The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-11-19
Insurance Commissioners
AS State Investigation
at Neu Farm.
MARSHALL SAW STILL
City Marshall at Union Grove
Declares He Saw Still
in Pig Barn.

Conviction that the cause of the
disastrous fire that hit the farm of
Nicholas Neu in the town of Paris at
11s00 o'clock Monday morning lay in
a huge moonshine still being operated
in the pig barn at the time, was
strengthened in an investigation car
ried Aon by fire insurance officials in
the town of Paris today. The property
on the farm had been insured, and If
the investigation which is about to
go into the hands of state prohibition
officials working in cooperation with
the state insurance commission shows
that the fire started from an explosion
of still, the fire insurance company
declares it will refuse to issue in
surance money on the property.
The story of still in the big barn
was given out today by John Bowers,
city marshal in the town of Union
Grove. Bowers went to the scene of
the fire near his town Immediately
after he received word of the con-
Migration. He went into the barn, he
said, and counted forty-five barrels of
mash, several cans Of moonshine, sew
eral empty kegs and a roll of coils
that had probably been blown off of
the actual still in the explosion. The
marshal declared that in his opinion
the fire was caused from an explosion
of the still.
He could not guess at the capacity
of the still because there was not
enough of it left to tell how large it
had been, he said. Others who were
present at the time declared that the
still which is believed to have been
working at the time, appeared to
have capacity of at least several
hundred gallons.
Gone When He Returned.
The city marshal. at Union Grove
declared that he returned to the farm
in Paris on Monday afternoon, but at
that time he found that all of the
material he had noted at the time
of the fire was gone, and that all
that remained in the wreckage was
several empty kegs.
The insurance company officials have
aleady communicated with state head
quarters in Madison asking that an
Inspector from Madison come to the
farm at once to verify the facts un-
earthed in the preliminary investiga-
ton which they themselves have done.
At the same time it was limited that
state prohibition officials would be
notified and that the matter would
also be placed in their hands.
The belief that some one was in
jured in the explosion which brought
on the fire could not be proven today.
1t was said at Paris that man on
the premises at the time was burned
and that he had been taken to hos
pital at Kenosha for treatment.
Neither hospital here had any record
of such a case on Monday, nor did
they have any records to show that
anyone had applied for treatment CT
burns or other injuries during the day.
In the fire the entire pig pen was
destroyed, fifteen pigs were burned,
several seriously, and strawstack
nearby also was burned.
The report that deputies from the
Kenosha sheriff's Office brought back to
Kenosha on Monday afternoon de-
clared that there was nothing left in
the barn when they arrived. They
quoted Nicholas Neu, operator of the
farm, as saying that the fire had
started from an overheated chimney
leading from a furnace in the big
barn in which mash was being boiled
for food for pigs. They declared that
they did not find that anyone had
been hurt in the fire.
Nicholas Neu paid fine OF $400 and
costs in municipal court here when ne
was convicted in the month of Sep
TENDER, 1922, for possession Of moon
shine, mash and q still.