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52 Years Ago Today Fire Hit, Wiped
Out Town of Ontonagon
Prophecy Made
Then Is Borne Out Today
Ontonagon--Fifty two years ago today
fire destroyed this village.
In the Ontonagon Herald of Sept. 5,
1896 was this statement:
"Ontonagon may be rebuilt bigger and
better than ever in a few years, but
there is one thing it will take a
great many years to replace, and
that is its beautiful shade trees."
If the man who wrote that sentence
52 years ago were here to see
Ontonagon today he would probably
consider himself to be some sort of
a prophet.
The
village paper of Aug. 29, 1896,
published by F.J. Dirr and edited by
Henry M. Powers, carried a full
account of the fire. It began:
"Tuesday morning August 25, 1896,
the sun seemed to shine unusually
bright in Ontonagon, then a
prosperous village of 2,300
well-to-do, happy, and contented
people. The two large saw
mills of the Diamond Match Co., had
given the signal for the men to take
their places and the busy hum of the
saw seemed to voice the happy
sentiments of our people; not one of
them thinking that before the orb of
the day would sink in the west that
their homes would be in ruins and
they would be compelled to fly for
their lives, rendering them paupers
in the world.
SOME FELT PREMONITION
"It
may have been imagination or
premonition but many of our people
whom we have talked with since the
terrible conflagration tell us that
they felt something hovering over
them during the forenoon of that
day. It seemed to them as if
something was going to happen but
they could not explain it. For
weeks--yes months--there had been
fires in the swamps up along the
West Side of the river but so
accustomed to the smoky atmosphere
that nothing was thought of it.
"At
different times when it began to
encroach on the Diamond Match
company's fences and boom, they sent
men up to fight it. Tuesday
forenoon, however, fanned by a brisk
wind from the southwest, it had come
nearer to the buildings on the West
Side and as early as half past nine
the company had sent men over with
hose to try and check its progress.
NOT SERIOUS AT FIRST
"The
reports which came back to town were
that it was not very serious.
But the wind kept freshening up and
by 12 o'clock it was blowing a
living gale. Men who had
families living on the West Side
began to get alarmed for their
safety, but went to work just the
same when the mills started up at
one o'clock.
"The
machinery had hardly got in motion,
however, when the fire alarm was
given, one of the buildings had
caught fire, and from that very
moment the town was doomed.
Many of the firemen were already on
the gorund but they soon saw it was
useless to fight such a fire with a
wind which every minute was
increasing in velocity, and they
began immediately urging the women
and children to hasten to a place of
safety.
"It
did not take long to consume the
dozen buildings in its path and
another instant it was in the West
Side mill and yard, where its
ravenous appetite devoured all
before it, crossing the river into
the immense piles of lumber which
seemed like to many shavings before
it. In a jiffy the planing
mill, dry kiln, barn and Island saw
mill of the D.M. Co. were all on
fire.
BLAZE SPREAD FAST
"The
Bigelow house, a large four story
frame structure, caught next and
then people realized from the
rapidity with which the wind was
traveling that not only property but
lives were in danger. Every
person in the lower end of town who
could get by the flames went in the
direction of Greenland and Rockland
and the other sought refuge on the
beach and in boats.
"About this time, between 3 and 4
o'clock, the wind changed in the
northwest and then began a race for
life. The wind had attained a
velocity of 75 miles an hour, huge
banks of smoke hid the sun from
view, the air was filled with fire
brands and the terror-stricken
people dropped everything they had
and ran for their lives.
At
this point the writer said, "No pen
can describe the wind scene at this
juncture." Here it is obvious
to the reader that the pen wielded
by Henry Powers did an unusually
good job of describing the entire
fire. The article continued:
PEOPLE FLED BLAZE
"Many
of the poor people saw houses
catching fire ahead of them and
terror-stricken they hardly knew
what to do. They realized,
however, that their only alternative
was to keep ahead of the monster
tidal wave of flame which was
pursuing them and on they went, some
in wagons but most of the afoot.
"Horses were lashed into a full
gallop and men, women and children
ran like wild. Before the wind
shifted it was thought that the
residence portion of the town could
be saved but now it was evident that
no power on earth could stem that
sheet of flames which seemed
determined to lick up every building
within the village limits.
People standing a half mile from the
fire could not face it. It
seemed as if the very air were aire
and the population kept pushing out
into the interior, some going as far
as five miles out."
Then
followed an account of the houses,
stores, and other buildings
destroyed. John Roosen's
residence, a mile out the Parker
road, believed to be safe, burned to
the ground. The fire went up
the Rockland road destroying the
Martin and Gothard homes. On
the Greenland road it "took
everything before it included
William Heard's beautiful
residence."
Some
344 buildings were listed as
destroyed including one bank, the
court house and jail, four churches,
three hotels, a dozen stores, 13
saloons, two newspapers, three
school houses, the Diamond Match
company's plant, 40 million feet of
lumber, the company's general store,
a barge, two bridges, Corgan's opera
house, and a large number of homes.
"When
morning broke," the article
continued, "The generous people of
Rockland came to the rescue with
food." The only casualty was
"Mrs. Pirk, an aged German lady who
had been living in the lake shore
portion of town with her daughter,
Mrs. Geist." The area burned
was said to be "fully a square
mile." It was noted that about
100 buildings were left standing in
the village. "These, together
with farm houses several miles from
the village were crowded to their
fullest capacity." |
