The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-02-12
ANNIVERSARY OF
FIRE DISASTER
"Old Timers Recall Halli-
day Hotel Fire Disaster
Here in 1871.
SEVEN LOST LIVES

"Old timers" in Kenosha were re-
calling this week that the first week
in February marks the anniversary OF
the biggest fire disaster in the history
of Kenosha. In February of 1871 the
Halliday Hotel, one of the early hotels
of Kenosha, was destroyed by fire and
in the flames persisted seven persons,
five of them members of one family.
Many others were badly burned and
score narrowly escaped death and IN
jury.
The story of the fire is one of the
most interesting chapters in the early
history of Kenosha and that younger
generations may know of it, the story
of the catastrophe as given in the cur
rent issue Of the Telegraph Courier"
is given below:
Burning of the Halliday House.
"The most terrible calamity we have
ever been called upon to record is that
of the burning of the Halliday House
on Tuesday morning last, at which
time six persons were burned to death,
one burned so badly that he lived but
few hours; and number Of others
seriously injured.
AG Ike Was 1l1SI AASNONCAC0 hhN SAAS
alarm given at about 4:S0 o'clock by
some young men who had attended the
masquerade at the Park City House in
the north ward, and they did all they
could to assist the inmates of the hotel
in making their escape.
Several of the male boarders that
roomed in the fourth story, jumped
from the windows of their rooms and
escaped with slight injuries, while 9TH
ers rushed for the stairways and came
near suffocating lin getting out.
Five in Family Dead.
Mrs. j. B. Merrill and four children
persisted. Capts. Everett and Haen,
sailors, and also s. D. Hastings of this
city, who rendered good and timely as
sistance to many, state that they heard
the lady and children screaming for
help in the third story, and a minute
later the room in which they were was
enveloped in flames and smoke.
About o'clock the remains of Mrs.
Merrill and the four children were
found in the ruins of the basement,
where they had fallen through from
the third floor, and presented a sick
ening spectacle as they laid in the
doorway. The mother had the young
est, child about years old, clasped
in her arms, and the little child's
arms were tightly wound around its
mothers neck
y Several Carried to Safety.
Osmond Capron, brother of Capt.
Capron of this city and a clerk in. the
store of Capron & Stevens, was taken
from the burning building fearfully
burned and his night clothes were still
in flames as they carried him across
| the street to the residence of Henry
Andre. His injuries are such that lit
tie hope is left of his recovery.
The clerk, Simon Fuller, who has
been clerk in the hotels of this city for
years, was sleeping in the parlor on
the second floor and might easily have
saved himself by jumping from the
window, but he rushed up into the
burning building and endeavored TO
save others he thought in danger. He
was taken out in an almost insensible
condition and after untold agony died
at a o'clock in the afternoon at the
residence of w. F. Halliday on Market
| street.
One Injured in Jump.
A man in the employ of one of our
hardware firms roomed in the third
story of the hotel and when he first
heard the alarm endeavored to get out
by going down the main stairs, but the
sitting smoke drove him back and he
jumped from window, striking on the
roof of the short plaza on the east side
of the building. The roof being COW
cred with ice, he slid on to the ground,
breaking his thigh and received other
injuries that will lay him up for long
time if it does not render him Grip
pie for life
Austin B. Wattles of Jewett's livery
stable was in room on the third floor.
He made his way to the head of the
stairs on the third floor and threw
himself over the banisters to the floor
of the office, which was filled with
flames and dense smoke and here he
became almost suffocated. Making one
more effort he fell over the railing to
the stairs leading to the front door
and rolled down TO the bottom. He
was taken out badly burned but will
recover.
each" Wilder jumped from the 4th
story to the roof of the walk on the
east side of the hotel, and fell to the
ground, but fortunately received no in
juries except a few bruises.
Sam Ranney jumped from the fourth
story on the north side of the eastern
portion of the hotel. Zach Wilder
braced himself against the side of the
building and endeavored to break the
force of his fall, and was pretty badly
bruised. Ranney got off with d few
slight cuts and bruises which was mir
aculous, considering the distance that
he fell
Several Have Narrow Escape.
Charley Brown, well known among
our horsemen, had a narrow escape in
his night clothes. Col. F. S. Lowell
also escaped in his night clothes, al
though not till he had been somewhat
burned: A gentleman named Mitchell
who arrived from Chicago on the $3.50
train and had just got into sound
slumber, got out in his shirt and draw
ers; he was pretty badly burned about
the face and hands.
Porter Probably Dead.
A young man named Ed Wade, who
worked about the house, has not been
seen since the fire, and was undoubt-
eddy burned to death, making six in all
that persisted in the flames.
Mr. Rush and wife, who had room