
, east of the scene, starting in a shed
at the rear of the Mcdowell restaur-
ant in the Murbarger building, and
the supposition is that bucket Of
hot ashes started the fire. The flames
spread rapidly, and soon the fire was
under great headway. Mrs. McDow-
ell and daughter, Miss Eta, were
sleeping in the rooms above the res
taurant, Mr.. Mcdowell being in Des
MOines at the time of the fire. In
attempting to save some Of their bed
ding and household goods Mrs. Nc
Dowell and daughter came near los
ing their lives. They had thrown a
number of things down the stairway
and when they tried to descend their
passageway was blocked, and they
were nearly overcome when help
reached them. They lost nearly
everything upstairs and everything in
the restaurant below. To the east
was the racket store of A. w. Stearns
who had stock of about $2,5OO,
and about half of his stock was saw
ed. lie had insurance of $1,000.
The building was owned by Mrs.
Chet Dilsaver, who also owned the
opera house to the east, her loss on
the two buildings being about ST.
500 with insurance of $4,000. c. 7.
Smith & Son occupied the opera
house with their picture show and
they saved their piano, picture ma
chine, etc., their loss being about
$50 with no insurance. The McDoW-
ell restaurant and stock was valued
at; $4,000 with insurance of $1,50O.
The ladies of the NJ. e. church owned
the second story of the Murbarger
building, their loss being $1,000 with
insurance of $3.50. The building to
the west of the restaurant was occu-
pied by the Humphrey Produce Co.,
who saved their equipment. The
next building was occupied by w. A.
Williams clothing store, his loss be-
ing the heaviest in the list, his
stock being valued at 1000, with
insurance of $500, and less than
half of his stock was saved. The
upper stories over the Grinspan
buildings were owned by the Mason
ic lodge and the w. r. c. The loss
on the Masonic lodge room was $4,-
900, with no insurance, their insur-
ance having expired ten days before.
The loss on the w. r. C. hall was
$1,000, with insurance of $3.50. The
next building which was burned,
owned by Mrs. Grinspin, was vacant.
Her loss on the three buildings is
$4,000 with insurance of only
$4,000. The Machlan shoe stock
was damaged to the extent of $500
by smoke ,and water, with insurance
Of $1,5OO. The Brazelton building
was also damaged about 500, fully
insured.
word was phoned to Leon and fire
chief Charles Horn and several men,
bers Of the fire department loaded
an auto with chemicals and/rushed to
Garden Grove and were of consider
able help in stopping the fire. A
large number of Leon people autoed
to Garden Grove Sunday afternoon to
view the ruins.