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 UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GREAT MINNESOTA 
 
 FOREST FIRES, 
 
 Sandstone, Mission Creek, 
 
 Hinckley, 
 Pokegama, Skunk Lake. 
 
 . . BY 
 ELTON T. BF 
 
 ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 CARL C. BROWN. fro-G-O 3U 
 
 BROWN BROS. PUBLISHERS, 
 
 ST. PAUL, MINN. 
 
 
 \^ 
 
COPYRIGHTED 1894 
 BY 
 
 BROWN BROS. 
 
 St. Paul,, Mink 
 
 ^> 
 
 kCAll^ 
 
7* TRIBUTE. 
 
 By the Author. 
 
 Gone from the haunts, where they loved and they lingered, 
 Gone from the paths that their feet loved to roam, 
 Bereft are the friends that revered and that mingled 
 Daily with those whom the fire has called home. 
 
 Men stricken down in the bloom of their man-hood,- 
 Women, whose hearts were proved true as steel, 
 Children, whose eyes had brought light to the household, 
 Suffered and died, still mute with appeal. 
 
 There were heroes, whose story will ne'er be related, 
 There were heroines too, who will e'er be unsung, 
 Self-sacrinee truly, of all attribute noble, 
 Thy name from the top of the peak should be flung. 
 
 They are gone, leaving naught but the ashes behind them, 
 They are gone, yet we can but rejoice at their gain, 
 Their trials are all over, no ill can betide them; 
 While we must work on, till we meet them again. 
 
. . . PREFACE . . . 
 
 IN launching this little volume upon the turbulent sea of an 
 existence which may or may not prove altogether satisfac- 
 tory, the author feels called upon to state that in this work 
 it is not his aim or desire to make an especially interesting and 
 readable volume, but more particularly to chronicle a few facts 
 in as terse a manner as may be relative to, he thinks without 
 exception, the most horrible calamity which has befallen any 
 portion of the human race in modern times. He desires that 
 what facts he here presents may be absolutely authentic in 
 every detail, and his purpose in giving this work to the public 
 is to place in a concise and readable form a full account of the 
 fire in its awful voracity together with a description of the 
 country over which it passed, and enough personal experiences 
 to give the reader some small idea of the excruciating suffering 
 of the survivors. Also the efforts of a generous people to 
 alleviate their suffering, as well as the heroic efforts of those 
 upon whose courage and strength of character rested the lives 
 of many hundred human beings. Pen cannot picture and tongue 
 cannot tell the whole story. Young men will grow gray and 
 their children gray and still history will hold no parallel to the 
 Hinckley Forest Fires. The Johnstown Tragedy, so-called 
 pales into insignificance beside it, as to the area affected and 
 the amount of property destroyed, if not as to loss of life ; and 
 let us hope and pray that from this time on we may be de- 
 livered from so terrible an ordeal as has just been undergone 
 by the good people of Kanabec, Pine and Aitkin Counties in 
 Minnesota and Douglas, Burnett and adjoining Counties in 
 Wisconsin. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 Chapteu. Page, 
 
 I The Surrounding Counto- 5 
 
 II The Fire , 15 
 
 III The Emergency Train 29 
 
 IV Skunk Lake 41 
 
 V The Gravel Pit. The River. The Marsh 52 
 
 VI Sandstone, Partridge, Sandstone June , Pokegama.. 
 
 and Mission Creek 61 
 
 VII The Fire in Wisconsin 73 
 
 VIII AfterTheFire 86 
 
 IX Systematic Relief 100 
 
 X The Relief at Duluth 114 
 
 XI Other Relief Measures 128 
 
 XII Root's Own Story : 139 
 
 XIII Experiences of Hon. C. D. O'Brien and Others 153 
 
 XIV Personal Experiences 171 
 
 XV More Experiences 184 
 
 XVI Another Story— Some Pertinent Facts 198 
 
 XV II Retrospective— A General Survey 218 
 
 KPPENDIX. 
 
THE HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GREAT MINNESOTA FOREST FIRES, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 
 
 ven the most casual ob- 
 server in passing through 
 on the line of the St. Paul 
 & Duluth Ry. between St. 
 Paul and Duluth could 
 not fail to be impressed 
 with almost a sense of 
 wonder at the magnitude 
 and extent of the lumber 
 interests in the adjoining 
 country. Lumber on all 
 sides; every station had its mill and every farm- 
 house its rods of piled cord-wood, posts or piling 
 as the case might be or as the industrious owner 
 might see fit to get out. Gigantic pines rose 
 straight as an arrow from 100 to 150 feet in the 
 
6 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 
 
 air, standing side by side, so close that the clump 
 of branches at their tops inter-locked one with the 
 other, making a canopy so dense and so complete 
 that the sun was dismayed in its attempt to pierce 
 its shadows and its noon-day brightness only 
 lightened the shade to a dusky twilight. As far as 
 the eye could reach on all sides were forests, or the 
 stumpage where they had been cleared away and 
 in lieu of them had grown little homes and farm- 
 houses of more portentious proportions, nestled in 
 among the pines like islands in an inland sea, 
 where some voyager more venturous than the rest 
 had plighted his faith and built his cot with the 
 hope and prayer that the land he toiled to clear 
 might yield at least a living if not a livelihood. 
 And for the most part, fortune seemed to smile on 
 these dwellers in the pines. Mills had sprung up, 
 railroads come in, wages had been good and work 
 plenty all the year round. Lumber was a staple 
 product and here was an almost inexhaustible ex- 
 panse of the finest timber only waiting the axe and 
 the saw to convert it into money or its equivalent. 
 Is it any "wonder that the great lumber companies 
 looked upon this section as the reservoir of their ex- 
 istence, and that they appreciated its value and 
 were not slow in profiting by it? 
 
 Thousands of men were gathered from our North- 
 western cities every year and sent to work in the 
 woods in this section for the winter, and millions 
 
THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 7 
 
 of feet of logs were banked ready for the drive every 
 spring. Hundreds of men were employed in the 
 saw-mills converting these logs into lumber all 
 through the summer season, so that the Pine 
 county agriculturalist was given the very best of 
 markets, i. e. the home market, for everything he 
 could raise and was paid a good price for it, too. 
 
 The dairy interests of the section were of no 
 small importance. The underbrush in the woods 
 made excellent pasturage and a large proportion 
 of the Duluth and Superior milk supply was 
 gathered from this section. A special milk train 
 so-c«lled being run into these sections on the Du- 
 luth road every morning, and aside from the milk 
 much of the butter and other dairy products for 
 the supply of the Duluth markets came from this 
 region. As is the case with most of our rural 
 districts, the people of thic, section were made up of 
 a heterogeneous mass of humanity gathered to- 
 gether from the four corners of the Earth. Former 
 residents of the Scandinavian Peninsular were per- 
 haps in the majority with a goodly sprinkling of 
 the subjects of the German Emperor, whose thrifty 
 neat looking log cabins stood out in sharp con- 
 trast to the more dilapidated habitations of their 
 less industrious neighbors. Aside from the lumber 
 camps were the farmers who ranged from the poor 
 squatter with an acre or two of potatoes which he 
 had planted between the stumps, his sturdy wife 
 
38 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 
 
 and abundant family, his cow, his pig and his 
 shack, to the farmer who would tell you he came 
 herein the fall of '68 and who by dint of hard work 
 and watching the pennies had built a very pleasant 
 little home about him, and was preparing to spend 
 his old age with comparative ease and comfort. 
 
 And so they dwell secure m their houses fearing 
 nothing, never dreaming that so awful a calamity 
 as befell them was possible, or that they stood in 
 any danger whatever from the source which was 
 destined to wreak such havoc and spread such dire 
 desolation in the lap of prosperity and plenty. 
 Forest fires had been frequent and terrible, it is 
 true, considerable damage to young trees especially 
 had been done every fall by forest fires, but they 
 had for the most part been easily checked and no 
 one apprehended that the season of '94 would dif- 
 fer in this respect from that of '93 or any of the 
 other years. All expected forest fires, they always 
 came to a greater or less extent every fall as some 
 indolent vagrant would drop a match in the tin- 
 der of a bed of pine needless, or some stumpage 
 which had been brushed, grubbed and burned over 
 had gotten unmanageable and left a blackened and 
 bleak track in the wake of its demon; or again a 
 spark from a passing locomotive would fall where 
 a breath of wind would fan it into life and it would 
 grow till perhaps a mile or two of pines had been 
 devoured by its incipient onslaught. Up to this 
 
THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 9 
 
 time there had been no loss of life from this source 
 and comparatively little loss of property. The 
 usual precautions had been taken to prevent the 
 spread of fires should they occur and especial care 
 had been given to guarding against the starting of 
 new ones, as the populace as a whole appreciated 
 the fact that the dryness of the earlier part of the 
 season -would make a forest fire especially danger- 
 ous at this time. It was perhaps, more owing to 
 the fact that the residents as a whole apprehended 
 no danger, that the death list reached such appal- 
 ling proportions. Many who might have escaped 
 had they made the attempt at the time of the first 
 alarm felt that the towns were at least safe until 
 it was too late for them to rectify their mistake 
 and they were overtaken by a death too horrible 
 to contemplate. No one can view a forest fire 
 -without feeling impressed with its awful and al- 
 most majestically terrible advance, not slowly not 
 carefully, as if the demon was inclined to torture 
 his victims with any degree of suspense, but with 
 a sweep and a surge that was something terrible 
 to contemplate even in its mildest form. Mount- 
 ing a gigantic pine almost as a flash of powder in 
 the pan, carrying the burning cinders high into the 
 air, dropping them far over and beyond, where they 
 would slowly descend in circles of light into 
 branches of another pine, only to repeat the oper- 
 ation again and again, carrying tbe fire forward 
 
10 THE vSURROUNDING COUNTRY. 
 
 with almost incredible rapidity, until it reached a 
 clearing or had burned itself out. As to most of 
 my readers, the various towns mentioned in the 
 text will be known only on paper, it may not be 
 out of place to give in a few words a brief outline 
 of the location of the different towns and the in- 
 dustries upon which for the most part each was 
 to a great extent dependent. 
 
 Hinckley was perhaps the largest and most im- 
 portant point in the fire swept district. It was 
 here that a number of the most heroic episodes of 
 the fire took place ' id where by far the greatest 
 number of people perished in the flames. It was a 
 thriving town on the St. Paul & Duluth R. R. 
 seventy-seven miles North-east from St. Paul. It 
 was practically built and maintained by the Bren- 
 nan Lumber Co. which concern owned a large 
 lumber plant at Hinckley and which employed from 
 300 to 400 men the year round. Its lumber mills 
 were fed by logs which were floated down the 
 North and South branches of the Grindstone River 
 which flow southeasterly and joined within the 
 limits of the town. Hinckley is also the junction 
 of the Great Northern and St. Paul & Duluth Ry's. 
 
 Mission Creek is a small station three miles south 
 of Hinckley on the St. Paul & Duluth R. R. The 
 John Martin Lumber Co. had mills at this point. 
 
 Pokegama is a small station on the Eastern 
 Minnesota R. R. eight miles southwest of Hinck- 
 ley on Pokegama Creek. 
 
THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. l\ 
 
 Wareham is a small station on the Great North- 
 ern R. R. sixty-three miles South-west from Duluth 
 and seven miles North-west of Hinckley. 
 
 Sandstone, next to Hinckley was perhaps the 
 most important point in the afflicted section, 
 and was the scene of terrible loss of life. It is a 
 thriving town on the Eastern Minnesota Ry., 
 nine mi»les from Hinckley on the Kettle River. Its 
 principal support were the Sandstone quarries In 
 the bluffs by the river, and it was from these quar- 
 ries that its name is derived . The scenery at Sand- 
 stone presents much that is picturesque and grand. 
 
 Miller and Finla}rson are small stations on the 
 St. Paul & Duluth R. R. between Hinckley and 
 Kettle River. 
 
 Kettle River or Rutledge is on the line of the St. 
 Paul & Duluth R. R. sixteen miles from Hinckley. 
 
 Partridge, a station on the Eastern Minnesota 
 R. R. sixteen miles from Hinckley; of no great com- 
 mercial importance but in the scene of the con- 
 flagration. 
 
 Pine City, was the nearest point to the fire swept 
 district which was unharmed and from this point 
 the relief committees did their noble work. It is 
 on the line of the St. Paul & Duluth R. R., sixty- 
 four miles from St. Paul and ninety-one from Du- 
 luth. The Snake River which flows through the 
 town practically forms the Southern Boundary of 
 the havoc wrought b j- the fire fiend . The name 
 
12 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 
 
 of Pine City will be long remembered as one which 
 was intimately connected with the Hinckley ca- 
 lamity. It has one or two steam saw mills and is 
 a thriving community of about six hundred 
 people. 
 
 Cumberland, on Beaver Dam Lake on the Chi- 
 cago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha road in 
 Wisconsin in Barron County, is a live town with 
 a population of about one thousand people, in the 
 limits of the fire swept country; it was not injured 
 to any great extent but was a point that the 
 relief committee made a basis of operation. 
 
 Barronett, a village with a population of about 
 five hundred people in Barron County, on the 
 Omaha road seven and a half miles Northeast from 
 Cumberland. The village was built and practic- 
 ally maintained by the Barronett Lumber Co., 
 which operated a large mill at the place, kept a 
 general store and gave employment to nearly all 
 the people of the town. Barronett was com- 
 pletely destroyed not a vestige of it remaining. 
 
 Bashaw was a post office in Burnett County 
 ten and a half miles Irom Shell Lake the nearest 
 railroad station. Bashaw's total population did 
 not exceed sixty people and it suffered terribly 
 from the fire fiend. 
 
 Rice Lake, an incorporated town of twenty-five 
 hundred people, on the Omaha road about ten 
 miles east of Cumberland. It was not injured to 
 
THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 13 
 
 any extent by fire but was a point of distribution 
 for the relief. 
 
 Granite Lake is a station on the Omaha road 
 about four miles south of Barronett. Of small 
 importance but was totally consumed. 
 
 Cable and Drummond were small towns on the 
 Omaha road in Bayfield Co. The centre of a 
 sparsely settled district which was burned over and 
 which was damaged to a greater or less extent by 
 the fire. 
 
 Ashland, Wis., an important City on the south 
 shore Chequamegon Bay, an inlet of Lake Superior, 
 quite a railroad centre and a metropolis of the 
 whole section known as Northern Wisconsin, three- 
 hundred and forty .four miles from Milwaukee and 
 one hundred and eighty-four miles from St. Paul. 
 During the summer months while the lake is open 
 Ashland holds quite an important position as a 
 lake port, immense quantities of lumber, ore and 
 grain are shipped annually east over the lake 
 route from this place. A number of fine saw-mills 
 and planing mills are in operation here, and alto- 
 gether it is a verv lively, wide-awake berg. Popu- 
 lation, from twelve to fifteen-thousand people. 
 
 Washburn, the terminal of the Omaha road is 
 situated on the north shore of Chequamegon Bay, 
 directly across the bay from Ashland. It is a place 
 of no small commercial importance both as a rail- 
 road centre, a lumbering point and a lake port. 
 
14 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 
 
 It contains quite a number of large lumbering 
 plants and lumber mills, and is a natural outlet 
 for an immense tract of timber land which was 
 swept by the great fire. Washburn itself had a 
 ■very narrow escape. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 THE FIRE. 
 
 which will long be remembered as one of the most 
 horrible, history has to relate. Day dawned at 
 Hinckley much as other days had done many times 
 in its existence, with a hazy blue smoke enveloping 
 everything, softening the rough harsh lines of the 
 landscape and giving instead a mellow glow of sun- 
 light that was both pleasant and beautiful to look 
 upon. Forest fires had been raging to the South 
 of them for some time. For nearly three months 
 at one place or another the fire would start and 
 run over a mile or two of woodland and either die 
 
 15 
 
16 THE FIRE. 
 
 down or smolder until another opportunity or a- 
 nother breeze swept it in another direction and 
 gave it a new lease of life. All noticed that the 
 smoke had grown more troublesome than on the 
 the preceeding day. They knew the fire had come 
 closer to the town but not one had ever dreamed 
 that ere nightfall their pleasant little berg would 
 be literally wiped out of existance, and that over 
 two hundred of its people would have passed to 
 the realm beyond. 
 
 They were sturdy, hardy fellows these men of the 
 Northern Pines and they felt that in case of peril 
 they could cope with any ordinary blaze. They 
 had a thoroughly organized Fire-Brigade, with a 
 good equipment and paraphernalia necessary for 
 the work.Then is it any wonder they were loth to 
 leave? No such calamity had ever been known, they 
 had no precedent of this sort and it is only natural 
 for one to feel secure in his own door-yard. 
 
 They, perhaps, did not fully appreciate the con- 
 dition which made this different from other days. 
 In the first place, the entire section could be well 
 compared to a gigantic tinder-box, waiting only 
 the spark to burst into a huge sheet of flame. The 
 season had been almost entirely lacking of moisture, 
 no rain having fallen for nearly three months, or 
 since the early part of June; the corn drooped, the 
 potatoes withered, and on all sides could be heard 
 the cr yfor rain ; even the maples and other deciduous 
 
3 
 
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 P 
 
 P 
 
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 «*4 
 
THE FIRE. 17 
 
 trees shriveled and wilted, and the ground itself lay 
 open in great cracks as the parched earth endeavor- 
 ed to draw a little moisture from the heated atmos- 
 phere. The dust laid thick on the field and in the 
 roads following the passers-by in great clouds and 
 making the very life of the traveler miserable. 
 
 Just where the fire originated and when, will 
 probably never be known. Half a dozen different 
 fires were known to have been burning in the sec- 
 tion swept by the great fire, and which one acted 
 as the match to the magazine is of course hard to 
 determine. 
 
 It may be altogether fanciful and it may not, 
 but the writer has heard the following theory of 
 the origin of the Hinckley blaze and will put it in 
 writing with the admonition that it be taken for 
 what it is worth. As has already been stated fires 
 had been raging in one district or another adjacent 
 to Hinckley for nearly three months prior to the 
 memorable first day of September. The air was 
 thoroughly saturated with smoke and had been 
 for days, so much so that the horizon presented 
 that peculiar atmospheric phenomena which we 
 usually witness during our Indian summer when 
 everything takes on a hazy indistinctness and the 
 light blue of the earth mingles with the deep blue 
 of the sky and it is hard to determine where the one 
 begins and the other ends. It is a demonstrated 
 fact that large quantities of fine dust floating in an 
 
18 THE FIRE. 
 
 ■atmosphere which is entirely free from moisture, 
 as was true in this case, will in the course of time 
 ignite from spontaneous combustion, and it is a 
 theory held out by some that the charcoal dust 
 and carbon which had been absorbed by the atmos- 
 phere in this section, became so heated by the long 
 ! continued drought that spontaneous combustion 
 was produceed and culminated in this terrible cal- 
 amity. Nor are the proofs entirely lacking that 
 ; would tend to prove that this version of the story 
 is not all moonshine. Those who witnessed it say 
 that the air itself seemed to be on fire and the 
 manner in which the fire advanced would tend to 
 pro ve this theory . It did not, as is usuallythe case , 
 burn along from bush to bush, or from tree to 
 tree, but seemed to make great leaps, oftimes break- 
 ing out fifteen hundred or two thousand feet ahead 
 of the foremost blaze without any apparent cause, 
 or any means of communication but the air itself. 
 One man who took refuge in a lake at least fifteen 
 hundred feet in width tells of actually seeing great 
 balls of fire leap from the burning forest on one 
 side to the unscathed pines on the other, there to 
 renew the dire desolation -which it had already 
 spread in its track. Another, a farmer who by 
 dint of hard work had succeeded in clearing some 
 fifteen acres of ground and had built a little home 
 upon it, said that he had prepared to fight the fire 
 r on earth, but was not fortified against a fire from 
 
THE FIRE. m 
 
 the heavens, saying that it literally rained fire for 
 some minutes before they were struck by the wave 
 of heat which presaged the fiery hurricane and 
 which proved so disastrous to so many human 
 beings. 
 
 A very significent fact in this connection, and 
 one that is rather difficult to account for is that 
 the houses on the south side of the town proper at 
 Hinckley, which, from the direction of the wind 
 one would naturally suppose would be the first 
 to go, were as a matter of fact the last structures 
 in the town to catch fire. 
 
 All the survivors of the calamity speak of having 
 noticed in its outset the same peculiar phenomena. 
 The wind was terrific and the smoke so black and 
 dense that it was impossible to see anything three 
 feet away. The air -was thoroughly impregnated 
 with carbon and heavily charged with gas, sud- 
 denly there was a report, and the whole mass of 
 smoke burst into a living sheet of flame with a 
 roar which was that of thunder and that was fol- 
 lowed by a crackling and burning of everything 
 inflamble of all descriptions within the scope of 
 the blaze. 
 
 That fires of this description have been known 
 to occur in this section is vouched for by the fol- 
 lowing extract from a letter to the writer from 
 at prominent attorney of the city of Duluth: 
 
'20 THE FIRE. 
 
 "It was in June, 1872, after a rainless spring that 
 fires started in the woods of Northern Wisconsin, 
 were feeding on the pine and fir forests to the 
 south of us, and gradually working toward the 
 lake." 
 
 "Upon a certain day, shortly after sunrise, the 
 wall of smoke hanging over the forests toward the 
 south, was suddenly bent in our direction by a 
 gale from that quarter. So sudden was this move- 
 ment that we, who had estimated the fire to be at 
 least fifteen miles distant, were surprised a few 
 moments later to see the tree tops across the bay 
 some three miles distant, all ablaze. No smoke 
 was then visible. It soon, however, began again 
 to roll up and was carried by the strong wind like 
 a great black monster across the river (here about 
 half a mile in width) enveloping Grassy Point 
 in its folds and seeming to swallow up the tall 
 pines of the forest, just west of the little village of 
 Oneota. We were' fortunate in being out of the 
 track of the monster, else there would have been 
 none left to tell the tale." 
 
 "The column of smoke had reached the valley 
 and began to climb the mountain in less time than 
 it takes to write this description. While we were 
 standing in the clear sunlight gazing at the wall 
 of smoke before us, a bolt of fire like a flash of 
 lightning— shot from the Wisconsin shores through 
 the black ribs of the monster, and seemed to ignite 
 
THE FIRE. 21 
 
 the whole mass in a moment. A subdued roar, a 
 crackling, hissing sound, one moment a wall of 
 the densest, blackest smoke, the next, a blood red 
 flame, and next we could look through the woods 
 and along Grassy Point, smokeless uow, but all 
 ablaze* roaring and crackling towards the mount- 
 ain." 
 
 "As before, the smoke began to roll up and hide 
 the ravages of the flame. As the fire led to what 
 is known as the gorge, a deep, rocky glen, back of 
 Oneota, and as there was no immediate danger of 
 the town being burned, unless the wind should 
 suddenly change, a few of us young fellows repair- 
 ed as rapidly as possible to a place near the glen 
 and succeeded in gaining a point of vantage on the 
 south-east side of the glen, in a little clearing on 
 an elevated plateau, where we had a good view 
 of the fire ,looking up the glen which was at that 
 time,densely wooded with pine, fir, cedar etc. Be- 
 fore we had reached our stand, the smoke had 
 rolled up the^mountin and down the rocky sides of 
 the glen, completely filling the gorge, and driven 
 by the gale had passed to the northward. We had 
 come to witness again the phenomena first men- 
 tioned. We had not long to wait, a blinding flash 
 and the whole world before us seemed to be ablaze. 
 in ten seconds or perhaps less, every particle of 
 smoke was consumed and we could look down and 
 through the glen, now all ablaze, which ten sec- 
 
22 THE FIRE. 
 
 onds before was green with verdure and growing 
 trees." 
 
 "We stayed here for some time watching the 
 smoke explosions which seemed afterwards confin- 
 ed to this glen and occured at intervals of about 
 fifteen minutes, as if the dense woods timing 
 within its rocky sides furnished the gases, which 
 being somewhat confined by the bluffs on either 
 side, were not swept along by the gale and accum- 
 ulating here, were again and again ignited; now 
 black as mid-night, now flaming red, and next as 
 clear as ether. As we stood looking at these 
 changes I noted particularly how clearly one could 
 see down and through the glen, after the cloud of 
 smoke was consumed and before it began to form 
 again." 
 
 "I remember of having said to my companion, 
 If Dante had seen a glen like this, at a time like 
 this, he would have been able to describe a Hell, 
 which would have put a fear of God into the hearts 
 of his readers and no mistake." 
 
 "The impression I received on that June day, 
 time can never efface. The dense columus of smoke 
 now rolling majestically upwards, now torn and 
 riven by the wind into fantastic forms ancj black 
 as mid-night, now flaming red and in a moment 
 gone, leaving in its place a vacuum as transparent 
 as space, now deafening the ear with its roar; now 
 still as death and again seething, crackling, hissing, 
 
THE FIRE. 38 
 
 sounding at one time like the roll of distant thun- 
 der, or the ocean surf trampling on the sea shore, 
 and again lapsing into death-like silence.' ' 
 
 Although the exact origin of the fire is some- 
 what indefinite the fact is very plain to even the 
 most casual observer that the fire must have start- 
 ed in at least two or perhaps three different points 
 almost similtaneously . 
 
 One of these points must have been in the re- 
 gion south of Mission Creek, in Minnesota, and 
 the other about fifty miles east and twenty miles 
 south of this place, at or near Cumberland or Rice 
 Lake, in Wisconsin. While the eastern, or Barron- 
 ette fire, if I may be pardoned for using this term, 
 to distinguish it from the western, or Hinckley 
 blaze, may have covered as much territory and 
 been as terrible to endure as was the Hinckley hor- 
 ror, its possibilities for the destruction of life were 
 not as large as lay in the path gi the western de- 
 mon . Hinckley itself probably held as many people 
 at the outbreak of the calamity as all the towns 
 affected by the eastern fires put together. As this 
 is true, it is also a fact that the loss of life at 
 Hinckley was much greater than in any other sec- 
 tion of the burned district, so it behooves us in 
 giving an authentic history to devote more space 
 to the sufferings of the Hinckleyites than to any 
 other section. 
 
 The first intimation to the people of Hinckley 
 
24 THE FIRE. 
 
 that anything unusual was soon to occur was a- 
 bout noon, when the smoke, which had been rather 
 troublesome all the morning, seemed to grow more 
 dense and was accompanied by a heat which,though 
 it was not much, was enough to be quite percept- 
 able. No one thought anything of it or was a- 
 larmed about it until an hour later, when as it 
 still increased, they thought the Fire Department 
 might have something to do before the afternoon 
 was over, and an occasional group would be seen 
 wistfully -watching the southern sky and joking a- 
 bout their ability as fire fighters. The storm cloud 
 itself, which, when it burst, swept everything be- 
 fore it, rose like an almost perpendicular wall of 
 black smoke surging and roaring and rolling, ris- 
 ing into the very heavens as far as the eye could 
 reach. It was hardly a time to contemplate the 
 sublime and majestic, but the sight of that terrible 
 cloud of fire in its irresistable onslaught was a 
 wonderful demonstration of the power of the ele- 
 ments and enough to make the strongest man 
 quake and beg for mercy in his very weakness and 
 insignificance. Some small idea of the awfulness 
 of this disaster can be gleaned from the fact that 
 the storm cloud's roar was heard at Pine City fif- 
 teen miles away, where it appeared to be only a 
 short distance off; they had no idea that it reached 
 Hinckley, or that Hinckley had been destroyed un- 
 til the news was brought in by the survivors. 
 
THE FIRE. 25 
 
 Although the wind had blown a gale from the 
 south all the morning, about half-past one it seem- 
 ed to gain strength and gradually increased until 
 at about four o'clock when its fury was at its 
 height, its velocity was at least sixty miles an 
 hour. In certain sections of the forest over which 
 the fire passed, where all evidence of the work of 
 the winJ has not been entirely obliterated, the 
 trees are all up-rooted bodily by the wind and 
 are found all lying in one direction, showing that 
 the wind came directly from the south and was 
 the direct wind of the hurricane rather than the 
 twisting motion of the cyclone. 
 
 Another gruesome feature of the occasion and 
 one that added much to the bewilderment and 
 frightfulness of the scene was that during the peri- 
 od that the wind was at its height, owing to the 
 combined influences of the cloud and the smoke 
 from the ruins, it was as dark as mid-night, except 
 when the fire reached some material more inflam- 
 able than the rest, it would flare up and light up 
 the scene giving it an appearance very similar to 
 a flash of lightning in a thunder storm. 
 
 Very few people, unless they have given the mat- 
 ter some little study and thought have any con- 
 ception of the fire nor of the country which was 
 traversed by its flames* While for the most part our 
 descriptions so far have been confined to the country 
 immediately adjacent to Hinckley the fire cover- 
 
26 THE FIRE. 
 
 ed a region of over twenty-five hundred 
 square miles of surface and extended over a strip 
 of territory from twenty to fifty miles in width, 
 and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty- 
 five miles in length, comprising parts of Washburn, 
 Sawyer, Douglas, Bayfield, Barron and Burnett 
 Counties in Wisconsin, and Pine, Kenabec and 
 Aitkin Counties in Minnesota. 
 
 We do not wish to be understood as stating that 
 this entire section was burned over, but that por- 
 tions of the fire covered this entire district. It 
 seemed to burn in strips leaving a belt of timber 
 untouched, while on both sides the flames had laid 
 w aste hundreds of acres of pine lands . All this sec- 
 tion is of the same general character, that is, it a- 
 bounds in pine lands and lumber interests. 
 
 The western portion was by far the most thickly 
 settled of any part and it was in this section that 
 the fury of the fire seemed to wreak its vengence on 
 a helpless and unsuspecting community almost with 
 out warning. Farther east it was more like the 
 ordinary forest fire, and was more as they expect- 
 ed and in some cases they were not only able to 
 save themselves but their stock and occasionally 
 their buildings. 
 
 A peculiar feature of this conflagration and with- 
 out doubt the most horrible and excruciating part 
 of the whole terrible affair was the wave of heat 
 that is described by all the survivors, asaccompa- 
 
THE FIRE. 27. 
 
 nying the first fierce burst of the storm. 
 
 It was by the intense heat of this first wave that 
 most of those who make up the death list came to 
 their untimely end As the condition of nearly 
 
 all of the bodies after the fire had passed would in- 
 dicate that the victims had died not from the flames 
 themselves, but from the inhalation of the hot gas- 
 es of this first wave. As for instance a man who 
 evidently had been running, was found with his 
 foot raised for another step, in which position he 
 he had died as he was overtaken by the heat, and 
 a number of similar cases could be cited which go 
 to show that God was merciful and that death 
 came in many cases instantly instead of by slow 
 degrees of torture as would naturally be expected 
 in a case of this kind. Mr. Fraser whose miracu- 
 lous escape will be cronicled in the ensuing pages 
 says that when the wave struck the one hundred 
 and twenty people who lost their lives on the wag- 
 on road north of Hinckley, there was one piercing 
 cry of mortal agony and then all was still, the 
 literal stillness of death itself. 
 
 As this fire differed from others in its extent and 
 in, the velocity of the wind, in the same degree was 
 it^ heat more intense and of much longer duration 
 than the average forest fires. 
 
 It was the ordinary thing in a forest fire that 
 the fire should run over the ground, burn the under- 
 brush and fallen limbs, but it did as a rule com- 
 
28 THE FIRE. 
 
 paritivly little damage to the trees for lumoering 
 purposes. Oftimes the pines were killed or died 
 from the effects of the fire, but it was seldom that 
 they were actually burned. In this case however, 
 while it does not hold true in all parts of the fire 
 swept district, in certain portions of the western 
 section the heat was so intense it not only burned 
 the underbrush and the pines, roots, trunks and all 
 but actually consumed the top earth, or loam, and 
 where had been a forest of standing pine and under- 
 brush there is nothing left but the clay subsoil 
 and the rocks and stones "which happened to be 
 held in the upper deposit. Of course this is not 
 true over the entire section but in certain portions 
 where the fire was the hottest this condition of af- 
 fairs exists, while in certain other portions which 
 from some unknown cause had the benefit of a 
 cool current of air, the appearance does not differ 
 materially from other forest fires. 
 
 It was a very noticeable fact that the heat in- 
 creased in the degree of its intensity with the num- 
 ber of miles which it had burned over, or in other 
 words it was more intense at Hinckley than at 
 Mission Creek and still more severe and destructive 
 at Sandstone than at Hinckley or in any other 
 part of the doomed section. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN 
 
 glance at the accompanying cut of the 
 plat of the town of Hinckley will give a 
 better understanding of the events chron- 
 icled in the following pages than would 
 otherwise be possible. Hinckley was an incorpor- 
 ated village of about twelve hundred inhabitants, 
 situated at the junction of the St. Paul & Duluth 
 and Eastern Minnesota Railways, which is a part 
 of the G. N. system, seventy-seven miles from St. 
 Paul and seventy miles from Duluth. Both roads 
 run in a northerly direction and have Duluth for 
 their destination. They crossed each other just 
 south of the town proper. 
 
 The depots of the respective roads were situated 
 29 
 
30 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 
 
 a short distance north of the junction and about 
 fifteen hundred feet apart. All of the business por- 
 tion of Hinckley, and in fact all of the town with 
 the exception of a few buildings west of theDuluth 
 tracks lay between these two roads, while direct- 
 ly north of it about a quarter of a mile distant ran 
 the Grindstone River. This stream ran directly 
 east and west and was crossed by both railroads 
 and by a wagon-bridge which was situated about 
 midway between the railroad bridges. 
 
 Just east of the Eastern Minnesota track and in 
 fact directly east of the town itself is the gravel pit 
 which will be refered to later. It is about three 
 acres in extent and held from two to three feet of 
 water at the time of the fire. It was the nearest 
 and proved to be the safest possible means of escape 
 from the fury of the flames. 
 
 On the day of the fire the north bound Limited 
 from St. Paul to Duluth, on the St. Paul & Du- 
 luth road reached Hinckley at 2 o'clock, two hours 
 late, and a few of the more timorous and those 
 who felt the danger at that time escaped on that 
 train. The local freight on the Eastern Minnesota 
 which has a daily run from Duluth to Hinckley and 
 return reached Hinckley at 2:40. The south bound 
 passenger on the Eastern Minnesota was due at 
 Hinckley at 3:25 and arrived on time. The freight 
 waited until the arrival of the passenger, when the 
 two crews made up a combination train which was 
 
THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 31 
 
 ©ne of the principal means of escape of the affright- 
 ed people. 
 
 The south bound Limited on the Duluth road, 
 from Duluth to St. Paul was due at Hinckley at 
 4:05. It ran within about a mile and a half of the 
 town, where it was met by the townspeople, and 
 learning the bridge was unsafe, ran back to Skunk 
 Lake, a little lake near the track about five and a 
 half miles from Hinckley, where its passengers 
 passed through a frightful, yet succesful battle for 
 their lives. 
 
 Penned in on three sides by a wall of fire, east, 
 west and south alike presenting a sea of flames, in 
 the agony of the hour their natural direction to 
 escape was toward the north, and following this 
 impulse, a number of citizens, nearly crazed with 
 fear followed the wagon road which leads out from 
 Hinckley to the north and as the following pages 
 will relate enacted the most heart rending act in 
 this awful drama. A few fled to the river but more 
 trusted their safety to the gravel pit. It was to 
 one or the other of these channels that the survivors 
 owe their lives to-day and the methods they took 
 to reach them and how it fared with them in their 
 respective stations as well as how the grim reaper 
 cameto those of them who are now past the bourne 
 from which no traveler returns, it is the writer's 
 mission to relate. 
 
 About two o'clock in the afternoon the Fire De- 
 
32 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN 
 
 partment of Hinckley was called to the west side 
 of the town to fight a slight blaze which had brok- 
 en out there and as the fire was seen to be ap- 
 proaching quite close to the town, it was fear- 
 ed it might get obstreperous so it was thought 
 best to be on guard. Two thousand feet of hose 
 was laid down and as that was found to be inade- 
 quate to reach the hottest blaze a telegram was 
 sent to Rush City for six hundred feet more. That 
 telegram however, was never answered, and the 
 hose never arrived, as ere that was possible, Hinck- 
 ley, as it had been, was a thing of the past. 
 
 It was about two o'clock that the department 
 was first called out and ere half an hour had elaps- 
 ed half a dozen small buildings in the outskirts 
 were in flames. The wind was blowing a perfect 
 hurricane from a direction a little west of south. 
 The smoke which had grown more and more thick 
 and dense as the sun mounted toward the zenith 
 now fairly darkned its noonday glare and the heat 
 became even to the hardiest almost beyond endur- 
 ance. Then it was that the terrified populace rully 
 appreciated their peril, then and not till then did 
 the terrible race for life begin. Stout hearts grow 
 weak and strong men turn pale at the memory of 
 that hour of mortal agony, when men, women and 
 children seemed doomed to certain death in that 
 veritable hell upon earth. 
 
 At twenty minutes to three or forty minutes, 
 
ENGINEER WILLIAM BEST. 
 
THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 33 
 
 after the first alarm was turned in the local freight 
 on the Eastern Minnesota, from Duluth, Engineer 
 Ed Barry witha train of thirty emyties and ten loads 
 pulled into Hinckley . Everything was afire at that 
 time but the town itself, and the heat and smoke 
 were intense almost to suffocation. The freight 
 was side-tracked until the arrival of Passenger 
 No. 4 from the north at 3:25 with Engineer Best 
 and Conductor Powers in charge. After a short 
 consultation with them Engineer Barry ran up 
 to the other end of the yard and coupled onto three 
 box cars and the caboose and backed down on 
 the main track and joined the passenger, making a 
 train of three box cars, a caboose and five passenger 
 coaches besides the two engines. All this time the 
 fire had been pushing on in its mad career and a- 
 bout this time it was announced by Captain Craig 
 of the Department to the throng of people gath- 
 ered at the west end of the town that the fire was 
 beyond control; that the whole town would soon 
 be in flames and that the\ r must save themselves 
 for he could do nothing for them. Then began 
 the mad rush for life, which has no parallel in the 
 history of* stricken humanity, and it may well be 
 said that it is our fervent prayer that we may be 
 spared so terrible an ordeal. 
 
 It has been said that " there are moments in all 
 men'slives that try men's souls." If it be so this 
 certainly was one of them. Men, women and chil- 
 
34 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 
 
 dren struggled with one another for that most 
 precious of God's gifts, life. Yet with it all was ex- 
 hibited a spirit of self sacrifice of the strong in the 
 succor of the weak, and a wonderful exhibition of 
 the noblest attributes of mankind. Heroes were on 
 every hand and heroic deeds were enacted on all sides 
 without number, the details of which will never 
 be known until the Book of the Great Hereafter is 
 opened for our inspection. Men who saw their 
 families safe on board, turned back at the risk of 
 their own lives to carry the helpless children of 
 their freinds to a place of safety. One man carried 
 no less than twenty children out of the fiery fur- 
 nace in this way, another went through every 
 house left in the town to see that none were left 
 behind and it is a very significent fact that a very 
 large percentage ofthose who perished in the flames 
 were those best able to take care of themselves but 
 who sacrificed their own lives for the sake of others . 
 After having escaped from being incinerated in 
 their homes, those who succeeded in boarding the 
 Eastern Minnesota Emergency train placed their 
 lives in the hands of a few men upon whose courage 
 and strength of character rested the great respons- 
 ibility of carrying them out of danger. Heroes 
 they were, every one of them and it seems to me 
 that their courage, strength and good judgement 
 should not only be commended but should receive 
 a more substantial recognition at the hands of a 
 
CONDUCTOR H. B. POWERS 
 
^_ 
 
THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 35 
 
 public which but for their presence of mind would 
 have heard of a calamity infinitely more horrible 
 than it is as recorded today. At such a time and 
 under such circumstances a man must needs be a 
 a hero to stick to a post of duty and do that duty 
 in the face of every danger and at the risk of his 
 own life. Too much cannot be said of the forti- 
 tude of the brave Engineers or of their indomitable 
 Conductor. To Engineer Best and Conductor Pow- 
 ers, without doubt, belongs the greatest credit, for 
 saving this train. Engineer Barry, of course, did 
 his part and did it well, but it was the superior 
 judgement of Best and Powers that decided how 
 long it would be possible to delay the train, and 
 just when the crucial moment had arrived, when 
 it was unsafe to stay longer, and too much cannot 
 be said in the way of commendation of the cool, 
 clear-sighted and masterful manner in which the 
 train was handled by the engineers and train-men 
 in loading the passengers . After waiting at the de- 
 pot in the heat and smoke for three quarters of an 
 hour, and until men and animals were falling in 
 the streets from the heat, at a quarter past four 
 Best loosened the brakes and the train moved out 
 across Grindstone bridge toward a place of safety. 
 ' Arter crossing the bridge the train waited five 
 minutes and took on forty more of the panic strick- 
 en towns-people, then as the ties under the train 
 were burning and even the cars themselves were 
 
36 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 
 
 blistering and almost blazing from the intense heat 
 the train pulled out though in doing so they were 
 obliged to leave men, women and children to that 
 fiery ordeal which meant almost certain death. 
 At the last stop the heat had become so intense 
 that the very rails were begining to warp and 
 twist out of shape with heat. 
 
 After having taken on all that could be saved 
 by them the engineers put on all steam and rushed 
 toward a place of safety as fast as the wheels 
 could turn. Every thiug was burning, fire on all 
 sides and the heat continued to be so intense and 
 terrible, that combined with the smoke, it seemed 
 as if those who had gotten on the train would die 
 of suffocation. But it had been willed otherwise 
 and it was not to be. Seven miles out of Hinckley 
 they found for the first time a cool current of air 
 and from that time on they breathed easier. 
 Though they were by no means out of the fire lim- 
 its the heat did not seem so intense and the smoke 
 was perhaps a little less blinding, although through 
 all the run from Hinckley to Duluth the head-light 
 was kept burning, it having been found necessary 
 at Partridge on the down trip of the freight in the 
 morning. 
 
 When through the smoke the engineers could see 
 by their knowledge of the road-bed that a bridge 
 was close by, Best would put on his brakes, his 
 engine controlled the air-brakes of the five passen- 
 
EXGINKER ED. I5ARRY 
 
THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 37 
 
 ger coaches which made up the bulk of the train 
 in "weight, and slow down to a three or four mile 
 an hour gait, until they were certain the bridge 
 was there when they would pass on. Special men- 
 tion should be made of the brave deeds of two 
 brakemen, whose names we are sorry to say we 
 were unable to learn, who rode on the back end 
 of Barry's tank, as they backed out, and as they 
 reached a bridge would signal Barry, whether or 
 not it was all right and he in turn would whistle 
 off to Best, when they would go on to the next 
 bridge where the operation was repeated. Nine- 
 teen bridges in fourteen miles of road over which 
 they passed were found after the fire to have been 
 totally destroyed and they were all burning more 
 or less furiously when the train passed over them. 
 
 When Sandstone was reached the train was pul- 
 led up and the people were begged to get aboard 
 and fly for their lives. Some grasped the oppor- 
 tunity but more did not, laboring under the im- 
 pression that although Hinckley had burned, Sand- 
 stone "was safe, an impression they had cause to 
 regret an hour later when Sandstone was gutted 
 as completely as Hinckley had been. 
 
 Only a short stop was made at Sandstone, 
 when the whistle sounded and the heavily loaded 
 train started again on its way. On reaching Ket- 
 tle River just out of Sandstone, the bridge was 
 burning and the train slowed up before reaching it 
 
3& THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 
 
 when aery from the watchman "For God's sake, 
 go on, you can cross it now and it will go down 
 in five minutes," made Barry draw a quick breath 
 and with set teeth throw her wide open and run 
 out on the bridge. They crossed in safety as if by 
 a miracle and five minutes later the bridge fell of 
 its own weight. 
 
 There were two watchman at the bridge, a 
 young man and one whose hair was tinged with 
 gray. After the train had passed, the clothes of 
 both watchmen were on fire and they started 
 down a ladder by the side of the bridge in order to 
 escape in the waters below. The younger man, 
 whose family were already in the river, being quick- 
 er and more agile than his colleague went down 
 first and succeeded in saving, himself. While the 
 older one in following was overcome by the heat 
 at the first landing and fearing to go on turned 
 back and climbing to the top again, died at his 
 post on the grade. 
 
 By this time the closely huddled passengers after 
 having been exposed to the terrible heat for such a 
 length of time were suffering horrible agony for a 
 drink of water. At Partridge it was found neces- 
 sary to take twenty minutes in order to get the 
 engines ready to go on, and the time was improv- 
 ed in getting water to the occupants of the cars. 
 Up to this time the train had been running with- 
 
THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 39 
 
 out orders and against the time ofaaown freight. 
 At Partridge Engineer Barry got a message to use 
 his own judgement and run as he saw fit, coupled 
 with the information that the down train No. 23 
 had been abandoned. Like their Sandstone neigh- 
 bors the people at Partridge refused to leave and 
 the train pulled out again, stopping at Mansfield 
 and Kerrick. At Kerrick Engineer Barry found 
 that his eyes had become so effected by the smoke 
 and heat that he could scarcely see at all to say 
 nothing of running an engine with a train load of 
 people under his charge. He thought he would be 
 compelled to give up but after about ten minutes 
 rest, he plucked up courage and ran her through 
 to West Superior, where he could go no further as 
 he could see nothing. When he left his engine he 
 was so exhausted with the heat and smoke and 
 the mental strain he had been under that he could 
 not stand but was carried to the Round House and 
 cared for. 
 
 Without wishing to depreciate in any way the 
 noble deeds of Jim Root and Jack McGowan on the 
 St. Paul & Duluth, of which so much has been said 
 in various newspaper reports, it would seem to me 
 that Engineers Best and Barry of this Emergency 
 Train displayed courage and good judgment in 
 facing the heat and backing out of Hinckley equal 
 in every way to that shown on the south bound 
 limited and as such should receive equal commend- 
 
4-0 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 
 
 ation and recognition of their services. At the 
 time the south bound limited started its run back 
 to Skunk Lake it had no alternative but to go 
 back or be burned, as the bridge across the Grind- 
 stone River just north of Hinckley was already 
 burning and was unsafe, while Engineers Best and 
 Barry were obliged to cross a bridge which was 
 similarly situated across the same stream half a 
 mile east of this one, and they waited for more 
 than half an hour knowing the bridge was on fire 
 and upon its strength rested the lives of themselves 
 and their passengers. Yet in the face of all this 
 they waited and tried to get them all. 
 
■■■■■■H 
 
 
 , 
 

 
CHAPTER IV. 
 SKUNK LAKE. 
 
 he south bound limited on 
 the St. Paul & Duluthroad 
 left Duluth for St. Paul at 
 2 o'clock in the afternoon 
 of that eventful Saturday., 
 the first day of September. 
 The train was in charge of 
 
 Conductor, Thomas Sullivan, 
 
 Engineer, James Root, 
 
 Fireman, Jack McGowan 
 
 Brakeman, John Monihan, 
 
 Baggageman, Geo. F. Morris, 
 
 Porter, John Blair, 
 
 News Agent, Hermann Mannbart. 
 Little did they think that in two short hours 
 41 
 
42 
 
 SKUNK LAKE. 
 
 time they would be oliged to undergo one of the 
 most trying ordeals that human beings ever en- 
 dured and that ere night their names would be 
 entered on the Roll of Honor as heroes worthy of 
 the highest tributes of gratitude and commend- 
 ation it was in the power of humanity to bestow. 
 
 The train consisted of one combination car, one 
 coach, two chair cars and Engine 69. The atmos- 
 phere was heavy with smoke even as the train 
 pulled out of the Duluth Depot and all the way 
 down to Carlton it grew gradually thicker and 
 more dense, until at that point it was found to be 
 necessary to light the head-light and all the lamps 
 in the train, as the smoke had so darkened and ob- 
 scured the afternoon sun that it was found neces- 
 sary, both for safety and comfort to have this art- 
 ificial light. About this time the passengers began 
 to show signs of uneasiness, especially among the 
 women and children, and many a wistful glance 
 was cast toward the men in the party as if implor- 
 ing assistance and protection from a foe insid i ous 
 and insatiable. Onward swept the ill-fated train, 
 with its precious cargo of humanity, and but for 
 the heroism of two men it might have been said 
 to certain destruction. But James Root and John 
 McGowan were made of sterner stuff than the or- 
 dinary mortal and when the terrible ordeal came 
 they were tried and .. were not found wanting. 
 
 Steadily, sturdily on they plunged with determi- 
 
 ^ ■JU, «■ » ,■ , 
 
 f 
 
 — ^_^__ 
 
CONDUCTOR THOMAS SULLIVAN. 
 
SKUNK LAKE. 43 
 
 nation depicted in every line of the frame of that 
 redoubtable engine driver, and his only thought 
 was to hold out until the fire was passed when all 
 would be well. He was, with many others labor- 
 ing under a false impression as to the actual extent 
 and intensity of the fire and never dreamed that 
 Hinckley could be burned in this way. Still the 
 smoke increased and the heat became more and 
 more intense and insufferable. It filled all the 
 coaches until it was found difficult to breathe and 
 of course added much to the dismay of the alread} r 
 panic stricken passengers. The train men passed 
 through the cars saying there was nothing to cause 
 a,ny alarm, that the smoke would soon be past and 
 imploring the passengers to keep their wits about 
 them and not give vent to their feelings, though 
 things might look dubious just then. By this time 
 however, the train had approached near enough 
 so that the flames could be seen to the right of the 
 track and the roar of the blazing demon could be 
 distinct^ heard, so that the quieting words of the 
 trainmen fell like seeds upon rather stony ground, 
 and the excitement increased with the moments. 
 It soon became apparent that they all had but the 
 slightest chance for their lives, and the scene when 
 this was realized was terrible to witness. Strong 
 men turned white and rigid, their set teeth and 
 drawn lips and the wild look in their eyes showing 
 the mental strain under which they were passing. 
 
44 
 
 SKUNK LAKE. 
 
 Women screamed and prayed and children clung 
 to their mothers and cried and screamed, they 
 knew not why. Abject fear was depicted on all 
 countenances while a few showed a determination 
 to make the best of a horrible predicament and to 
 make as strong a fight for life as was possible. 
 On, on rumbled the train every instant adding- 
 terror to the scene in the coaches until within a 
 mile and a half of Hinckley. At this point came 
 the first information to the train that anything 
 extraordinary was happening or had happened 
 at Hinckley. The smoke was so dense it was im- 
 possible to see the town and even if it had been 
 possible the town w^as shut from view by a high 
 hill. A number of fleeing, panic-stricken citizens 
 flagged the train and in a few words told the en- 
 gineer their story and then with their party board- 
 ed the train, about one hundred and fifty or two 
 hundred people in all were rescued in this way. 
 Coming as they did from the flames of their homes, 
 feeling that their lives were hanging by the merest 
 thread which might snap at any time, smarting 
 from burns and stifled by the smoke and heat, oft- 
 times separated from loved ones, whom they would 
 meet no more in this life, is it any wonder they 
 lost their self control and boarded the train a gasp- 
 ing, excited and half-crazed concourse of people? 
 The train was within a mile and a half of Hinck- 
 ley when it was flagged and the fire was coming 
 
 _ 
 
 ■MM 
 
SKUNK LAKE. 45 
 
 towardsitwitha speed of a locomotive, backed b>' 
 that horrible wind. Engineer Root's first impulse 
 was to put on all speed and run through the fire, 
 but a second of deliberation Caused him to reverse 
 his engine and run back away from it. Then be- 
 gan a race which has no parallel in history, unless, 
 perhaps it be the race of the Emergency Train on 
 the Eastern Minnesota, which at that same in- 
 stant was running a similar race under similar 
 circumstances on a track about two miles east of 
 the scene of this act in the tragedy. No one knows, 
 no one can have any accurate conception of the 
 awfulness and the suffering of that horrible ride. 
 At first Root had no definite destination in view 
 and no orders to run back on but those of common 
 sense and humanity ; then he thought of a little 
 marsh lake called Skunk Lake near the track 
 about four miles from the point where they had 
 met the refugees and turned back, and this lake he 
 determined to reach at all hazards as he knew in 
 doing so la} r his only hope of safety or even of life 
 itself. On and on came the flames and the brave 
 engineer saw they were rapidly gaining on him 
 and put on a full head of steam in the hope that 
 he might distance them, but all to no purpose, the 
 fiery fiend had marked its prey, and was not to be 
 baffled by a mere trifle such as a higher rate of 
 speed. On it came, gaining steadily until it burst 
 over them in its hurricane blast Smoke aud flames 
 
46 SKUNK LAKE. 
 
 were everywhere. They came in at the ventilators 
 at the top of the car, and through the cracks at 
 the side of the windows. The rear coach was on 
 fire and its passengers more terror stricken and 
 horrified than ever fled to the other coaches to 
 escape from the immediate danger, but the effort 
 proved futile; one after another all the coaches 
 first blistered with the heat and finally commenced 
 to blaze. Then for a few minutes ensued a scene 
 horrible beyond description. The roar of the 
 flame — the stifling suffocation and darkness of the 
 smoke — the intense heat, the shrieks and moans of 
 the poor unfortunates almost baking in those 
 crowded cars, lent to the scene a pandemonium, 
 which it can be readily understood beggars descrip- 
 tion. * The heat was so insufferable and intense 
 that it cracked the glass in the windows of the 
 cars, and as it did so, one man, perhaps more excit- 
 able than the rest lost his mind, literally went mad, 
 and with a horrible shriek threw himself from 
 one of the windows and was swallowed up in the 
 seething mass of smoke and burning cinders, a- 
 nother and another followed his example and all 
 were caught and destroyed by the insatiable flames. 
 Imagine if vou can the eflect upon an already 
 thoroughly frightened and exhausted train load 
 of people of seeing three of their number jump to 
 a death which they verily believed would soon be 
 their own. No power on earth under the circum- 
 
n 
 
 c 
 
 — . 
 
 
 
 
 5' 
 
 O 
 
 & 
 
SKUNK LAKE. 4T 
 
 stances could have prevented the panic that en- 
 sued, and one after another ten more unfortunates 
 thought death itself preferable to such suspense 
 continued any longer and threw themselves from 
 the windows of that ill-fated train. 
 
 While these scenes were being enacted in the 
 coach engineer Root in his cab was suffering terri- 
 ble agony from the heat. Wrapped in a large 
 overcoat he kept his seat in the face of all the dan- 
 gers which beset his path. 
 
 Fire everywhere, his hands were blistered by the 
 heat as he still held the lever, his clothes were burn- 
 ing as were also those of his fireman, Jack Mc- 
 Gowan. Jack leaped into the manhole of the water- 
 tank and put out the fire in his own clothes, then 
 grasping a pail, completely soused Jim with the 
 contents of the tank; still on they flew, Jim holding 
 the lever and Jack dashing water over him and 
 helping him on. The glass in the cab window at 
 Jim's side burst with the heat and a piece of it 
 struck him in the neck and cut a horrible gash 
 close to the jugular vein, and it bled profusely. 
 Weakened by the loss of blood, the heat and smoke 
 which he was obliged to endure, and feeling the 
 terrible responsibility of saving so many human 
 beings, twice was Jim overcome and fell from his 
 seat to the cab floor and twice was he bolstered 
 up by the faithful Jack. 
 
 On and on they flew, words cannot describe the 
 
4-8 
 
 SKUNK LAKE. 
 
 scene, fire and smoke on every side and it seemed 
 as if the very air was in league with the demon, to 
 bring upon this frightened train-load death that 
 comes in this awful form. To give the reader some 
 idea of the heat in the cab, it might be said that as 
 soon as the window burst with the heat the curtain 
 caught fire and was torn down byJackMcGowan. 
 The lagging caught fire and in"spite of the rapidity 
 with which they backed up, the flames were more 
 swift and blew l*ack into the cab, setting the front 
 of the cab on fire, burning all the wooden handles 
 of the steam connections, scorching the seats and 
 melting the cab lamp. 
 
 Minutes they were, but they seemed like hours, ere 
 Skunk Lake was reached and the brave engineer 
 brought the train to a stand-still and the train- 
 men pointed out to the terror-stricken passengers 
 the direction of the lake. As soon as the lake was 
 reached McGowan assisted his wounded engineer 
 to the water, and finding he could be of no assist- 
 ance to others he laid down in the water himself. 
 Owing to his superior physical strength he was 
 able to care for Root and others in his power un- 
 til the arrival of the Relief train from Duluth. 
 Throughout the whole run exhibiting a spirit of 
 heroism and self sacrafice not surpassed in that 
 awful ordeal, where self sacrafice was not an un- 
 common occurance and heroes were met on all sides . 
 
 This train had on board from one hundred and 
 
PORTER (OHN BLAIR. 
 
SKUNK LAKE. 49 
 
 thirty-five to one hundred and fifty regular through 
 passengers and took aboard from one hundred and 
 fifty to two hundred refugees from Hinckley. The 
 exact number will probably never be known. 
 Certaiu it is that over three hundred people owe 
 their lives to the little water that remained in that 
 lake, which owing to the continued drought had 
 been reduced to a mere morass of mud and water. 
 Here they lay four mortal hours, their faces close 
 to the muddy water and endeavoring to hold up 
 against the heat and smoke that lay so close to 
 the ground that they were in danger of suffocating. 
 Most of the passengers reached the lake, but some 
 few who became confused and who ran any direc- 
 tion without stopping to think what or where, and 
 when their -friends succeeded in quieting them and 
 starting them through the bush toward the lake 
 the trees were all ablaze and the heat was so intense 
 that they were obliged to turn back to the track 
 where they remained until the fire had passed 
 although none actually died from the heat on the 
 tracks. 
 
 After the fire had abated a little Root and Mc- 
 Gowan went back to the train to see if they could 
 not save the engine and tank. McGowan endea- 
 vored to put out the fire in the tank but as the coal 
 was burning he was unable to do so, so they un- 
 coupled her from the tender and ran her ahead a 
 short distance and this saved the engine with com- 
 
50 
 
 SKUNK LAKE. 
 
 paratively little damage. Root had by this time 
 become thoroughly chilled by lying in the cold 
 water and repaired to the floor of his cab where he 
 was found by the relief. 
 
 The only fatalities that actually occured on the 
 train itself were two Chinamen who were on board 
 and who seemed dazed and demented and could 
 not be moved from their seats. They staid there 
 overcome with the heat and burned with the ill- 
 fated train. Then too, were those who threw 
 themselves from the train before it reached Skunk 
 Lake, all of whom perished in the flames. 
 
 At the time of the fire the newspapers gave it out 
 that Conductor Thomas Sullivan became confused 
 and wandered aimlessly about and was found the 
 next day about nine miles north of Skunk Lake in 
 a state of mental demoralization. This is, how- 
 ever, not the fact, as soon as he found that his 
 passengers were safe he started back to Miller to 
 protect his train as he knew that a freight was 
 following him or that he was running against the 
 time of the freight and feared that the calamity of 
 a collision would be added to what had already 
 occured- After an awful struggle with the heat 
 he reached the station and sent the message, when 
 true to his trust, that accomplished he "was obliged 
 to succumb to the strain. He had done his duty 
 as a man and a hero, human nature could do no 
 more. 
 
SKUNK LAKE. 
 
 51 
 
 Special mention should also be made of the efforts 
 of Herman Mannhart and J. W. Blair, the book- 
 agent and porter whose efforts in assisting the 
 ladies in their escape were self- sacraficing and he- 
 roic. Blair taking especial pains and using the 
 Fire Extinguisher that is carried on the train to 
 put out the fire that had caught in the ladies dresses. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 THE GRAVEL PIT. 
 
 he gravel pit of the Eastern 
 Minnesota proved to be a 
 God-send to those of 
 the Hinckleyites who 
 were not able to get a- 
 way form the doomed 
 berg on either of the 
 trains, the escape of 
 which has been describ- 
 ed in the preceeding 
 chapters. After the train on the Eastern Minneso- 
 ta had pulled out, those who remained turned to 
 the gravel pit as a last resort, knowing if that fail- 
 ed then all hope would be lost. The gravel pit had 
 been made by the Eastern Minnesota Ry. Co, who 
 had used the gravel for the improvement of their 
 road-bed. It covered some two or three acres of 
 ground and its bottom lay some twenty or thirty 
 feet below the level of the surrounding country, so 
 that those who took refuge here were saved the 
 
THE GRAVEL PIT. 53 
 
 excruiating suffering of the fierce blast of the wind 
 which was to some extent broken from them. 
 They were however, obliged to endure a constant 
 shower of cinders and burning coals that made life 
 very disagreeable and caused no end of suffering. 
 About seventy people in all, men, women and 
 children sought shelter in this pit. It contained a 
 pool of water about three feet in its greatest depth 
 and closely huddled together in this pool were sev- 
 enty human beings besides all the domestic animals 
 that survived the fury of the flames, such as horses, 
 cows, pigs, chickens, etc. It proved to be the saf- 
 est place in Hinckley, three or four hundred trunks 
 which had been carried by the frightened people 
 and hurled over the edge into the pit, where they 
 lay all through the fire, came out unscathed. 
 
 A number of vehicles had also been driven into the 
 gravel pit, and in the work of relief that was to 
 come they proved a very efficient means of distri- 
 bution. The party entered the pit at about seven 
 or eight minutes past four, and remained in the 
 water from two to four hours. 
 
 The first twenty minutes of the ordeal is describ- 
 ed as being something terrible. The heat was so 
 intense and the smoke so dense and blinding that 
 all were suffering from the burning and smarting 
 of their eyes and writhing from the intense heat, 
 and the men were obliged to constantly throw 
 water over the women and children to keep them 
 
54 
 
 THE GRAVEL PIT. 
 
 from growing faint and falling under the pressure. 
 As most of the occupants of the gravel pit were 
 women and children this duty devolved upon the 
 few men of the party and with this duty and that 
 of wetting cloths and wrapping them about their 
 own heads and those of their proteges the men 
 were kept busy through the entire ordeal. One 
 man whose name could not be learned was over- 
 come by the heat and smoke at the gravel pit, fell 
 into the water and was drowned. As far as is 
 known this was the only fatality in the pit. 
 
 This gravel pit was large enough to have saved 
 all the people of Hinckley and all their household 
 goods besides, if they had only sought refuge here, 
 but it was only the cool-headed ones that seemed 
 to think of this or take it into consideration at all 
 as an avenue of escape. The great majority of the 
 people followed their first impulse, which was to 
 fly; anything to get away from the fire and they 
 trusted to their physical strength to keep out of 
 the way of its ravenous advance, a feat which was 
 utterly impossible b}' mere physical strength alone 
 as was altogether too conclusively demonstrated 
 on the north road. 
 
 It is the natural query of any one who is not ac- 
 quainted with the section, "Why in the world did 
 not all the people run to the Grindstone River, 
 that was only a quarter of a mile, just think some 
 of them were saved a mile and a half from the 
 
2 
 
THE GRAVEL PIT. 55 
 
 town. "The query is very natural and to look up- 
 on the map one would imagine a very correct one 
 but it is another illustration of the practical use- 
 lessness of a theory. As a matter of fact, the Grind- 
 stone River is nothing more nor less at this time 
 of year than a little brooklet and scarcely deserves 
 the dignity of the title of a stream at all . A person 
 could step across it in many places and while it 
 proved a shelter to some of the survivors it was 
 not the shelter that would have been chosen by any- 
 one familiar with the country, who had any choice 
 in the matter. Most of those who plighted their 
 faith with the river did so from sheer dasperation 
 not knowing what else to do and quite a number 
 met their death here from one cause or another, 
 either by smoke, being overcome by the heat or by 
 the waters themselves. A notable case of this sort 
 being the wife of Martin Martinson and their three 
 little boys whose little flaxen heads were found 
 wholly unscorched showing they had met their 
 death by the more merciful means of water than 
 the horrible tortures of a fiery entrance into the 
 life beyond. 
 
 By far the most heart rending and horrifying 
 scene of the vicinity aftar the fire had done its dead- 
 ly work was on the road about a mile north of the 
 town across the Grindstone River. Here in a little 
 swale which had become thoroughly dried by the 
 long continued drought so that at the time of the 
 
56 
 
 THE GRAVEL PIT. 
 
 fire it had absolutely no water in it, were found the 
 bodies of one hundred and twenty six persons, be- 
 sides a number of horses and cows which probab- 
 ly followed the people out of the town, they too, 
 looking for a place of safety. 
 
 To look at it now impassionately after it is all 
 over, it is very easy for us to say, "Well, why in the 
 world didn't they go to the River or to the gravel 
 pit? They might have known the fire would over- 
 take them if they attempted to run away from it." 
 
 When this is said we must first stop and think 
 that they were weak human beings; that they 
 were fleeing from what they thought they could 
 not possibly escape; some even thinking that it 
 was the judgment day itself; that they had no time 
 for preparation; that they were dismayed and con- 
 iused by the heat, smoke and roar of the storm and 
 some were actually crazed by the awfulness of the 
 scene. We ourselves placed in a similar position 
 under similar circumstances would perhaps have 
 used even less judgment than was shown by these 
 unfortunates, whose untimely end was so tragic as 
 to wring a sympathetic wail from every quarter of 
 the world where the electric spark and the wire 
 could carry the news. 
 
 At the time of the first alarm, when it was known 
 that the town was doomed, and the mad rush to 
 escape began, many horses were harnesed to buggies 
 or to other vehicles and all except a few that sought 
 
THE GRAVEL PIT. 57 
 
 shelter in the gravel pit, followed out on the north 
 road, as the most natural thing to do. A great 
 many of these refugees boarded either one train 
 or the other of which we have spoken, and in fact 
 had it been possible for the Eastern Minnesota 
 train to wait for this unfortnuate band of one 
 hundred and twenty-six, all might have escaped on 
 this train, as their bodies were found within a few 
 rods of the Eastern Minnesota track and to the 
 right of the wagon road. The party of town 
 people, who flagged Root's train on the St. Paul & 
 Duluth R. R. were the foremost of this contingent 
 who followed out on the north road . For the most 
 they had no definite destination, they had no idea 
 as to what or where they were going, they only 
 knew that it was certain death to remain and 
 while death overtook many of them in their mad 
 rush to escape, their idea was to get as far as pos- 
 sible from that on-coming hurricane of fire. When 
 theunfortnatescameto this apparent marsh which 
 many of them knew had held water, they sought 
 it as a last hcpe, a last resort, and it proved of no 
 avail. They dared not turn back to the river, in 
 fact they could not do so . So they pressed for- 
 ward to the very center of the slough, where the 
 grass grew thick and rank, hoping against hope 
 that they might find water, which was worth more 
 than all things else beside. They were, however, 
 doomed to disappointment. Their death warrants 
 
58 THE GRAVEL PIT. 
 
 had been signed and sealed and the grim warrior 
 showed no quarter or mercy in their excetition. It 
 was a fearful sight ; no, battlefield ever presented 
 one more shocking or more terribly heart rending. 
 Huddled together within an area of less than two 
 acres of ground lay one hundred and twenty-six 
 human bodies blackened and burned beyond 
 recognition. All were more or less distoited and 
 most of them seemed to be in exactly the same pos- 
 ition and to show the sad expressions of then- 
 em otions and terrible sufferings they were under- 
 going when the first wave of heat swept over them. 
 When they inhaled its horrible gases and met death 
 as instantaneously as they might have done in the 
 electric chair of a New York sheriff of the most 
 approved and latest pattern. That death came 
 instantaneously to most of them, there can be no 
 possible question or doubt, as this fact is conclus- 
 ively proven both from the posture of their bodies 
 after the fire and the condition in which they were 
 found. 
 
 For instance, a young girl was found kneeling 
 with her hands clasped, palms together and face 
 turned upward showing that her last breath had 
 murmured a prayer. A number showed that the 
 victims had been in motion when over-taken and fell 
 with the muscles in exactly the same position as 
 they were the instant the fire had reached them, 
 Mot having even relaxed and fallen limp. One of 
 
THE GRAVEL PIT. 59 
 
 the most gruesome features of the scene being the 
 appearance of the victims who were almost invar- 
 iably without any vestige of clothing except per- 
 haps the soles of the shoes, and were in many cases 
 burned beyond any possibility of recognition and 
 where recognition was possible it was difficult 
 from the blistering of the skin and singeing of the 
 hair, which gave a most uncanny appearance to a 
 sight, ghastly even under the most auspicious cir- 
 cumstances . One noticeable fact in connection with 
 this band of unfortunates is that they were made 
 up mostly of the most ignorant classes of the town. 
 Those who had not the mental capacity to appre- 
 ciate anything more than the fact that they were 
 in great danger and this one thought seemed to 
 force all others from their minds even to the exclu- 
 sion of a thought of how that danger was to be 
 averted and to this fact, perhaps more than any- 
 thing else, can be laid the responsibility of such an 
 enormous loss of life in this one spot. Most of the 
 better classes of the Hinckley ites, the store-keepers 
 and professional men got away on one of the two 
 trains, nearly all though, escaped by the Eastern 
 Minnesota. 
 
 Another feature which proved misleading and 
 gave to some a mistaken idea of what the fire ac- 
 tually was, until it was too late, was the roar of the 
 hurricane. Many people mistook its approach for 
 the coming of a cyclone and fled to their cellars 
 
60 
 
 THE GRAVEL PIT. 
 
 a place of all places where they were almost sure 
 to be cremated with their buildings. Others took 
 refuge in wells and root cellars which had been 
 covered with earth and were thus protected from 
 the fury of the elements, and in this way they es- 
 caped, but it is certainly a sad tale where thirteen 
 people were taken from a well where they had 
 been suffocated bv the heat. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE JUNCTION, 
 POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK. 
 
 andstone, a small town 
 on the Eastern Minnesota 
 road about nine miles from 
 Hinckley, was situated on 
 the bank of the Kettle River 
 in Pine County. The to- 
 pography of its site differed 
 materially from that of 
 Hinckley and most of the 
 other towns in the burned 
 section in that it lay on a high bluff which was 
 marked and seamed with great ravines; and too 
 it also differed in that it depended to a great extent 
 upon the product of the quarries in this bluff for its 
 support. These quarries were quite extensive and 
 from them Sandstone takes its name. The Kettle 
 River at this point is a stream of no small dimen- 
 sions being from three hundred to four hundred feet 
 in width even at this time, when the drouth had 
 been so pronounced and prolonged that the entire 
 
 61 
 
62 SANDSTONE, PARTRDJGE, SANDSTONE JUNC. 
 
 country seemed parched with the heat. The people 
 of Sandstone like those of Hinckle3^, were in no 
 Avay alarmed on the morning of the eventful Sat- 
 nrdaj September 1st, 1894. The good wife went 
 steadily about her house-hold duties, (making the 
 cake, baking the bread and preparing perhaps for 
 a quiet little family excursion on the morrow, 
 when if the day were pleasant and everything pro- 
 pitious she could have a little time for a quiet chat 
 with her better half, and enjoy a little outing a- 
 tnong the woods and rocks along the river bank. 
 Peace, quiet and harmony on all sides, save per- 
 haps, when the blast from the quarry reverberated 
 along the distant bluffs as the good-wife's man 
 toiled with his companions in their somewhat per- 
 ilous task of tearing from its bed the rock that 
 brought food for his little ones and shelter for his 
 loved ones. No thought of danger had crossed 
 their minds, nor did they appreciate that they 
 were in any danger when the Emergency Train un- 
 der Enginners Best and Barry pulled into the Depot. 
 There was the usual number of loungers gathered 
 there to seethe train come in and see if they had by 
 any chance received a letter or package in the mail 
 pouch. They were of course surprised to see four 
 hundred and seventy rescued citizens of Hinckley 
 fleeing from their homes, and while their town was 
 then surrounded by fire, and the smoke was so 
 chick and dense that it was difficult to bvcath, and 
 
POXEGAiviA AND MISSION CREEK. 63 
 
 their vision was obscured, they scorned the idea 
 that Sandstone was doomed to the same fate that 
 her sister city just nine miles away had suffered, 
 and for the most part refused to take the proffered 
 aid in time and escape when the opportunity was 
 offered them. In vain did those who knew what it 
 was to escape death in its awful form entreat them 
 to fly for their lives. They refused to heed the 
 warning and the train was obliged to pull out and 
 leave them to their fate, and in less than half an 
 hour from that time, the hurricane of fire had done 
 its deadly work, and of Sandstone nothing re- 
 mained but heaps of ashes here and there except 
 one small building "which from its position in the 
 quarry escaped the ruin, and sixty-three of the 
 towns-people had perished in the flames. They 
 doubted, and it was their doubt that proved their 
 ruin, they had been warned and had that warning 
 been heeded not a single death need have been 
 chronicled in the history of the fire at Sandstone. 
 They remained at the Depot until the Fiery Demon 
 was in sight, coming on with the speed of a race 
 horse, then they realized the truth that had been 
 told them and endeavored to make amends for 
 their negligence in the mad rush for safety into the 
 waters of the Kettle River. They were none too 
 soon and their mad rush gave them no time to 
 warn only those who happened to be on the one 
 main street in the town, all others being left to 
 
64 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE J UNC. 
 
 their fate; that first law of life, the law of self 
 preservation being too strong to admit of any delay 
 in the matter of reaching the river bank. A num- 
 ber of unfortunates hearing the roar of the storm 
 and mistaking its real nature for that of a cyclone, 
 fled to the only place of safety against such a cal- 
 amity, the cellar, and found themselves in the 
 place- of all others from which there was no pos- 
 sible means of escape, and when relief arrived they 
 were found in their own homes burned beyond any 
 possibility of recognition. As was the case in the 
 entire fire swept district, narrow escapes among 
 the survivors were the rule rather than the excep- 
 tion, instances of heroic self-sacrifice could be cited 
 by the hundred and an attempt to record them all 
 would require a hundred books the size of this vol- 
 ume, and even then it could truly be said that 
 ' ' the half had never been told . ' ' When the sun rose 
 at Sandstone on that Sunday morning after the 
 fire it shone upon as desolate and sad a scene as 
 was ever spread before it, ruin and dire desolation 
 every- where, and eveything lay black with smoke 
 and charred with fire or was still smoking as some 
 substance more substantial than the rest eked out 
 its fight for existence a few hours longer than its 
 neighbors. Near the station lay the form of a wo- 
 man black and ghastly and charred beyond all 
 possibility of being recognized, and ten rods farther 
 on toward the river lay her husband, face down- 
 
POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK, , (?5 
 
 ward, the only vestige of clothing on his body be- 
 ing a heavy pair of shoes. About thirty rods nearer 
 the river was the form of a sturdy twelve year old 
 lad who had fallen fighting manfully foriife, and a 
 little farther back on the road from the woman was 
 the body of another child, who had been the first 
 to fall. A few hours before these four had occupied 
 a little farm-house about half a mile south of Sand- 
 stone, and comprised all the members of a family 
 by the name of Broad, who had run for the river, 
 but had been overcome by the heat and fallen and 
 died on the road in the order named. Their build- 
 ings were also burned and of this farmer and his 
 happy family and home, nothing is now left but a 
 heap of ashes. Another farmer, one Louis Matas 
 had a narrow escape. He saw the fire coming and 
 made every preparation to give it battle but find- 
 ing his efforts worse than futile he gave it up and 
 took refuge in a well. He carried a bundle of clothes 
 with him and descended by a ladder to the bottom 
 of this well. There were several feet of water in the 
 well, but even then with its protection he suf- 
 fered intensely from the heat; and the sparks to- 
 gether with the heat, set fire to and actually 
 burned the clothing he had carried down with him 
 and attempted to save. All of the survivors at 
 Sandstone owe their lives and their escape to the 
 fact that they were able to reach the river, where 
 they waded in up to their necks and then only saved 
 

 66 SANDSTONR, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE JTJNC. 
 
 themselves by keeping their faces and heads con- 
 stantly wet by throwing water upon each other. 
 The next morning the survivors some one hundred 
 people went to Hell's Gate, a point about four 
 miles from Sandstone on the Kettle River where 
 they were fed supper by a man by the name of 
 Place where they remained until about one oclock 
 in the morning, when two messengers arrived say- 
 ing that the relief train on the St. Paul & Duluth 
 was at Sandstone Junction four miles away, and 
 wishing them to walk to the train. This they did, 
 men, women and children, four miles over burnt 
 stumpage on a dark night is no small undertaking, 
 yet in all the distance not a single complaint was 
 heard nor even a whimper from a child, all were so 
 grateful for this miraculous deliverance that their 
 hearts were too full for utterance. 
 
 Partridge was only a small station, a mere side- 
 track with a few buildings on the Eastern Minne- 
 sota Railway, about six miles above Sandstone. 
 The whole population of the town did not exceed 
 fifty people and of these only one death is known; 
 he bears the romantic and time-honored name of 
 Robert Burns, and was burned to death. At the 
 time the Eastern Minnesota train passed through 
 Partridge they stopped and endeavored to induce 
 the people to get aboard, but they all refused and 
 did not go but in twenty minutes time were com- 
 pelled to seek some place of refuge. They had no 
 
POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK m. 
 
 river or gravel pit to fall back upon, so the women 
 and children were placed upon hand-cars and were 
 hastily taken up the road about three miles to a 
 lumber camp where about one hundred acres had 
 been burned over. In this oasis the refugees staid 
 from a little before six until twelve o'clock at night 
 when they were rescued by the relief train from 
 West Superior. Five families constituted the en- 
 tire population of Partridge and all the residents 
 made their escape into this clearing, the women 
 and children being carried on the hand-cars and 
 some of the men walking the entire distance. The 
 town of Partridge was totally destroyed there be- 
 ing nothing whatever saved from the fury of the 
 conflagration. 
 
 Sandstone Junction or Miller was another mere 
 station on the St. Paul & Duluth road rine miles 
 north of Hinckley. It never boasted of the dignity 
 of a post-office nor did Partridge for that matter, 
 but was merely a side-track for lumber Most 
 of the residents of the section were farmers who 
 had made clearings and settled on them. Most of 
 these that escaped did so either by getting into a 
 well or a potato patch and covering themselves 
 with earth in order to protect themselves from the 
 heat. Quite a number of the settlers were away 
 at the time but about fifty per cent of those who 
 were there were burned to death. 
 
 Pokegama: Circumstances -were such that the 
 
68 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE JUNC. 
 
 survivors of fire at Pokegama suffered more actual 
 pain from the heat, than those in any other section 
 of the burned district. That this is a fact there can 
 he no question. Pokegama is a small station on 
 the Eastern Minnesota Railway about seven miles: 
 south of Hinckley on Pokegama Creek, a small 
 stream never more than twelve feet in width but 
 at this time completely dried up so that no water 
 remained in it except an occasional pool deeper 
 than the rest of the bed of the brook. The wind at 
 Pokegama was noticed to freshen at about ten 
 o'clock in the morning and at twelve o'clock the 
 fire reached the west side of the town and burned 
 everything that was burnable in that direction. 
 About two o'clock the fier}- hurricane reached 
 Pokegama and so fierce and rapid was its on- 
 slaught that nothing whatever could be saved and 
 it was as if by a miracle that the people were 
 saved themselves. A good mairy of the settlers in 
 the viciuity came into town at the first alarm of 
 fire, and those who did not, did not live to tell the 
 story of their sufferings. Thirt}- of the residents 
 of this sention fled to Pokegama creek, and laid 
 there in the w^ater until the fire had passed. They 
 took refuge in the sluice-way of the pond at Pokeg- 
 ama 's mill and these suffered excruciating agony 
 from the heat. They were in a veritable oven. 
 The bank on one side of the pond was piled with 
 logs to a depth of fifteen or eighteen feet. The 
 
POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK. 69 
 
 mill, with its refuse and saw-dust flanked another 
 side while the third was enclosed by a railroad 
 trestle and bridge one hundred and eighty feet long 
 built entirely of wood and inflamable material. 
 All of these were entirely consumed and during all 
 the time that they were burning these people laid in 
 the water and endured that intense heat. They all 
 owe their lives to the fact that all this material 
 did not burn at one time, that is, that the logs 
 were pretty well consumed before the mill caught 
 fire, and the mill was burned before the bridge 
 reached its hottest blaze. Twenty-two people are 
 known to have lost their lives in this immediate 
 vicinity. An incident that should be spoken of in 
 this connection is in regard to a train on the St. 
 Cloud branch of the Eastern Minnesota; Which 
 left Hinckley for St. Cloud about half past two of 
 that eventful afternoon. When it reached a point 
 about a mile from Pokegama the rails had spread 
 by the heat and the train left the track on a little 
 two -foot fill. There was only one passenger on 
 board besides the trainmen. Great credit is due 
 the trainmen of this train for their efforts in saving 
 the train from total destruction although the heat 
 was intense and the coaches caught fire repeatedly, 
 cushions smoked and blazed and had to be thrown 
 out to burn, still they kept up their unequal fight 
 carrying water from the tender and standing 
 guard until the danger was past. It would seem 
 
70 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE JUNC. 
 
 singular that this train should escape cremation 
 while Root's train on the St. Paul & Duluth was 
 totally consumed and the only explanation that 
 can be given is that the fire had burst over the vi- 
 cinity where the train was derailed and gone on 
 some time before the accident occured, so that the 
 trainmen did not have the fall fury of the fire to 
 fight. Considerable apprehension was felt among 
 the sufferers at Pokegama lest this train which 
 was expected at any time, should run out on the 
 bridge, which was unsafe even at the time the train 
 came to its unceremonious standstill, and precipi- 
 tate its passengers to certain destruction. A- 
 bout eight o'clock in the evening the train-crew 
 made its way to Pokegama, and took the blinded 
 and suffering survivors with them back to the de- 
 railed and rescued train where they remained un- 
 til relief arrived . 
 
 We append herewith a descriprion of the fire at 
 Mission Creek by one of the survivors, thinking 
 that we cannot improve on the tale as told in his 
 own words. 
 
 "Mission Creek, a small town on the St. P. & D. 
 R. R. south of Hinckley had a narrow escape. 
 
 Standing on the little hill in the center of our small 
 berg on the forenoon of September 1st, large clouds 
 of smoke could be seen rising from brush burning- 
 to the south-west. Our people had sniffed smoke 
 all summer and were little alarmed, if any, at this 
 
POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK. 71 
 
 usual sight. The light breeze blowing in the morn- 
 ing grew stronger as the hours went by until at 
 twelve o'clock a hurricane was bearing down up- 
 on us from the direction of the fire. A solid mass 
 of dry pine choppings and underbrush, augmented 
 here and there with a few hundred tons of hay, 
 furnished ample food for the hungry hell which was 
 approaching. The settlers came in to the station 
 for protection as they had fears that the* wind 
 might drive the fire upon them on their little claims. 
 We commenced fighting the flames early, but the 
 effort to quench them was futile. At half past two 
 the St. Paul & Duluth south-bound passenger went 
 past the station, but none of our people left. The 
 train couldn't have gone half a mile from the depot 
 when a roaring wall of fire bore down on our little 
 hamlet. The fifty people were taken to Laird & 
 Boyle's potato patch south of the depot. The 
 patch contains only two acres, but it afforded a 
 safe, though excessively hot, refuge for our band. 
 Everyone laid face downward in the furrows, and 
 the fire swept over to the houses and mill property. 
 The refuges remained in their trying positions un- 
 til the fire had swept everything in sight and passed 
 on to its work of death and destruction to the 
 north. We took a retrospective view of the situat- 
 ion which met us, but could do nothing, so pro- 
 ceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. 
 The section men arrived on the scene in a few hours 
 
72 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE J UNC. 
 
 time. They brought with them a fine large deer 
 which became entangled in the barbed wire fence 
 while fleeing before the fire and had died there. We 
 dug potatoes and with the welcome venison ate a 
 hearty supper. Excepting the pain in our eyes, 
 none were suffering from the effect of the heat and 
 smoke. Our party went to Pine City on the work 
 train in the evening. The loss of property at 
 Mission Creek was heavy, but the place was fortu- 
 nate as being the only one wiped out of existence 
 in which the mortuary list does not roll up a large 
 percentage of the population. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN 
 
 road in Wisconsin. 
 
 T the time the fire fiend was 
 advancing with such rapid 
 strides upon Hinckley and her 
 sister towns in Minnesota, 
 similar scenes were being en- 
 acted in a similar fashion a 
 bout sixty miles east of Hinck- 
 ley on the line of the Omaha 
 It is needless for me to go into 
 details in the description of the fire itself in this 
 section of the country lying between Cumberland 
 and Ashland. The same hurricane wind was ex- 
 perienced, the same wave of heat that has been 
 heretofore described, and the fiend advanced upon 
 the unsuspecting inhabitants with the same stride 
 of almost incredible rapidity. 
 
 One difference or, I might say, one characteristic, 
 which was rather more noticeable in the eastern 
 fire, was that the fire burned in strips, leaving a 
 
 73 
 
74 THE FIRK IN WISCONSIN. 
 
 mile or two of unburned forest which lay not 
 diiectly in the path of the wind which carried its 
 blaze directly in front of it. So that through the 
 entire section which is shown on the map as the 
 fire district, perhaps one-fourth or one-third of the 
 area has not been burned over, but has been burned 
 around and left like an oasis in a desert. 
 
 The region affected by the fire in Wisconsin, was 
 what might readily be termed new country. Very 
 little of it was settled at all and what few settle- 
 ments there were had been made in the last decade. 
 
 Lumber was, of course, as yet the principal pro- 
 duce of the region and the lumber interests had 
 built the railroads and developed the country . An 
 immense amount of timber had annually been cut 
 and shipped from the section, and of late years the 
 grain and hay products were of no small import- 
 ance. The soil was a little sandy but the pine 
 land is good strong soil and will raise, under ordi- 
 nary conditions, good fair crops of all the small 
 grains as well as vegetables, berries etc., and quite 
 a little of the husbandman's attention had been 
 given to horticulture although the country was 
 not yet old enough to permit of the raising of these 
 products to a very great extent. 
 
 While it is true that the greatest loss of life from 
 fire was felt in Minnesota, it is also true that the 
 greatest area was burned over in Wisconsin. 
 
 The origin of the eastern blaze is not generally 
 
THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN 75 
 
 known. It was, however, in the region a little to 
 the north-west of Rice Lake and north-east from 
 Cumberland. Neither of these two burgs were in- 
 jured to any great extent but both were close 
 enough to the fire to feel its heat and become 
 alarmed at its awful power. 
 
 Barronett was a village of about five hundred 
 people, on the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & 
 Omaha railroad, about eight miles from Cumber- 
 land on Vermillion river. Most of the houses in 
 the town as well as the store etc., were owned by 
 the Barronett Lumber Co., part of the We}^er- 
 hauser syndicate who owned and operated a large 
 mill at Barronett. At a few minutes after two 
 o'clock the afternoon of Sept. 1st, two passenger 
 trains, due at Barronett at two o'clock, where 
 they met and passed each other, were standing on 
 the track. They were both a little late on that 
 day and for once, at least, it was fortunate for the 
 people of the town that they were. The smoke 
 and heat had been steadily increasing until -when 
 the trains arrived the people had become thor- 
 oughly alarmed and were ready and willing to 
 grasp any opportunity which would take them 
 out of danger. As soon as it became apparent 
 that the town was doomed the men in charge of 
 the company's store threw the doors wide open 
 and told the inhabitants to help themselves. A 
 few availed themselves of the opportunity but 
 
76 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 
 
 most of them had their hands mil in escaping 
 themselves and seeing that their families were in a 
 place of safety. All, with the exception of a very 
 few, some three or four men got aboard either one 
 train or the other and escaped, with, in most 
 cases, what clothes they had on their backs, and 
 nothing more. 
 
 Most of the residents of Barronett were mill 
 hands, never forehanded and usually rather poor 
 than otherwise. Most of the people went south 
 to Cumberland, a few to Shell Lake and a few more 
 to Spooner. Only one life was lost in Barronett, 
 a man by the name of Aleck Erickson staid behind 
 to fight the fire and after it had passed was found 
 lying face downward, where he had been overcome 
 by the heat, within twenty feet of his own door. 
 
 In an interview with one F. S. Staub, overseer of 
 the mill of the Barronett Lumber Co., he stated 
 he v^as one of the men who staid in Barronett 
 through the entire maelstrom of fire. He was run- 
 ning the pump of the mill and staid by as long as 
 possible, when he filled the boilers full of water 
 and with a companion ran for the ditch beside the 
 railroad track where they staid until the next 
 morning before they dared to emerge or move a- 
 bout among the ruins. He stated that the fire 
 reached the town at about half-past two and at 
 a quarter past three there was nothing left but 
 heaps of glowing ashes scattered here and there, 
 
THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 7T 
 
 which marked the spots where the houses or lum- 
 ber piles had been only such a short time before. 
 
 Shell Lake, Wisconsin, on the Omaha road a- 
 bout eighteen miles north of Cumberland had per- 
 haps as a town the narrowest escape that is to be 
 chronicled. The smoke had been thick all the mor- 
 ning and as the afternoon came on, the fire was 
 seen approaching the town and it was met by the 
 towns-people and kept at bay in the woods about 
 half a mile south of the town until five o'clock, 
 when in spite of the combined efforts of the towns- 
 people it crept into the Shell Lake Lumber Co/s 
 hay meadow and then it fairly leaped until it had 
 crossd the wagon road. Here it was met by a 
 most stubborn resistance and the efforts of the 
 fire-fighters were here crowned with success and 
 the fire was kept away from the south side of the 
 town, thus saving from destruction the entire bus- 
 iness portion of the town and an immense amount 
 of property from the flames. There were no fatal- 
 ities at Shell Lake. In all there were fifty-three 
 buildings burned and $100,000 worth of property 
 destroyed. 
 
 One incident which took place at Shell Lake de- 
 serves to be recorded in a book higher than thisy 
 where all the good deeds are shown. It seems at 
 the time of the approach of the fire, a widow, a 
 Mrs. Tawney, fifty-three years of age, was living 
 in the part of the town which was in the immed- 
 
78 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 
 
 iate danger from the flames, her son, a lad of nine- 
 teen was very sick with typhoid fever at the time, 
 and the mother, who had acted as nurse all through 
 his illness would not leave the bedside of her boy. 
 When it became apparent that the house was 
 actually going, she wrapped him in a blanket and 
 taking him in her arms carried him into the garden 
 where she laid him and carried water in a dinner 
 pail (the only thing she had saved from the house) 
 and kept his clothes and her own from burning 
 and also used it to carry water to put out the blaze 
 as it started in her barn. She kept her vigil by the 
 boy's side in the garden until about mid-night, 
 when feeling sure that the barn was safe she car- 
 ried him in there, where he remained until relief 
 was brought to them. A deed of heroism not 
 surpassed even in this section where heroes and 
 heroines were so plenty. 
 
 Comstock, another station on the Omaha road 
 south of Cumberland, scarcely deserving the name 
 of a town at all, was completly wiped out, not a 
 single building of any description being left in the 
 place. The loss to Comstock and to the farming 
 community adjacent to it is estimated at $75,000. 
 
 Cable is a small town on the Omaha road in 
 Bayfield County. It laid directly in the path of 
 the fire and was almost totally destroyed by the 
 flames. Cable is quite a railroad town, being on 
 the top of a steep grade, and is known among rail- 
 
THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 79 
 
 road men as "the top of the hill" in pulling heavy 
 trains from Bayfield. Its loss was thirteen hous- 
 es and a railroad building. It had a population 
 of two hundred people and was about one hundred 
 and fifty miles from St. Paul. Hey ward was not 
 touched by the flames nor was the country adjac- 
 ent to it. 
 
 Drummond, in Bayfield County about ten miles 
 north of Cable, was in the center of a heavy strip 
 of timber but for some reason was not even scorch- 
 ed by the flames. In passing through on the line 
 of the Omaha road, the oasis at Drummond is quite 
 a noticeable feature, the fire having practically de- 
 stroyed everything around it while nothing in its 
 immediate vicinity is harmed m the least. 
 
 With the exception of Barronett, Mason prob- 
 ably suffered more severely from the fire than any 
 point on the Omaha road. Mason was a live town 
 of five or six hundred people, one hundred and sev- 
 enty-six miles from St. Paul. It is the junction of 
 the C. St. P. M. & 0. R. R. and the D. S. Sh. & Ath 
 R. R. The town was almost totally destroyed by 
 the fire, the large saw mill and plant, together with 
 a large amount of lumber of the White River 
 Lumber Co., was totally destroyed together with 
 all the other buildings in the town with the excep- 
 tion of the depot and one or two dwellings which 
 alone remain to mark the spot where Mason had 
 stood. Mason was a timber town being almost 
 
80 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 
 
 exclusively dependent upon the lumber interests 
 for its support. Benoit Station or Peck, between 
 Mason and Ashland was almost totally de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Ashland itself had a very narrow escape from 
 being burned in part at least. The fire advanced 
 within the city limits and the fire department was 
 kept very busy for some time in saving the town. 
 The smoke was very dense for several days, and at 
 the time the fire was at its height the boats on 
 the lake did not dare to leave their docks, and the 
 din of their fog-horns and whistles was something 
 almost deafening. 
 
 Washburn, across the bay from Ashland did 
 not escape entirely unscathed, in fact, had a very 
 close call from being totally destroyed. Smoke 
 had hung heavy over the town for several days 
 and when the flames actually came up to the edge 
 of the town, every one was on the alert and volun- 
 teer fire fighters were plenty. The wind was 
 blowing a perfect gale, but in spite of that fact the 
 fire was kept in check for some time, when sud- 
 denly fire was discovered in Cook & Co's. Dock 
 No. 3 or the one farthest north. It having caught 
 from a spark from the fire south of the town. It 
 was discovered in good season, and steps were 
 immediately taken to fight it, but in the terrific 
 wind it spread through those piles of lumber with 
 the speed of a race horse, and it was impossible to 
 
THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 81 
 
 get to work in time to keep the flames from spread- 
 ing to Bigelow & Co's. Docks. This company has 
 four large lumber docks at Washburn, and al- 
 most in less time than it takes to tell it, air four 
 were one huge sheet of flame. Fifteen million feet 
 of lumber makes a bonfire larger than is usually 
 seen, and eye-witnesses describe the burning of 
 these lumber docks as one of the most magnificent 
 spectacles that was ever witnessed. Finding their 
 efforts to save the docks were useless the firemen 
 made a heroic fight to save Bigelow & Co's. mill, 
 and their efforts in this direction were successful so 
 that Washburn's loss was confined exclusively to 
 : these lumber docks. When the flames were at 
 their height Ashland sent an engine and hose to the 
 assistance of Washburn, and had it not been for 
 this fact it is altogether probable that the whole 
 town would have been destroyed. 
 
 At Parishville 500,000 feet of lumber together 
 with Kennedy's mill were burned. Dynamite was 
 used to prevent the spreading of .the flames to ad- 
 jacent plants, and by this means the fire was con- 
 fined to Kennedy's yard. 
 
 Just how much damage was done in this section 
 by the fire it is impossible to determine; and it is 
 difficult for one to have any accurate conception 
 of extent of the calamity and of how general and 
 severe were its effects. Hardly a village in the 
 whole region known as Northern Wisconsin 
 
82 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 
 
 escaped from its ravages, all having been injured 
 to a greater or less extent, and the fire even found 
 its way across the State line into Gogebec and 
 Ontonagon Counties in Northern Michigan. The 
 damage to the railroad companies in the loss of 
 bridges, telegraph poles, ties, fences, etc., is simply 
 enormous. It is almost a wonder that they suc- 
 ceeded in resuming their train service as soon as 
 they did. All were utterly demoralized after the 
 fire had passed and all communication was shut 
 off for a time along all the lines. 
 
 A huge trestle three-quarters of a mile in 
 length on the Duluth South Shore and Atlantic 
 was burned at Marengo, which will cripple that 
 road more or less for some time. 
 
 Iron River, a thriving town of about 700 peo- 
 ple on the Northern Pacific Railroad, midway be- 
 tween Duluth and Ashland had a narrow escape, 
 and even as it was lost eighteen or twenty dwell- 
 ings and a saw-mill. The inhabitants had ex- 
 pected something of the sort and were prepared to 
 fight, but for a time they were fighting almost 
 against hope. Brule suffered from the fire. An 
 immense amount of damage being done in the 
 magnificent tracts of pine lands along the Brule 
 River, and numbers of homestead shanties and 
 lumber camps with their contents being totally de- 
 stroyed. Port Wing and Clevedau are also exten- 
 sive losers from the fire fiend. 
 
THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 8: ! 
 
 Granite Lake is a station on the Omaha road 
 between Barronett and Cumberland and met a 
 similar fate as that of her sister town Barronett 
 almost simultaneously. No loss of life is reported 
 but considerable loss of property in the shape of 
 lumber, buildings, etc., aggregating in all some 
 $50,000. All the inhabitants with their Barronett 
 neighbors escaped to Cumberland. 
 
 The following is a list of towns more or less 
 affected by the fire not already mentioned: 
 Phillips, Prentice, Winchester, Fifield, Park Falls, 
 Butternut, Glidden, Miller, High Bridge, Plummer 
 and Iron Belt, Ironwood, Hurley, Gile, Saxon, 
 Odanah, Sanborn, Marengo, Sedgwick, Bayfield, 
 Houghton, Ashland Junction, Moquah, Ino, 
 Poplar, Itasca, Pratt, Agnew and Altamont. 
 
 On September 6th, five days after the first incep- 
 tion of the great fire, rain fell over the entire 
 burned district, and where the fire had not already 
 burned everything inflamable, it put a quietus 
 upon it, which kept it from spreading further, and 
 the more copious rains which followed in the next 
 few days effectually checked the flames. This 
 timely shower was welcomed by all, both for the 
 quietus it put on the fire and on account of the 
 crops which were suffering from a lack of moisture. 
 
 From High Bridge on the Wisconsin Central 
 road comes a story sad indeed. The family of 
 Isaac Towney, consisting of himself, his wife and 
 
34 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 
 
 five children besides his son-in-law Bargron, who 
 liad married To wney 's oldest daughter only a short 
 time before, and had taken up his abode with his 
 wife in a cabin only a short distance from the 
 paternal roof. On the morning before the fire 
 Towney, Bargron and a neighbor named McLean 
 had been fighting fire and had endeavored to save 
 Towney's hay and some 4,000 cedar posts which 
 he had cut ready for market. When the fire 
 came the neighbor was some distance from 
 the Towney family and made an attempt to reach 
 his own home, but finally reached the railroad 
 track and lying down in the ditch escaped with 
 his life. The Towney's were not so fortunate how- 
 ever. Within twenty feet of the house was a fifty 
 foot well, containing a foot or two of water at 
 the time of the fire. Into this well were thrown 
 feather beds, blankets, etc., and all the members of 
 the Towney family proceeded to get into what 
 they supposed to be a place of safety, but which 
 proved to be a veritable oven from which there 
 was no escape. When they were taken out their 
 bodies had been burned to a crisp, not a limb 
 remaining to any of the trunks and the whitened 
 skulls of the younger members demonstrating the 
 degree of heat to which they had been subjected. 
 It is more than probable though that death came 
 to them in the more merciful form of suffocation, 
 than from that of the heat itself. 
 
THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 85 
 
 Although Wisconsin was not called upon to pro- 
 vide for but few refugees as compared to her sister 
 State, her Governor, Mr. Peck, immediately issued 
 a proclamation to the citizens under his jurisdic- 
 tion, stating the facts and asking that voluntary 
 contributions be sent to Col: W. J. Boyle, Secre- 
 tary of the Relief Committee at Milwaukee. Col. 
 Boyle was secretary of. a similar commission which 
 had been appointed to render a similar service at 
 the time the town of Phillips was destroyed a 
 month previous to this time. Steps were imme- 
 diately taken to furnish relief to those in need, 
 both temporarily and permanently, and it, can 
 truly be said that Wisconsin was not behind her 
 neighbor in furnishing the wherewithal to care for 
 her afflicted. 
 
 Registration showed about two hundred desti- 
 tute people at Ashland and as many more at 
 Cumberland and Spooner, together with some at 
 Superior. All were adequately provided for by con- 
 tributions received from all sources, although 
 some little dissatisfaction was expressed by the 
 committee at the action of Gov. Peck in issuing a 
 manifesto stating that Wisconsin was able to 
 take care of her own, and needed no outside 
 assistance the feeling being that he did not fully 
 appreciate or understand the condition of the 
 destitute sufferers . 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 AFTER THE FIRE. 
 
 FTERthe first frenzied 
 onslaught of the fire 
 had passed and the suf 
 fering survivors dared 
 leave their place of re- 
 fuge and endeavor to 
 find either their friends 
 or some trace whereby 
 it would be possible to determine where they had 
 been and how it had fared with them; a sight of 
 desolation met their eyes which is better imagined 
 than described. Many of them feared to leave 
 their asylum until the gray of the morning dawn- 
 ed when they came out more dead than alive, 
 smarting from burns, blinded with smoke and faint 
 from hunger and exhaustion. 
 
 Desolation, bleak and unbending, nothing but 
 ashes, stumps and remains of individuals less for- 
 
 86 
 
 
AFTER THE FIRE. 87 
 
 ttnate than themselves lay on all sides. Every- 
 where in every direction could be seen nothing but 
 the ravages of the flames. They had no idea of 
 the extent of the loss of life until morning dawned 
 when the daylight brought a realization of the 
 magnitude and awfulness of the disaster and what 
 a narrow thread had held them to this earthly ex- 
 istance, and the appreciation made them fairly 
 sick at heart. They could not speak, no one could 
 utter a word, God in his infinite goodness seemed 
 to have literally tempered the wind to the shorn 
 lambs, and they went about in a half-dazed con- 
 dition without the appreciation or realization of 
 sights which would under ordinary circumstances 
 have brought tears to the eyes and melted a heart 
 of stone. And had it not been for the generous and 
 timely assistance and relief that was accorded from 
 the outside world their condition would have in- 
 deed been much more serious than ever, and would 
 have multiplied in ten fold ratio as the hours went 
 by. They had in truth, been saved from a death 
 by fire, but most of them escaped with only the 
 clothes on their backs. 
 
 As has been stated, the people of Hinckley had 
 no idea of the immense fatality of the fire. When 
 they came out of the gravel pit the prevailing idea 
 was that there had been but little loss of life. They 
 knew that a great number of people had been saved 
 by the Eastern Minnesota train, and when Mr. 
 
8S AFTER THE FIRE: 
 
 Al. Frazer came from the dry marsn and reported 
 the awful calamity that had happened there, they 
 cotdd hardly believe it. Mr. Frazer even, under-es- 
 timated the loss, as he reported that there were 
 as many as forty people burned to death in the 
 marsh. Subsequent developments however show- 
 ed the number to be one hundred and twenty-six. 
 
 The sight of ninety-six bodies piled up in one 
 heap ready for burial, all charred and burned be- 
 yond recognition and all destined for one common 
 grave, was one that can never be forgotten by 
 those who took part in the interment. The man- 
 ner of burial will be refered to later under the head 
 of reminiscences where we print Mr. Webber's ex- 
 periences at the fire. 
 
 Everything available in any way, either as food 
 or clothing had been consumed and the long night 
 of suffering and exposure was something terrible 
 to be considered, to the women and children who 
 were not used to what is termed here in the West 
 "roughing it," but had been accustomed to all 
 the luxuries of a civilized home. 
 
 No comparison can be made of this and other 
 great calamities of a fiery nature. In the Chicago 
 fire there was a place of safety; somewhere to go 
 and plenty of food and provision for all the suf- 
 ferers; but here there was no alternative but to go 
 through the fiery furnace and even those whose 
 bodies were immersed in water were burned and 
 
AFTER THE FIRE. S9 
 
 scorched about the head and face and suffered ter- 
 rible agony from breathing the over-heated 
 atmosphere. 
 
 All of the survivors tell the same story. "The 
 very air seemed to be ablaze." At the gravel pit 
 the Presbyterian pastor at Hinckley found half a 
 dozen half burned water-melons and they were de- 
 voured eagerly by the famished people while his 
 estimable wife, milked one of the cows, that had 
 taken refuge in the pit and the little milk ob- 
 tained served to keep body and soul of the little 
 ones in the pit together until morning, or until re- 
 lief arrived. After a little time the water tank 
 at the Eastern Minnesota Round House was dis- 
 covered to be left standing and the water here ob- 
 tained helped to. alleviate the sufferings of the 
 bereaved people. 
 
 The first actual news of the holocaust at Hinck- 
 ley received by the outside world was taken to 
 Pine City by several of those who had escaped in 
 the gravel pit. They took a hand-car and started 
 toward their destination, and after much labor 
 caused by twisted rails, burned culverts and fallen 
 trees, the party succeeded in reaching Pine City at 
 about eleven o'clock in the evening of the Saturday 
 that the fire occured, and in less than twenty-four 
 hours from the time the fire burst upon them, the 
 citizens of St. Paul and Minneapolis had a train 
 loaded with provisions, clothing and everything 
 
90 AFTER THE FIRE. 
 
 conceivable, necessary for the immediate alleviation 
 of the wants of the suffering people at the scene of 
 the disaster, manned by a number of the most ac- 
 tive and prominent citizens and physicians of the 
 two cities. They were however not the first to ar- 
 rive upon the scene nor the first to respond to the 
 call for aid. Pine City was first appealed to and 
 she responded nobly to supply the wants and ne- 
 cessities her sister city was in such dire need of. 
 
 The news that Hinckley was totally destroyed 
 spread like wild fire and every individual resident 
 of Pine City prepared in some way to assist in the 
 alleviation of the sufferings of the unfortunate sur- 
 vivors. The St. Paul & Duluth Railroad had a 
 train waiting to get through to Hinckley at the 
 earliest possible moment, and upon this train was 
 taken everything possible in the way of food, cloth- 
 ing and anything that mind could conceive would 
 be useful or available in the awful extremity which 
 had been brought upon this unfortunate band of 
 people. About half of the population of the town 
 of Pine City were on board, some as mere cur- 
 iosity seekers but more to do what could be done 
 in adding balm to the wounded spirits they were 
 soon to meet. 
 
 The advance toward Hinckley was necessarily 
 slow, as every little culvert had to be re-built and 
 repaired and oft-times it was found necessary to 
 drive an ocasional spike beside the rail before it 
 
AFTER THE FIRE. 91 
 
 was deemed safe for the train to pass over it. So 
 after a very slow and tediotis journey through the 
 darkness of the night and the still smoking ruins 
 the relief train reached Hinckley at about three 
 o'clock in the morning. 
 
 Dante's Inferno could not have presented a 
 more horrible and heart-rending spectacle than 
 was laid before the eyes of these Pine City citizens 
 on their errand of mercy. The air was still heavy 
 with smoke and the heat was still quite noticeable. 
 Everything was dark save where the coal docks of 
 the railroad companies had stood and these pre- 
 sented a peculiarly bright and lurid glare against 
 the dark back-ground of the blackened earth and 
 darkened sky, as the stock of coal kept in them 
 burned itself out. 
 
 They immediately set to work among the ruins 
 to feed the survivors, find the injured and get them 
 aboard the train where they could be taken to a 
 place of safety, and better facilities could be 
 afforded for their care and comfort than was pos- 
 sible here. Most of the survivors who could walk 
 now congregated in the only building left standing 
 at Hinckley save the water-tank house on the 
 Eastern Minnesota Railway. Parties had begun 
 to come in from the surrounding country. Now 
 and again a straggling one alone, too often the 
 only one left to tell the tale of the sufferings of a 
 family; again in bunches of two or three or even 
 
92 AFTER THE FIRE. 
 
 more as some family more fortunate than the rest 
 had kept the flock together and had escaped the 
 fury of the flames. All were more or less injured, 
 few had scarcely any clothes on their backs, all 
 were nearly blinded from smoke and heat, and fairly 
 famished from hunger and thirst. A great many 
 had saved their lives by lying in some muddy pool 
 and what the fire left undone to add to their gen- 
 eral look of despondent delapidation had been ac- 
 complished by the mud and water which had 
 streaked and begrimmed their bodies and faces till 
 it was difficult to recognize even the best of friends 
 under the circumstances. And the sight of the 
 dead was far more ghastly and revolting than the 
 visage of the living. 
 
 Death on all sides. The grim reaper was no re- 
 specter of persons. All classes were represented 
 among his victims. Lying where they fell, most of 
 them in an attitude which would tend to show the 
 awful anxiety of the moment either for their own 
 safety or that of a loved one. Cases were fre- 
 quent where the positions of the bodies showed 
 conclusively that the unfortunates had met death 
 with their dying thoughts ones of anxiety, not 
 for themselves, but for the loved ones they 
 would protect from all possible harm. Hastily 
 taking in a survey of the situation the members of 
 the relief board went to work with a will, for 
 work was plenty and there was enough to be done 
 
" '• IB ■ 
 
AFTER THE FIRE. 93 
 
 to keep all willing hands busy for da} r s. Kno wing- 
 that the dead were beyond their help they directed 
 their energies to seeking out and caring for the in- 
 jured. After all that could be taken aboard had 
 been placed on the train, with a part of the Pine 
 City relief corps, it pulled back to Pine City, taking 
 out the first load of the survivors who actually 
 went through the whole of the fire. 
 
 Immediately upon the arrival at Pine City of the 
 train loaded with the wounded survivors, the 
 skating rink was turned into an impromptu hospi- 
 tal and the lower part of the Knights of Pythias 
 Hall in the town was used as a cook-house for the 
 sufferers. The ladies of Pine City, young and old 
 came to the front as with one impulse, to do what 
 they could to relieve the afflicted, and they did not 
 relax their vigil until the responsibility had been 
 lifted from their shoulders, and the sufferers were, 
 either able to take care of themselves or had been 
 otherwise provided for. A number of them staid 
 at their post by the cook stove all Saturday 
 night so that they had a good warm breakfast, 
 sufficient to supply all of the hundreds of unfortu- 
 nates who were brought to Pine City the morning 
 after the fire. By Sunday noon every person who 
 had been brought out of the fire district had been 
 properly fed and cared for, with the assistance of 
 Rush City which had come in to bear her share of 
 the burden in the shape of provisions, and with 
 
94 AFTER THE FIRE. 
 
 her staff of surgeons, who proved very efficient in 
 their endeavors to allay the smarting and burning 
 of the blistered epidermis. While this was. going 
 on the work of biinging in and burying the dead 
 was being pushed as fast as possible by detach- 
 ments of men who had been detailed for that 
 service at Hinckley. Bodies were being found and 
 brought in from all directions. Every effort was 
 made to identify them, but identification was out 
 of the question, unless by some metal article or 
 trinket that was found near or upon the bodies. 
 A strict record was kept of them and they were 
 then turned over to the burial committee at the 
 cemetary under the supervision of F. G. Webber, 
 who did a noble work in this capacity, which from 
 its very nature was one of the most horrible 
 duties that ever devolved upon a human being. 
 The first three days after the fire were very warm 
 and dry, and it was found to be absolutely neces- 
 sary from a sanitary point of view that the bodies 
 should all be intered at the earliest possible mom- 
 ent, and to this end Mr. Webber staid at his post 
 without rest or sleep for three days and three 
 nights, or until the work had been practically 
 accomplished. After the dead in the immediate 
 neighborhood of the town itself had been intered 
 parties were sent out over the surrounding country 
 to find the remains and bury the victims in the 
 farming districts. They were buried where they 
 
JiRIXC.IXt; THI- SURVIVORS TO PINE CITY 
 
AFTER THE FIRE. 95 
 
 were found, and a board placed with the name of 
 the victim on each grave when there was anything 
 found to make it possible to identify the body. 
 Accurate data as to the interment was also kept 
 and hied with the commissioner. 
 
 We will now return to the survivors of Jim 
 Root's train at Skunk Lake who were undergoing 
 sufferings more extreme and more terrible, if possi- 
 ble, than those of their colleagues at Hinckley. 
 After leaving the train and reaching the friendly 
 waters of that mud-hole their sufferings for four 
 hours in that marsh are terrible beyond descrip- 
 tion. At the first burst of the flame some one 
 shouted "get under the water for your lives." A 
 command which all obeyed, some even submerging 
 themselves entirely for an instant until the worst 
 was past. They had scarcely reached the water, 
 when in a seconds time, the smoke which had been 
 so black and dense that as a survivor said "one 
 could not see his hand held up before his face," 
 seemed to explode and burst into a seething sheet 
 of flame, consuming the gases in the air and ignit- 
 ing everything infiamable, and attended by a 
 crackling and hissing sound truly diabolical. A 
 wall of flame on all sides, seemingly twenty feet 
 high hemmed in the little asylum in which these 
 people had sought safety. After the smoke had 
 cleared away a little the coaches could be seen on 
 the track blazing furiously, and in the course of a 
 
96 AFTER THE FIRE. 
 
 short time the heat from them became so intense 
 and terrific that the unfortunates were again com- 
 pelled to immerse themselves entirely in order to 
 make the heat even endurable. How the women 
 and children ever survived the terrible ordeal will 
 always be a mystery, but there were men enough 
 in the party to keep them drenched with water, 
 and as some unfortunate became overcome and 
 swooned there was a clear head and a strong arm 
 to support and assist them until the terrible period 
 of heat had passed. 
 
 Still it was too hot for them to leave the water 
 and four hours of mortal agony passed before 
 they even attempted to do so, and when the time 
 finally came and they dared leave the lake, they 
 did so gradually and by degrees retreating first to 
 the shallow water, then to the mud, then to the 
 damp ground, and finally high and dry upon the 
 ground itself. If these people had but known it 
 there was a much larger body of water on the 
 other side of the track but a little distance away 
 where they would have suffered much less if they 
 had gotten to it. But in the awful moment of 
 leaving the train nobody thought of it, and perhaps 
 nobody knew of it and of course it was impossible 
 to see any distance away. Atthis time, themenin 
 the party took a hasty survey of the band to decide 
 who were the best able to goto Pine City for help. 
 The lot fell upon three traveling men who hap- 
 

AFTER THE FIRE. 7 
 
 pened to be on board the ill-fated train, Mr. 
 James E. Lobdell of St. Paul, a Mr. Holt of 
 Duluth and a Mr. Anderson of Minneapolis, as 
 being the strongest men physically in the party, 
 and the best able and best fitted for this battle 
 royal with the elements in the shape of a fifteen 
 mile walk over burned ties and amid smoking 
 ruins to a place of safety, and to bring relief to 
 their suffering fellow-men. It was no small under- 
 taking. Fires were still burniug on all sides and 
 the smoke was still thick and the night was very 
 dark, yet these men taking some clothing which 
 had been saved by the convulsive grasp of a 
 traveling salesman, upon, what one might almost 
 call a part of his anatomy, his grip, tore into 
 strips and wrapped it around their feet an ankles 
 so that they were well protected from the burning 
 cinders, etc., and wetting their coats and wrap- 
 piug them about their heads, the}^ started their 
 perilous journey to Pine City. 
 
 It was indeed an awful and a gruesome task. 
 They wended their way with much difficulty back 
 to where the town had been, through the still 
 burning forests stumbling along, bearly escaping 
 instant death by the fall of a telegraph pole or a 
 giant tamarac as they gave up the ghost 
 to the grim monster, and in the interval be- 
 tween Skunk Lake and Hinckley they counted 
 twentv-nine bodies. Some of these unfortunates 
 
98 AFTER THE FIRE, 
 
 had been riding on the platform and overcome 
 by the heat, they had dropped to their death 
 on the tracks below, others were those of the 
 passengers already mentioned who became in- 
 sane during the flight toward Skunk Lake, and 
 had thrown themselves through the car-windows, 
 and still others were settlers through the country 
 who thought their only safety lay in reaching the 
 town, and they had died upon the track in their 
 attempt to do so. The bridge across the river at 
 Hinckley they did not dare attempt to cross, so 
 they endeavored to find a skiff or something with 
 which they might succeed in crossing the stream , 
 they found nothing that would avail them any- 
 thing however, and after taking off the burned 
 clothes from their feet and such clothes as would 
 impede their progress the^- started to wade the 
 stream which is very shallow at this time of the 
 year. On the way across five bodies were dis- 
 covered, one woman, two men and two children. 
 After six miles of the most awful experiences, and 
 a period covering an hour and forty minutes time 
 they reached the round-house at Hinckley, which 
 was the only vestige that remained, aside from the 
 twisted track itself that would even suggest that 
 this had been the center of a civilized community. 
 Everything was still as death, and our heroes 
 entered the round-house and threw themselves on 
 the earthern floor of its friendly protection where 
 
AFTER THE FIRE. 
 
 99 
 
 they remained for about half an hour for they 
 were nearly exhausted, when they once more 
 resumed their journey to Mission Creek first and 
 then to Pine City. They had gone but a short dis- 
 tance from Hinckley when they discovered an 
 abandoned hand car which they appropriated and 
 pushed on to Mission Creek with it. A few miles 
 farther on they met the work train and informed 
 the trainmen of the terrible plight of the passen- 
 gers of the Duluth Limited at Skunk Lake, 
 
 The work train took them back to Pine City 
 where an expedition was immediately organized 
 for the relief of the suffering unfortunates on board 
 Jim Root's train. The news bearers were kindly 
 cared for and given medical assistance, and went 
 to St. Paul by the first special, arriving there 
 about three o'clock in the afternoon or about 
 twenty-four hours after the calamity occurred. 
 Mr. Anderson, one of the three who made this trip 
 which we have just described was himself a loser 
 to the extent of $20,000 which he had with him in 
 the shape of government bonds, which were of 
 course burned with his grip. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 
 
 he first train from 
 Saint Paul to 
 Pine Cit}^ after 
 the fire was a 
 special consist- 
 ing of one bag- 
 gage car and 
 one coach be- 
 sides the engine 
 and ran out on 
 the Duluth 
 road about 1:25 Sunday morning. It was in no 
 sense a relief train, but was run out in the interest 
 of the road, and conveyed L. S. Miller, assistant 
 general manager, and also the road-master of the 
 Duluth road. At a quarter past eleven on a bright 
 Sunday morning, Tarns Bixby, the governor's pri- 
 vate secretaiw, received a telegram from Pine City, 
 stating something in regard to the extent of the fire 
 and asking immediate assistance from St. Paul 
 
 100 
 
SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 101 
 
 and her sister city, Minneapolis. They responded 
 nobly, as in the lapse, of the short period of four 
 and a half hours a special- train was standing 
 on a side-track at the St. Paul Depot loaded with 
 everything that was deemed necessary and useful, 
 ready to start for the scene of the disaster. Im- 
 mediately upon receipt of the telegram , a short con- 
 sultation was held between Governor Nelson, Mr. 
 Bixby and Mr. Harris Richardson of St. Paul and 
 a plan of action was decided on which was put 
 into execution ; and in less than fifteen minutes Mr. 
 Bixb\- was making the telephone wires warm in 
 his endeavor to locate a number of the large whole- 
 salers of the town and gain from them the goods 
 which alone could relieve the sufferers in the burned 
 district. P. H. Kelly and George R. Finch were 
 notified of the situation as was also Capt. W. H. 
 Hart of the National Guard of the State of Minne- 
 sota and Capt. Bunker. The Hackett Hardware 
 Co., was also enlisted in the hurried canvas, and 
 by three o'clock in the afternoon a special was 
 standing on a track at the Union Depot in St. Paul 
 and men and wagons were busy loading it with 
 goods of every conceivable description that would 
 be available under such circumstances . There were 
 boxes, crates and barrels, sacks and boxes galore, 
 blankets, ftying pans, coffee, pots, knives, forks, 
 plates, tea, coffee, sugar, bacon, beans, flour, corn- 
 ed beef, salt, crackers, and twenty-five hundred 
 
1 2 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 
 
 loaves of bread. Everything that could be furnish- 
 ed a stricken people was readily donated and 
 forwarded as quickly as men could work and steam- 
 could carry it to the scene of the disaster. Mr. 
 Bixby telegraphed Mr. Hodge, the chairman of 
 the Pine City Relief Committee inquiring of him 
 what was needed for the relief of the sufferers 
 The reply came with a list of just such things as 
 had already been furnished with the exception of 
 one item, " money " a goodly sum of which was 
 taken up by the committee who accompanied this 
 first car-load of provisions to the scene. The relief 
 train left the depot at about four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, Sunday, Sept. 2nd or just twenty-four 
 hours from the time the fire broke over Hinckley 
 with its hurricane of fury. It was accompanied 
 by a committee of St. Paulites composed of H. D. 
 Davis, P. H. Kelly, Lane K. Stone, Geo. R. Finch, 
 Harris Richardson, Jules H. Burwell, I). H. Moon, 
 Dr.R. H. Wheaton, C. R. Smith, J. G. Donnelly 
 the undertaker and two assistants, Capt. Bunker, 
 a detachment of ten volunteers from Company C, 
 1st Regt. N. G. S. M., under Capt. Montfort and v 
 representatives of the Twin City Press . The Union 
 Depot in the vicinity of the train presented quite a 
 lively and peculiar spectacle just before the de- 
 parture of the train for the relief. The platform 
 was crowded with spectators who had by some 
 means or other become aware of the awful calam 
 
SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 1*>3 
 
 ity which had taken place so near home, and 
 had gathered here to view the efforts that were 
 being made to alleviate the suffering of their broth- 
 ers in the northern pines; and it was a curious 
 spectacle that presented itself. In one end of the 
 car were piled stacks of bread clear to the very 
 ceiling carefully guarded from the dirt by cloths 
 and papers, while the other end presented a mot- 
 ley array of things edible and useful. The car 
 was more than full and it was found necessary to 
 call into service the half of the next car before 
 all the provisions were taken on board. After 
 having pulled out from the depot the Relief train 
 stopped in the lower yard and coupled on a sleep- 
 er after which the train hastened on its errand of 
 mercy to its destination. The need of tents had 
 been anticipated for the shelter of not only the 
 sufferers but the crowd of curious spectators who 
 flocked to Pine City by every train on one pretext 
 or another, some looking for a lost one, some seek- 
 ing to help anyone and others from mere idle cur- 
 iosity and this latter class were by no means in 
 the minority. 
 
 Arrangements were immediatly made by Capt. 
 Hart, Brigadier-Quartermaster, to have the use of 
 the tents belonging to the State, used by the 
 National Guard at their annual encampment at 
 Lake City, at which point the tents still remained. 
 The commissary at that point at once set to work 
 
104 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 
 
 to ship the tents, one hundred and ninety in num- 
 ber, to the scene, but for some reason or other the 
 work was delayed so that the tents were not ship- 
 ped until five o'clock in the afternoon. When they 
 arrived in St. Paul they were immediately switched 
 onto the Duluth track from the Milwaukee road 
 and preparations were immediately made to send 
 them out that night. It was then about eight 
 o'clock in the evening, but word was received that 
 Pine City had prepared a shelter for everyone that 
 night so the train was held until about five o'clock 
 the next morning when it left for the scene with 
 another load of supplies and equipment of helpers. 
 So much has been said in the past of soulless cor- 
 porations, that it seems to me no more than right 
 that the railroad companies intimately connected 
 with this disaster should receive the commendation 
 and credit they deserve for the manner in which 
 they handled the affair. Placed as they were under 
 conditions that handicapped them to so great an 
 extent, in the shape of the total demoralization of 
 all communication either postal or telegraphic 
 with the doomed sections and the injury to their 
 road-bed ircmi the burning of bridges, culverts, etc. 
 although they were losers themselves to an enor- 
 mous extent, they never faltered in their endeavor 
 to succor those who were dependent upon them, 
 but stood ready, eager and willing to offer every 
 a ssistance in their power to those who were even less 
 
SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 105 
 
 fortunate than they. All supplies were carried free 
 of cost, not only as soon as the fire had passed, 
 but as long as anything was still to be sent to the 
 sufferers, and even at this time six weeks after the 
 fire has passed they are still carrying the contri- 
 butions of generous-hearted citizens to their ob- 
 j ective destin ation . 
 
 Too much commendation cannot be given the 
 Press representatives for their untiring efforts in 
 giving to the public a most authentic and full ac- 
 count of the terrible conflagration. As it has no 
 parallel in history so it is a fact, that no occurence 
 of modern times has quickened the pulse of a na- 
 tion or in fact the world, as has this fire. It is al- 
 so a fact that never has a thing of this sort been 
 more fully or minutely described by the press at 
 large, and never has the wants of a needy people 
 been more generously advertised than were those 
 of the Hinckley fire sufferers at the hands of the 
 Press of the world, or more especially the press of 
 the cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth an'' 
 West Superior. 
 
 At White Bear the relief train stopped and took 
 on more provisions and a number of Stillwater 
 gentlemen who had come over to join the rescuing 
 party, prominint among whom were Judge Neth- 
 way, H. T. King, Dr. C. W. Merry and Geo. H. 
 Sullivan. ' They immediatley pushed on and at 5:45 
 were side-tracked at Rush City to make way for 
 
106 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 
 
 the return of the train which had gone tip early in 
 the day with Assistant General Manager Miller 
 of the Duluth road on board. Mr. Miller had the 
 relief train flagged in order to confer with those in 
 charge of the provisions and give them a better 
 idea of the extent of the damage and what they 
 might expect they had to contend with. He told 
 them to take the stores to Pine City, that they 
 had a thoroughly organized relief committee there 
 and that every effort was being made to get the 
 sufferers to Pine City as soon as possible. One 
 hundred gallons of milk were taken on at Rush 
 City. The forest fires could still be seen blazing 
 here and there as they advanced from Rush City, 
 exhibiting a pyrotechnic display against the dark- 
 ening horizon which would set at naught any at- 
 tempt of man in that direction, and adding much 
 that was weird and uncanny to the already dreary 
 and desolate spectacle. They took the advice of 
 Assistant General Manager Miller, and unloaded 
 their supplies at Pine City, which was thus made 
 the distributing point for the burned district. 
 Upon arriving at Pine City they found a com- 
 mittee of citizens of Pine City with the situation 
 well in hand, composed of Joseph Hurley, J. F. 
 Stone, E. A. Hough, H. Berchers and John Y. 
 Breckenridge. The work train had returned from 
 its trip up the road and the party on board 
 reported what was needed most was food, and just 
 
SYSTEMATIC RELIEF 107 
 
 such supplies ; as the relief train had brought. 
 After a hurried canvass of the situation and render- 
 ing what assistance was in its power the relief 
 train left Pine City for St. Paul at about eleven 
 o'clock in the evening, leaving behind a number of 
 the St. Paul committee who were to take an active 
 part in the relief operations that were to follow in 
 the next few days. Nothing of interest or import- 
 ance occurred on the return trip, and the train 
 reached the St. Paul depot at about half past one 
 on the morning of the third. After having seen 
 that the wants of the sufferers were temporarily 
 relieved, Gov. Nelson, promptly made preparations 
 for the more serious duty of furnishing the un- 
 fortunates with some permanent means of sup- 
 port. A few had a little insurance, but most of 
 them were left absolutely penniless. In many 
 cages there was absolutely nothing left of the farm 
 but the bare land and the mortgage, oft-times the 
 farm had been consumed, that is to say, the top 
 soil had been completely burned off, and a sterile 
 expanse left in its place ; but tbe tenacity of the life 
 of the mortgage cannot but be remarked upon . At 
 this time when everything was needed and but 
 little had been contributed, Gov. Nelson issued a 
 proclamation to the people of the state requesting 
 donations and appointing C. A. Pillsbury of 
 Minneapolis, Kenneth Clark of St. Paul, Charles 
 H. Graves of Duluth, Mathew G. Norton of Winona. 
 
108 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 
 
 Hastings H. Hart of St. Paul, a commission in the 
 name of the State to receive money and contribu- 
 tions and forward them to Pine City. Almost 
 simultaneously with this proclamation was one 
 from Mayor Smith of St. Paul to the loyal citizens 
 under his jurisdiction, setting forth the facts in a 
 similar manner, and calling a public meeting to 
 discuss matters and provide ways aud means to 
 furnish the needed supplies and funds. Imme- 
 diately upon the arrival of the St. Paul Relief 
 Train the relief committee met with the Pine City 
 Relief Committee and organized a general com- 
 mittee in order to better understand and facilitate 
 the work in hand. This committee was composed 
 of Jas. Hurly, chairman ; J. F. Stone, J. Y. Brecken- 
 ridge, E. A. Hough, H. Borchers, of Pine City; 
 Joseph Mannix, Minneapolis ; H. E. Quinn, White 
 Bear; J. C. Netheway, Stillwater; J. H. Burwell, 
 Gen. C. S. Bunker, D. H. Moon, Lt. C. R.Smith, P. 
 H. Kelly, Geo. R. Finch, Col. Laird of St. Paul; J. 
 D. Markham, Rush City; and H. T. King, of Still- 
 water. 
 
 A number of other committees were also ap 
 pointed as follows : 
 
 COMMITTEE ON CARE OF DEAD. 
 
 J. G. Donnelly, H. H. Hart, John E. Dougherty, 
 St. Paul; H. D. Davis, Hinckley; H. G. Perkins, J. 
 W. Hunt, Frank Webber, Father Burke, Dr. E. E. 
 Baruum and John Carmon, of Pine City. 
 
SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 109 
 
 LOCAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 Jas. Hurley, chairman; E. H. Hough and J. Y. 
 Breckenridge, secretary. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON PROVISIONS. 
 
 F. A. Hodge, Wm. Smith, Wm. Brouse,John 
 Vaughn, Otto Konalke. 
 
 LADIES SUB-COMMITTEE. 
 
 Mrs. H. J. Perkins, Mrs. F. A. Hodge, Mrs. 
 Julia Doyce, Mrs. A. Remmington and Mrs. Dale. 
 
 A meeting was called and Mr. Jas. Hurley 
 was chosen president and John Y. Breckenridge, 
 secretary. Thus organized the relief work of the 
 committee was taken up in good earnest and much 
 more effective work accomplished in the way of 
 registration of sufferers and distribution of sup- 
 plies than would have otherwise been possible. 
 All the St. Paul members of the committee were 
 loud in their praises of the most efficient manner 
 in which the Pine City citizens had performed the 
 task which had fallen upon them. Everything 
 that could possibly be done to relieve the suffering 
 had been seen to, and never did a nobler body of 
 men and women undertake a noble work with a 
 greater degree of self-sacrifice and devotion than 
 was exhibited by the good people of Pine City at 
 this time. Never were efforts for their benefit 
 more fully appreciated, and never were a body of 
 unfortunates more truly grateful than were these 
 
110 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 
 
 fire-sufferers for their much needed succor. After 
 what they had passed through and had been de- 
 livered from, they were grateful indeed to feel that 
 while they were homeless and alone in one sense 
 they were still a part of that great body, that 
 brotherhood which the world calls humanity, and 
 from Ler lap of luxury the world at large was 
 willing and glad to give her portion to aid the 
 afflicted in their distress, and in the pathetic scenes 
 that followed the tongue cannot express, and the 
 pen cannot describe the heartfelt gratitude of the 
 delivered towards their deliverers. 
 
 Active preparations were immediately begun in 
 both of the Twin Cities for a systematic relief o* 
 the many in need. A meeting of St. Paul citizens 
 appointed a committee of twenty-one representa- 
 tive business men who were to have complete 
 charge of all action taken by St. Paul for the relief. 
 This committee met and appointed an executive 
 committee to superintend the work. This execu- 
 tive committee consisted of Messrs. E. W. Peet, 
 chairman; C. W. Hackett, J. J. McCardy, George 
 Benz, Thomas Cochran, W. J. Footner, and W. H. 
 Lightner secretary of committee. Mr. Geo. R. 
 Finch was later added to the list making eight 
 members in all. 
 
 This committee appointed three sub-committees 
 to work under its supervision. These committees 
 consisting of the following gentlemen. 
 
SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 1 \ i 
 
 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. 
 
 Gen. Geo. Bend, chairman; A. A. Lindeke, E. j. 
 Hodgson, H. C. McNair and Richard Gordon 
 
 COMMITTEE ON SUPPLIES. 
 
 W. L. Wilson, chairman; M. L. Hutchins, M. J. 
 O'Connor, Edward Yannish and J. F. Jackson. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 Geo. R . Finch, chairman; Walter A. Scott and 
 George Benz. 
 
 These committees did some most efficient work 
 in getting together and forwarding supplies and 
 funds for the relief of the sufferers. The total 
 amount of cash that was collected was $25,124.40. 
 This was for the most part turned over to the 
 State Commission, although, quite an amount 
 was expended by the committee prior to the ap- 
 pointment of the commission by the state; over 
 $700.00 worth of supplies having been sent from 
 St. Paul to the sufferers at Cumberland, Wiscon- 
 sin. This was the first consignment of supplies 
 received at that point from any source, and it 
 came in a time of great need, and was appreciated 
 by the unfortunates. Besides the cash, contribu- 
 tions of all kinds of clothing and furniture were 
 received, which it has been estimated would have 
 been worth in the aggregate at least $10,000. 
 The committee has about completed its labors, 
 
112 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 
 
 and as soon as the report of its work is audited 
 they will be placed with the State Historical 
 Society where they will be held as a matter of 
 record. 
 
 Minneapolis was not one whit behind in the 
 work of relief which St. Paul had taken up with so 
 much vigor. A call was issued for a meeting to be 
 held at the rooms of the Commercial Club in 
 Minneapolis, which was very well attended by 
 representative men of all classes. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by Mayor 
 Eustis. C. A. Pillsbury was elected chairman and 
 Mr. Randolph secretary. Telegrams were read 
 from the mayor's private secretary, Joseph T. 
 Mannix, who was on the ground at Pine City and 
 who stated that Pine City was the basis of opera- 
 tions, and that the people had enough for imme- 
 diate needs. After various speeches relative to the 
 method that should be followed in the work, the 
 following committee was appointed: C. A. Pills- 
 bury, P. B. Winston, Mayor Eustis, C. M. Loring, 
 Dr. Hoyt, Geo. Marchand; Mr. Clark, of the 
 Adams Express Company; Mr. Sullivan, of the 
 Jobbers' Union; Geo. R. Newell, W. J. Dean, Dr. 
 Higbee, Senator McMillan, R. V. Squires, A. C. 
 Haugan, Father Cleary, Rev. J. Falk Gjertsen, 
 Father Christie, B. F. Nelson. This general com- 
 mittee 'was afterwards sub-divided into several 
 smaller committees under different heads in order 
 
SYSTEMATIC RELEIF. 113 
 
 to facilitate the work in hand. J. M. Sullivan was 
 appointed secretary of the committee and P. B. 
 Winston treasurer. 
 
 The sub-executive committee consisted of C. A. 
 Pillsbury, Mayor Eustis, P. B. Winston and 
 Harvey Brown. 
 
 THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. 
 
 Nelson Williams, J. T. Wyman, W.J. Dean, Geo. 
 R. Newell, w T ith F. G. Winston as chairman. 
 
 Another committee was appointed to go to Pine 
 City on the special which was to take up the sup- 
 plies from Minneapolis as follows: 
 
 Messrs Highbee, Marchand, Loring, Winston 
 and Hoyt. 
 
 About $30,000 in cash was raised by this com- 
 mittee besides a very large amount of clothing, 
 provisions and other supplies which were sent 
 from Pine City from time to time. The Minne- 
 apolis hospitals received quite a number of those 
 most seriously injured, and a number of promi- 
 nent physicians went to Pine City to lend their aid 
 to the afflicted at that point. It cannot be said of 
 a single town in the state that they did not do 
 their part In the great work they were called upon 
 to accomplish. It was a time when all men were 
 brothers, all rivalry ceased, and all communities, 
 worked in harmony for the good of the whole. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH, 
 
 T. Paul and Minneapolis 
 did their share in the work 
 of relief, and at the same 
 time and even previous to 
 the action of the Twin 
 Cities, the citizens of Du- 
 luth and West Superior 
 were as actively engaged 
 in caring for the homeless 
 survivors who had been 
 brought to their doors and in making preparations 
 to send other parties to the relief of those who had 
 been less fortunate than their neighbors and were 
 obliged to spend the night in the fire-swept district. 
 The first intimation to the people of Duluth of 
 the extent of the calamity which had taken place 
 so near to their homes was at 5:55 Saturday after- 
 noon, when Mr. C. M. Phillips, telegraph operator 
 at the general freight ofiice of the St. P. & D. R. R- 
 in Duluth, received the following message from A. 
 
 114 
 
THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. n 5 
 
 L. Thompson, telegraph operator at Miller Sta- 
 tion. "The country is all burning up, No. 4, 
 (Root's train) is burned up. Send Relief." Mr. 
 Phillips appreciating the horror of the situation at 
 once sent the following telegram to Mr. J. Roper, 
 conductor of the freight train then at AValton 
 River. "Take engine, caboose and box cars and 
 go to relief of No. 4 passenger, as Miller reports 
 they are burned up." Hurry for God's Sake, sign- 
 ing the name of D. H. Williams, the St. Paid & 
 Duluth yardmaster at Duluth. 
 
 Immediately upon receipt of this urgent appeal, 
 conductor Roper followed its instructions, and 
 was on his way toward the wreck as soon as his 
 train could be made up. He ran down to Miller 
 and brought back a number of passengers and con- 
 ductor Sullivan. All the passengers were so 
 blinded by ashes and smoke that they could give 
 no definite account of the accident or tell how it 
 had come to pass. Conductor Sullivan could see 
 nothing, and the pain in his eyes was so terrible 
 that he became fairly crazed and in his agony it 
 required the attention of four men to control him. 
 The crew of Roper's relief train, though suffering 
 severely, started back at once to make another at- 
 tempt to reach the wreck of the limited. They 
 proceeded to a point just south of the lower yards 
 at Miller where a burned culvert prevented further 
 passage. At this point they found a woman in the 
 
116 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 
 
 water close by the track holding a little babe 
 above her head. The two were saved and brought 
 back. 
 
 As soon as the news was received at Duluth a 
 special train was made up to go at once to the 
 scene of the disaster, and at 7:05 it left the depots 
 having on board besides the train crew C. M- 
 Vance, D. H. Williams, Drs Magie, Codding, 
 McCormick and Gilbert and two Duluth news- 
 paper men. The party were fully equipped with 
 provisions, cots, blankets, medical supplies, surgi- 
 cal instruments and everything that they thought 
 could be of use in the relief of the sufferers. 
 Shortly after ten o'clock this train reached Rut- 
 ledge and at eleven o'clock met Roper's train on 
 its second return from an unsuccessful attempt to 
 reach the wreck. The Duluth party boarded 
 Roper's train, and were run down to the culvert 
 which had blocked his progress twice before, just 
 below Miller, and from that point Williams and 
 the doctors took a hand-car and went down 
 through to Skunk Lake, where the passengers of 
 the limited were found in their terribly exhausted 
 condition. 
 
 After a hasty examination as to the real condi- 
 tion of affairs, Dave Williams sent his welcome 
 telegram back to the anxious hearts who waited 
 to hear the worst or the best as his verdict might 
 show it to be. His telegram was as follows: 
 
THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 117 
 
 "Have been to wreck with hand-car." Could 
 only get to Miller with train. Wreck one and a 
 half miles south of Sandstone Junction and is all 
 burned up. " Passengers are all right but ex- 
 hausted." The3^ are in a marsh. We go with tim- 
 ber to build bridge. Tell everyone all are alive and 
 as well as can be expected. Will arrive in Duluth 
 at 9 a. M. 
 
 Dave Williams. 
 
 At about the same time or shortly after Dare 
 Williams arrived upon the scene with his party, 
 Dr. Barnum's detachment had worked their way 
 through from Pine City with their train of hand- 
 cars, and as the gray of the morning broke what 
 might be termed the St. Paul contingent of the 
 sufferers, about forty in number were loaded on to 
 the hand cars and taken to Pine City, and from 
 thence to St. Paul. The balance were transported 
 to the relief train which had come down from 
 Duluth and taken to that point to be cared for, 
 where they arrived shortly after noon on SundaA'. 
 Long before their arrival, the Union Depot was 
 crowded with many hundred people all anxiously 
 waiting for news. Men and women were there 
 hoping for the best, yet fearing that the}- should 
 receive bad news. When the train finalry arrived 
 and it was given out that all were safe, happiness 
 was depicted on every countenance ; friends soon 
 found friends, and in an incredibly short space of 
 
118 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 
 
 time all of the survivors had been temporarily pro- 
 vided for at least. 
 
 Early Saturday 7 evening Mayor Lewis, of Duluth, 
 received a dispateh that 500 people from Hinckley 
 would arrive at 9 o'clock over the Eastern Minne- 
 sota road and would have to be cared for. This 
 was the first confirmation of the rumor that 
 Hinckley had burned, and this train was the 
 Emergency Train, the escape of which from Hinck- 
 ley has been described in a preceding chapter. The 
 truth of the telegram was verified at 9:20 when 
 the train arrived at Duluth with its forlorn cargo 
 of suffering humanity. A squad of police was at 
 the depot and kept the crowd back, and Mayor 
 Lewis spoke to the refugees, saying a few words of 
 re-assurance, and informing them of what 
 measures had already been taken for their relief. 
 They were then taken in charge by the Mayor and 
 Chief of Police Armstrong, and piloted to the 
 Ideal and Zenith restaurants and given a square 
 meal. Lodging was then furnished for the night. 
 Citizens vieing with one another in alleviating the 
 distress of the homeless. Many homes of private 
 citizens were opened and everything that was 
 available was thrown open for the use of the 
 sufferers. Twenty-five families were accommoda- 
 ted in the Wolf Block. The Columbia Hotel, the 
 Duluth Hotel, the Armory, the Howard Block and 
 the Union Depot, all figured conspicuously in the 
 
THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 119 
 
 shelter of the unfortunates both at this time and 
 until they could be otherwise provided for. 
 
 After having given temporary relief to the suffer- 
 ers on the evening of their arrival the generous- 
 hearted people of Duluth turned out Sunday morn- 
 ing as one man, whose only thought and action 
 was to care for those whom fate had placed in a 
 position where they could not take care of them- 
 selves. The folio wing proclamation was issued in 
 the Duluth papers Sunday morning, and under the 
 circumstances it would seem as if such a clear con- 
 cise, yet earnest and heartfelt appeal could not fail 
 ±0 elicit the hearty support it received. 
 
 PROCLAMATION! 
 
 Mayor's Office. 
 Duluth, Sept. 2, '94. 
 
 A meeting of the business men 
 and citizens of Duluth will be 
 held at the council chamber in 
 the city hall at 11 o'clock this 
 morning for the purpose of ap- 
 pointing a relief committee to 
 provide ways and means for the 
 care of the people who have been 
 
120 THE RELIEF AT DIJLUTH. 
 
 left destitute and homeless by the 
 disastrous fire, which has burned 
 so many nourishing neighboring 
 towns. Hundreds 01 men, wo- 
 men and children were brought 
 to the city last night and are in 
 the armory and in lodging houses 
 down town, who have lost their 
 all and are scantily clothed. We 
 must pro vide food and clothes for 
 them at once. The occasion de- 
 mands immediate action and I 
 feel assured that there will be a 
 hearty response to this call. 
 
 Ray T. Lewis, 
 Mayor. 
 
 In response to the mayor's proclamation at 
 eleven o'clock on that Sunday morning the City 
 Hall at Duluth was filled to over-flowing with 
 many of Duluth's most prominent and best citi- 
 zens. The meeting was called to order by Mayor 
 Lewis, and in a very short time an organization 
 for systematic relief was effected, after which 
 Mayor Lewis as chairman appointed the following 
 committees who immediately entered upon the dis- 
 charge of their several duties, and of whose efn- 
 
THE RELEIF AT DULUTH 121 
 
 cient service too much commendation cannot be 
 <^iven. 
 
 Under the head of a general relief committee 
 whose duty should be to superintend and oversee 
 the whole work. Mr. Lewis appointed John T. 
 Hale, chairman; E. C. Gridley, A. C. Batchelor, J. 
 B. Geggie, C. D. Autremont, Bishop McGolrick 
 and Ward Ames. Mrs. Miller, President of the 
 Ladies' Relief Society, and E. M. Bangs, Superin- 
 tendent of the Associated Charities oi Duluth. 
 This general committee met and organized for 
 more definite work and appointed the following- 
 committees: 
 
 COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 W. Buchanan, E. C. Holliday and J. M. Smith. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. 
 
 A. B. Chapin, Wm. Craig and Otto Hartman. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON LUMBER AND GENERAL SUPPLIES. 
 
 Bishop McGolrick, chairman; Mr. J. G. 
 Howard, Mr. H. B. Moore, Mr. W. T. Bailey, Mr. 
 G. A. Leland, Mr. W. B. Weller, Mr. H. C. 
 Shephard. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON ROOMS, QUARTERS AND COMMISSARY. 
 
 • Mr. J. B. Geggie, Mr. A. E. Batchelor, Mrs. E. 
 M. Bangs. 
 
122 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 
 
 COMMITTEE OX INFORMATION, IDENTIFICATION AND 
 ADOPTION. 
 
 Mr. C. F. Johnson, Mr. F. Davis, Mr. A. P. 
 Cook, Mrs. E. M. Bangs. 
 
 AUDITING COMMITTEE. 
 
 C. R. Haines, chairman; J. C. Hunter and J. 
 Megins. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON INSURANCE LOANS. 
 
 Mr. R. A. Tanssig and Mr. W E. Wright. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON CLOTHING. 
 
 Ladies' Relief Society. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON WIDOWS AND ORPHANS. 
 
 Hon. J. T. Hale, Hon. C. D. Autremontand Mrs. 
 E. M. Bangs. 
 
 At the suggestion of the State Commission Mr. 
 John G. Howard, of Duluth, was sent to the 
 burned district to take charge of the building up 
 of those places. Mr. N. J. Miller was appointed 
 to assist him. The following extract from the pen 
 of Mrs. E. M. Bangs, who acted as secretary of 
 the Duluth General Relief Committee will convey a 
 more accurate idea of the condition of things in 
 general in Duluth than I could possibly hope to do. 
 
 "We estimate that we had fully fifteen hundred 
 people to care for the first two weeks or more. 
 
THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 123 
 
 Private houses, churches, the Bethel, the Armory, 
 and Odd Fellows' Hall, were all thrown open for 
 any use the committees might make of them. The 
 Maternity Hospital and Duluth Home were also 
 used, as well as quarters in the Berkelman Block. 
 In all of these places the work was quickly and 
 effectually done, the churches adjourning their 
 services on Sunday morning to prepare their com- 
 modious church parlors and Sunday School rooms 
 into comfortable quarters for the crowds of fire 
 sufferers, pouring utterly destitute into our city. 
 It would be impossible to enumerate in detail, or 
 mention individual excellence in work where so 
 many did their uttermost. Suffice it to say that 
 the "whole town rose as one person to offer and 
 give the best they could afford, were it time, 
 strength, money, clothing, food, or kind words 
 and helpful deeds of sympathy. 
 
 The total receipts of the Duluth Citizens Relief 
 Committee for the forest fire sufferers in cash, 
 lumber, provisions, clothing, etc., is up to date a 
 little more than $20,000, and the committee have 
 disbursed up this time in cash about fifteen thou- 
 sand dollars, besides thousands of articles of wear- 
 ing apparel to the needy men, women and children 
 composing the unfortunate throng of refugees so 
 suddenly thrown upon our bounty. 
 
 Too much praise cannot be given for the able 
 manner in which Mr. Gridley conducted the work 
 
124 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 
 
 of the "Citizens Central Relief Committee " dur- 
 ing all this trying time. Hon. J. T. Hale had been 
 appointed chairman by the mayor, but owing to 
 recent illness was obliged to decline. As soon as 
 Mr. Gridley learned of his appointment, he imme- 
 diately organized the committee work in the most 
 systematic manner. A very large and spacious 
 room in the Herald building was secured, and in 
 less than half an hour the following committees 
 were at work at tables on either side of the room, 
 with printed cards on the walls telling what each 
 committee was. The room looked like a well 
 organized bank. There these faithful committees 
 worked every day, and many times way into the 
 night for six weeks or more during the most in- 
 tense heat and trying conditions, most of them 
 giving their time to the neglect of their own busi- 
 ness interest. No one can imagine unless one went 
 through it what a tax on ones nervous strength 
 this was. Not once was Mr. Gridley unequal to 
 any emergency which arose, and with the utmost 
 courtesy and kindness treated all who came under 
 his immediate care, answering and deciding in the 
 same spirit all the difficult questions, and deciding 
 with great promptness, and clear and fair-minded- 
 ness all the varied problems which arose con 
 stantly before him. 
 
 The Local Relief Committee are up to this date, 
 Nov. 16, 1894, still caring for about two hundred 
 
THE RELIEF AT DULUTH- 125 
 
 fire sufferers, who will doubtless be more or less 
 helpless through the winter. At a meeting of the 
 Executive Committee Nov. 15, it was voted to 
 give each family in our care a Thanksgiving 
 Dinner of the old, time honored kind." 
 
 Mr. W. B. Wellek 
 Mrs. E. M. Bangs. 
 Committee on • report of Duluth work for fire 
 sufferers. 
 
 * * 7f tt 
 
 Another relief train was sent out Sunda}^ after- 
 noon to Miller or Sandstone Junction, and search- 
 ing parties organized to go to Sandstone on the 
 Eastern Minnesota. Here were found the remains 
 of thirty bodies all burned beyond human sem- 
 blance. They had all fallen within 100 feet of 
 their homes, and lay in attitudes horribly portray- 
 ing the agonies of their last struggle. Some lay 
 with their fleshless arms outstretched as if 
 beseeching aid from a power that is higher than 
 us , others were found clutching the earth beneath 
 them . Children were found close to their mothers— 
 oft-times the mothers own body partially sheltered 
 that of the child, showing the filial aifection pre- 
 dominant even to death. Two hundred and forty- 
 seven of the survivors were conducted across the 
 country three miles to Miller, from whence they 
 were taken to Duluth. Their eyes were affected by 
 the heat and smoke that for the most part it was 
 
126 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 
 
 found necessary to lead them to the train as a per- 
 son would lead a blind man. 
 
 During Sunday night the first relief train went 
 down over the Eastern Minnesota. Owing to 
 burned bridges it was found to be impossible to 
 get beyond Partridge, eight ' miles above Saad- 
 stone; and from that point hand cars were taken, 
 and each succeeding train brought in some survi- 
 vors from Sandstone, or Hellgate, a sand-stone 
 quarry near by. It were useless to attempt to 
 enumerate all that was done and all the methods 
 employed by the good people of Duluth for their 
 afflicted neighbors. Train after train was sent out 
 on its errand of mercy and returned laden with ad- 
 ditional responsibilities for Duluth citizens to 
 assume. Duluth was the first on the scene, the 
 first to start a relief fund, and foremost in every 
 way in doing all in her power for the fire sufferers. 
 
 Others may have done all in their power for the 
 sufferers, but it is certainly a fact that it lay in the 
 power of the good people of Duluth to accomplish 
 more for their alleviation than was possible for 
 those at a greater distance from the scene of the 
 disaster. The care of fifteen hundred destitute peo- 
 ple having in most cases not even clothes on their 
 backs, brought from a state of prosperity to one 
 of abject poverty, almost in less time than ittakes 
 to tell it, discouraged and sorrowing for ones 
 loved and lost, is no small undertaking. Others at 
 
THE RELIEF AT DUEUTH. 127 
 
 a distance might express their sympathy by the 
 pratical prosaic method of a check that was drawn 
 on a bank in the same way that hundreds of 
 others had been, and once drawn would be sent 
 and then forgotten, but it required sympathy of a 
 different sort to sooth the sorrows of the child left 
 utterly alone in the world, without money, with- 
 out family and without friends. 
 
 A few dollars in cold cash could not relieve the 
 widow of the thought that upon her frail form 
 rested the burden of providing and caring for her 
 little brood, which had up to this time been shelt- 
 ered as well by a father's love and a father's bless- 
 ing. Coming in contact day after day with scenes 
 like these, feeling obliged to assist when one's own 
 physical had been taxed to its very utmost, and 
 almost cried out in protest against such wanton 
 disregard of the laws of nature, feeling the respon- 
 sibility that rested upon them, the general com- 
 mittee of Duluth have accomplished the work laid 
 at their door in a manner that was wonderfully 
 prompt, efficient and effective, and for their good 
 work deserve and should receive the heartfelt 
 thanks of a grateful nation. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 
 
 j he excitement attendant 
 upon the news of Hinck- 
 ley's loss having slightly 
 abated, the leaders ap- 
 preciated the extent of 
 the calamity and the 
 magnitude of the work 
 in hand, and the clear-headed saw it was absolute- 
 ly necessay to systematize the work a great deal in 
 order to insure the proper and equitable distribu- 
 tion of the funds and materials. To this end re- 
 gistration and death blanks were printed and the 
 the work of procuring some definite information 
 as to who were to be providedfor and what "was 
 necessary for them, or in other words what they 
 needed. In order to register, a refugee was called 
 upon to give his name, his birth place and also the 
 laame and birth-place of his wife and children, 
 his residence, and how long he had lived in Minne- 
 
 128 
 
OTHER RELIEF MEASURES 129 
 
 sota. If a farmer the location of his land and the 
 conditions upon which he held it. That is to say 
 a great part of this section was railroad land 
 which had at one time been held by one of the rail- 
 road companies and was still held either by them 
 or one of the large land companies, of which there 
 were several. If a man desired to buy a piece of 
 land he would pick it out and would be given what 
 is known as a land contract upon it, that is a con- 
 tract of sale of a certain piece of property for so 
 much money, to be paid under certain conditions, 
 usually so much a year, and agreeing to give a 
 deed to the property when a certain amount of 
 money had been paid, and take a mortgage for 
 the balance. Thus giving the settler immediate 
 possession of the property and enabling him to 
 buy it in such a way that he would be able to pay 
 for it. A great majority of the farmers in this sec- 
 tion had their payments to meet on these contracts 
 and one of the first duties that devolved upon the 
 commission was to interview these Land Com- 
 panies and secure such extension of the payments 
 as would enable the settlers to get a start again 
 before being obliged to give up what they had 
 already invested for non-payment for their land. 
 A great many mortgages were also extended in the 
 same way. Another thing the commission sought 
 to know was how much insurance, if anyf the 
 register carried. The insurance companies, how- 
 
 
130 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 
 
 ever, seemed to anticipate something of this na- 
 ture; they were loth to take risks in this section, 
 and for this reason the rates were high and the 
 amount of insurance comparatively small. The 
 idea of the settler seeming to be that he would 
 carry just enough insurance to pay his debts and 
 let it go at that. 
 
 Next came the question what property he had 
 left and its value. Then the address of friends and 
 their ability to furnish aid or work for the refugees. 
 
 After the foregoing came the all important ques- 
 tion of what the applicant needed, whether he 
 wanted to go back on his farm or to his home, and 
 if not, where he wanted to go. In one particular 
 at least all the sufferers are alike, they all needed 
 clothes and food. As soon as they were registered 
 they were given tickets to the store-keeper of the 
 commission who would fit them out for clothes, it 
 being the idea to give them a fair outfit not only 
 of outer garments but under-clothing as well, at 
 least two suits of underwear being furnished each 
 person. They -were also given a ticket which 
 would give them a supply of food. 
 
 It was not in any instance the intention of the 
 commission to place any one in a better position 
 after the fire than he had been before, and the 
 question was to determine how much each was 
 capable of doing for himself and how much would 
 be necessary in order to place them in a position 
 
OTHER RELIEF MEASURES, 131 
 
 that would make them self-supporting during the 
 coming winter. At the outset the commission was 
 greatly handicapped in its workings in that, 
 it was almost entirely lacking of facilities of trans- 
 portation and of buildings in which to work. 
 There was nothing left at Hinckle} r , not even a 
 spear of hay for the cattle, and it is a fact that the 
 animals who did succeed in escaping the fire 
 nearly starved before provisions could be brought 
 to them. 
 
 The blank that was filled out for registration of 
 the dead required similar information as to their 
 past as was procured of the living. To this was 
 added where they were found; by whom identified 
 and how; where they were buried; valuables on the 
 person; in whose custody the valuables were left 
 and the name and address of any living friends. 
 After the survivors had been registered and 
 received their guarantee of food and clothing the 
 commission took up each individual case, and in- 
 vestigated their wants thoroughly. While no ex- 
 act rule was laid down for the distribution of the 
 funds, their approximate distribution amounted to 
 about $25.00 per member of the family, but this 
 varied more or less as the case might be, and a fair 
 distribution might demand. Single men and 
 women were allowed an outfit of clothes and 
 $15.00 in money, and were given either work or 
 transportation. A man and his wife and baby 
 
132 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 
 
 would receive $60.00, and if it were three children 
 would receive $100.00 besides food and clothing. 
 Farmers were furnished a few plain tools and in 
 cases where the land contract had been extended 
 or the mortgage renewed a small, neat and com- 
 pact house was given him, or if he wished to cut 
 the charred trees and build himself a log house 
 such as many of them had occupied, the means 
 were furnished him whereby it might be done. 
 
 Besides furnishing the house itself the commission 
 supplied a few pieces of furniture such as were 
 necessary for house-keeping, which although plain 
 were comfortable and durable, and also crockery 
 and bedding sufficient to supply their immediate 
 wants. Mr. Hart, of the State Commission, tells 
 me that in some cases where there were young 
 children in the family the commission furnished 
 them a cow, though this was not possible except 
 in cases where it was thought to be especially 
 needed. Ithad^been hoped that they would be 
 able to give every farmer at least one cow, and 
 perhaps a wagon, but that is now out of the ques- 
 tion, as the funds of the commission have already 
 been spent. 
 
 The total amount of money received by the 
 State Commission for the sufferers from all sources 
 up to this time, Nov. 22, 1894, is $91,000. Of 
 this amount the citizens of St. Paul contributed 
 $32,000, Minneapolis, $30,000. The balance was 
 
OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 133 
 
 received from various points atf over the state. 
 The Governor's proclamation having called forth 
 a very general action on the part of all the com- 
 munities in the state, and meetings were held, local 
 committees appointed, collection made and for- 
 warded to Mr. Clark, treasurer of the commission. 
 While the following is not a complete list of towns 
 from which contributions were received it is a list 
 of all the more important points. Duluth, Winona, 
 West Superior, Mankato, St. Peter, Le Seuer, Red 
 Wing, Lake City, Spring Valley, Fargo, Moorhead, 
 Grand Forks, Glynden, Crookston, Litchfield, 
 Fergus Falls, Redwood Falls, Montevido, New 
 Ulm, Pipestone, Henderson, Heron Lake, Benson, 
 Wadena, Elbow Lake, Chaska, Rochester, Preston, 
 Sauk Rapids, Mora, Brainerd, Aitken, Benson, 
 Morris, Glenwood, Sauk Centre, Alexandria, De- 
 troit City, Park Rapids, Ortonville, Marshall, 
 Howard Falls, Windom, Luverne, Albert Lea, 
 Waseca, Cannon Falls, Northfield, Faribault, 
 Center City, Brown's Valley, Graceville and Ren- 
 ville. 
 
 It will be seen by the above that the State of 
 Minnesota responded nobly to the call for aid for her 
 suffering citizens, and if this list were complete it 
 would include every hamlet within the jurisdiction 
 of the state. All responded with alacrity and gave 
 that which they could spare best, were it money, 
 clothes, or provisions, and the railroad companies 
 
134 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 
 
 without any exception gave free transportation on 
 their lines for all supplies destined to relieve the 
 distress of the fire victims. Beside the cash relief 
 fund mentioned an immense amount of clothing, 
 household supplies and provisions were contributed 
 to the sufferers. Methods of all sorts were enlisted 
 in the work of raising funds, and numbers of enter- 
 tainments were given, the proceeds of which were 
 dedicated to the fire. 
 
 Although the newspapers all over the country 
 published a great many reports of the fire, and a 
 sympathetic nation deplored the condition of the 
 Hinckley fire sufferers, comparatively few contri- 
 butions were received from points outside of the 
 State of Minnesota. Chicago contributed about 
 $1,000. A number of the eastern states perhaps 
 as much more, but ninety per cent at least of the 
 money received by the commission was donated by 
 Minnesota citizens. There may have been indivi- 
 dual contributions from outside parties to the 
 sufferers themselves of which the commission has 
 no means of knowing, but aside from that, Minne- 
 sota contributed the lion's share. 
 
 Quite an amount of money had also been ex- 
 pended by the local committee of St. Paul, Minne- 
 apolis and Duluth, prior to the assumption of the 
 charge of affairs by the commission appointed by 
 the Governor. The St. Paul & Duluth road gave 
 at least $10,000 in freight and transportation, 
 
OTHER RELIEF MEASURES 135 
 
 and the Great Northern must have contributed 
 nearly as large an amount in the same way. 
 
 At the time the commission took hold of the 
 work they had been led to believe that about 
 1,500 people would come under their charge, but 
 registration showed a census of residents of 2,400 
 people. They have built for these people 300 
 houses, using over 2,000,000 feet of lumber in the 
 construction of the same. They have furnished 
 450 families with complete outfits of furniture, 
 household goods and cooking utensils, as well as 
 clothing, boots and shoes, and all the numerous 
 small articles which are necessary for the comfort 
 and convenience of the household. They have 
 furnished them with provisions, and will continue 
 to do so until such time as they are able to take 
 care of themselves. They have now on hand dis- 
 tributed among the various families provisions 
 sufficient to supply them for a period of three 
 months, and Mr. Hart estimates that at least 
 $20,000 more will be required to supply all that 
 will be needed before spring. 
 
 The people of the burned districts as a rule were 
 satisfied with the distribution of the funds as 
 accomplished by the commission. Of course, there 
 were some wfio felt very much dissatisfied with 
 themselves, and everyone else because it was not 
 in the power of the commission to give them 
 enough to place them in a position, equal in all 
 
136 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 
 
 respects to the one they occupied before the fire. 
 They would have been dissatisfied in any event, 
 and the commission has certainly done all in its 
 power to insure a speedy and equitable distribu- 
 tion of the supplies at their disposal, and should 
 receive not the censure, but the gratitude and com- 
 mendation of the entire state, as well as the 
 afflicted Hinckleyites for the efficient manner in 
 which they have served the commonwealth in this 
 time of distress. They were all men of business, 
 yet they devoted their time and energy to this 
 work without a thought of renumeration, and 
 would not have accepted it had it been offered 
 them. The Rev. H. H. Hart, secretary of the State 
 Board of Corrections and Charities, superintended 
 the entire work of the commission, and for two 
 months time put body and soul into the task. He 
 seemed to be almost omni-present as his duties led 
 him from one place to another, either to learn what 
 was needed most and how much could be allowed, 
 or how it could best be furnished. 
 
 Mr. J. G. Howard, of Duluth, also rendered most 
 efficient service in overseering and providing for 
 the erection of all of the houses of the commission. 
 He also worked without renumeration. In a con- 
 versation with Rev. H. H. Hart, relative to the 
 fire, he said: ' ' The vigor with which some of these 
 people have taken up the work of their own relief 
 is certainly very gratifying to those who have at- 
 
IN THE TEMPORARY HOSPITAL \T PINE CITY 
 
OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 137 
 
 tempted to aid them, and alleviate their condi- 
 tion. As a class they are hopeful and eai nest in the 
 work of re-building their homes. One young man 
 I know of, who lost everything, has done an 
 amount of work that is little short of miraculous 
 since the fire. Another poor fellow whose hands 
 were so terribly burned that he has not, even yet, 
 recovered the use of them was seen a day or two 
 ago driving a team with both hands bandaged 
 and bundled in lint and cloth. Some, however, 
 seem to be discouraged, and these for the most 
 part are those who for some reason were obliged 
 to wait and idle away their time for the first 
 few days after the fire. Thus giving them time 
 to think and brood over their misfortune. 
 
 This might have been averted had we been able 
 to furnish them something to busy their hands 
 with as soon as the fire had passed. The commis- 
 sion established a depot at Hinckley and also one 
 at Sandstone, and a warehouse was built at 
 Hinckley for the purpose of holding the stores 
 received for the sufferers. The Hinckley Depot has 
 been abolished so far as the office is concerned, and 
 the one at Sandstone will be in the course of a 
 short time, although the commission will keep in 
 touch with its proteges through its representative 
 Mr. Geo. D. Holt, of Minneapolis, who will make 
 bi-weekly visits to the sufferers and see to it that 
 all are kept from want. The approach of winter is 
 
 
138 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 
 
 looked upon with comparatively little apprehen- 
 sion, as most of the families are able to take care 
 of themselves with the assistance they have 
 already received, and as logging has already been 
 undertaken very extensively by the lumbermen, who 
 will be obliged to cut all the standing pine in the 
 district burned over this winter, in order to pre- 
 serve it from the ravages of the worms, who will 
 make their appearance next spring and summer, 
 and there will be work enough to employ all the 
 men who care to work in the woods. 
 
 One lumberman alone is now employing 1,200 
 men within eight miles of Hinckley, and expects to 
 bank 150,000,000 feet of logs this year, when as a 
 rule he cuts about 15,000,000 feet per annum. At 
 Sandstone the quarry is employing 100 men at the 
 present time, and the Great Northern Railway is 
 making extensive improvements and making 
 Sandstone a division point, employing over a 
 hundred men no w, and expecting to employ a great 
 many more shortly. At the present time there is 
 no individual in the whole fire district that is 
 suffering in any way that could be relieved by the 
 commission, 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ROOTS OWN STORY 
 
 M 
 
 R. JAMES ROOT, the heroic 
 engineer of the Duluth limited 
 which ran back and was burn- 
 ed at Skunk Lake, gave the 
 author the following as his 
 story of the terrible ride for 
 life on the first day of Sep- 
 tember, 1894. Mr. Root is a 
 modest appearing man, a lit- 
 tle above the medium height, 
 with an open, honest face, and a' general bearing 
 that would convey to a careful observer the im- 
 pression that he was not a mere carpet knight, but 
 one of sterling worth who could and would under- 
 stand and do without flinching any duty that 
 might be placed upon him. He talked freely, yet 
 not boastfully of his experience and told his story 
 as follows ■ 
 
 139 
 
140 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 
 
 "When we left Duluth we were on time, and I 
 think when we got to Carlton we were not more 
 than ten minutes late, at all events, we were prac- 
 tically on time when we got to the top of the hill 
 at Hinckley . We had been running through smoke 
 that was so thick and dense that they had lighted 
 the lamps in the coaches, and I had the cab lamp 
 lit, but as we reached the hill the smoke cleared 
 and it was broad day light again and we blew the 
 lights out. Then I saw the people coming from 
 both sides of the track and across the bridge, and 
 I said to the fireman, "There must be something 
 wrong at Hinckley,' 7 and I applied the air and 
 stopped, seeing so many people on the bridge I 
 knew we couldn't go over it anyway. Just then 
 an old woman and her two daughters came along 
 and I asked them what the trouble was down 
 there. They were so excited they couldn't tell me 
 anything, but kept saying, "For God's sake will 
 you save us," and that was all that I could get out 
 of them. Then the people kept on coming and get- 
 ting i»to the cars on both sides until Mr. Bartlett 
 and his wife came along, and I asked them what 
 the trouble was, he says: "Jim, "everybody is 
 burned out and everything is burning at Hinck- 
 ley." I asked him if the depot was on fire and he 
 said that it was, and the tank-house and the 
 bridge. I told them to hurry and get onto the 
 train for I was going to run back to Skunk Lake 
 
ENGINEER JAMES ROOT. 
 
ROOT'S OWN STORY. 14,1 
 
 I then saw the conductor and told him what I 
 was going to do and for him to keep alook-ont for 
 the passengers until we got there. I then climbed 
 onto the engine again, and just as I did so every- 
 thing seemed to let go; the wind raised; there 
 seemed to be an explosion, and in an instant the 
 whole train, even to the ties under the engine were 
 ignited, all in less time than a man could snap his 
 finger. I had hardly taken my seat when the glass 
 in the cab window at my side, a heavy plate, I saw 
 bend toward me and burst. It was carried to the 
 top of the cab over my head, and as it came down 
 struck me on the left side of the face and head cut- 
 ting several quite severe gashes, although at 
 the time I had no idea that I had been hurt at all. 
 I knew I was bleeding a little, but didn't know 
 anything of the cut in my neck from which I 
 suffered so much from loss of blood. McGowan 
 said afterwards that he noticed it, and I asked 
 him why he didn't speak about it as had I known 
 of it I would have put a handkerchief or a bit of 
 waste in it and stopped the flow. He said he 
 didn't think it was anything serious. As I got 
 into the cut at the top of big Hinckley Hill I heard 
 somebody calling, and it proved to be three men 
 who were coming toward the train. I applied the 
 air first thinking of taking them on, but a second 
 thought told me it would not do to stop in that 
 cut as the fire would surelv burn a hole in the hose 
 
142 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 
 
 and set us there, so I released the air and we pulled 
 out. Two of these men caught onto the pilot of 
 the engine as we went by, one of them remained 
 there a short time, and then fell off and was burned 
 to death, the other one went through all right and 
 is still alive. That is the last I recollect until we 
 reached what we call Little Hinckley Hill. I was 
 then lying on the deck of the engine with one foot 
 on the quadron and one on the fire-box door. I 
 was all alone in the cab. My engine had slackened 
 her speed and was going very slow. I looked up 
 at the gauge and saw that I had ninety pounds of 
 steam I then pulled myself up and opened the throt- 
 tle and sat on the seat again. Then the fireman 
 showed himself out of the tank. He was down in 
 the water wholly in the tank. I had commenced 
 to get dizzy again, and was leaning forward, and 
 he reached out his hand to catch me, and as he did 
 so some water from his sleeve touched my face. 
 It was so good, so reviving that I said at once, 
 " For God's sake give me some more of that." He 
 then threw a little more on me, and I told him to 
 draw a pail of water from the tank. He did so, 
 and we both thrust our hands into the water. I 
 said to him, "I believe the back of my hands are 
 cooked, I darsn't rub them," and he said "mine 
 are just the same." My hands were paining me a 
 great deal, and were swollen to twice their normal 
 size when he drew the water, and when I thrust 
 
ROOT S OWN STORY. 143 
 
 them into the water it seemed to relieve the pain 
 entirely, and seemed to revive me very much. 1 
 felt ninety per cent better immediately. I told 
 Jack to put on some more coal and he threw on 
 two more shovels full. About the time he had 
 finished doing that I saw some water in the ditch 
 at the side of the track and I knew we must have 
 reached Skunk Lake, as there wasn't a drop of 
 water within fifteen miles but that, sol applied the 
 air and stopped her. I found I had stopped right 
 upon the bridge, so I threw the reverse lever to a 
 forward motion and pulled ahead a car length or 
 two. I then fell prone on the deck of the engine. 
 Jack wanted to help me, but I told him I was all 
 right and for him to go and get the passengers out 
 and into the water. He said I would burn to 
 death there. I told him to never mind me but to go 
 and get the passengers off and then he could come 
 back after me. So he did so, and in a few minutes 
 he came back and he and another man assisted me 
 off of the engine. As soon as I struck the ground 
 I rolled into the water and laid there for three 
 hours, and all of the passengers of the train were 
 laying or sitting in the water aronnd us, men, wo- 
 men and children. While I was lying there in the 
 water I seemed to lose the use and feeling of the 
 lower part of my body. From my hips down to 
 my feet I had no feeling whatever, so I pulled my- 
 self up on the dry ground with my arms and laid 
 
144 ROOT'S OWN STORV. 
 
 there for about an hour when the feeling all came 
 back to me again, and I commenced to chill. I 
 said to McGowan, "I must get back onto that 
 engine where its warm for I'm chilling to death." 
 He said I couldn't live on there for the coal was all 
 burning, and the cab was all afire. I told him I 
 was going there anyway, so he assisted me back 
 onto the engine. I laid there on the deck a short 
 time and the feeling all came back to me, and I felt 
 pretty well only very weak. While I laid there in 
 the water exhausted, I asked Jack to*run back and 
 see if he could put out the fire and save any of the 
 coaches, or if we could cut out any of them. He 
 said it was out of the question, he could do noth- 
 ing with them so he sat down in the water be- 
 side me. When I had gotten back onto the engine 
 again, I asked him if he could put out the fire on 
 the tank, and told him if he couldn't to pull the 
 pin between the tank and the engine and unhook 
 the safety chains, and we would run her ahead 
 out of the way of the fire. He pulled the pin and 
 we ran her ahead about ten feet, away from the 
 tank and let her stand there until she died. The 
 entire train tank and everything burned right up, 
 everything that was of burnable material. Since 
 the matter has passed I have heard certain ones who 
 should be in a position to know better express 
 some words of censure toward the officers of the 
 road for allowing us to run into such a death trap. 
 
FIREMAN JOHN MCGOWAX. 
 
ROOT'S OWN STORY. 145 
 
 saying they should have notified us before, and I 
 want to set that matter right. Under thecircunir 
 stances no living man could have foretold what was 
 in store for us, and all the way down from Carlton 
 to Hinckley there was nothing to alarm us in any 
 way other than the smoke which was thick and 
 dense as I have already stated, but there was no 
 blaze, there was absolutely no fire to be seen 
 until that explosion occurred which burst in my 
 cab window, and seemed to ignite everything 
 inflamable all in an instant. The first intimation 
 that I had that anything unusual had ocurred 
 or was about to occur was when I saw the people 
 running to meet me at Hinckley. We have had 
 to run through smoke time and time again every 
 year. There have always been more or less 
 forest fires, and as I came out of the smoke at the 
 top of the hill I thought we had passed it and 
 everything would be clear sailing. I wish to 
 say again injustice to the officials that there was 
 nothing to warrant them in holding my train, nor 
 is anyone to blame for the occurrence. It could n ot 
 have been avoided, and I do not wish to see anyone 
 censured for something which is not justice. The 
 first relief party that reached us was that of Dave 
 Williams, and his crew that came down from the 
 north on hand-cars. I thought first that I would 
 go back to Duluth with them, but on reaching the 
 hand-car I found that I could not sit up, and know- 
 
146 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 
 
 ing that I would take up so much room that it 
 would keep back two or three others, I made my 
 way back to the engine and told them I would 
 wait. About an hour later the hand-cars came up 
 from the south under conductor Buckley. They 
 had four hand-cars and two push cars, and all the 
 section men that they had picked up from Wyom- 
 ing all the way down the road. They loaded the 
 weaker ones, myself among them on the cars, and 
 the balance walked to Hinckley. I rode on one of 
 the push cars and Mrs. E. W. Sanders who was on 
 the train supported my head and helped me 
 through. I wish to say a word of Mrs. Sanders. 
 She was never a very strong woman, yet through 
 this whole ordeal she exhibited the greatest forti- 
 tude, and I verily believe that when we were found 
 by the relief train she was the clearest witted one 
 in the whole party. While I lay on the engine a 
 Mr. Anderson from Minneapolis came to me and 
 did all that he could to relieve me in every way, 
 wetting cloths and holding them over my eyes, 
 and using every means in his power to ameliorate 
 my condition. When we reached Hinckley on the 
 hand-cars we found a train waiting to take us to 
 Pine City, and then of course we came right on 
 down. I, of course, stopped off at White Bear, at 
 my home, and went to bed and to sleep as I was 
 completely exhausted. I awoke Monday morning 
 however, feeling as well as could be expected. My 
 
ROOT'S OWN STORY. 147 
 
 eyes did not trouble me to amount to anything, 
 and I was not burned badly anywhere. My 
 hands which had been badly swollen did not prove 
 to be really burned at all, and two days after the 
 fire I was none the worse for wear. 
 
 ff^UU/Sy-tr^~ 
 
 Questioned about his past life and his career 
 as a railroad man, Mr. Root said: "I was 
 born in Greenbush, New York in 1843. I com- 
 menced my railroading on the Hudson River 
 road in 1857, under Mr. Tousey, who is now 
 General Manager of the New York Central and 
 Hudson River System. I railroaded there until 
 1860, when I went to La Porte, Indiana, and 
 went to work on the Michigan Southern & North- 
 ern Indiana road. I railroaded there about a year 
 and then enlisted as a minute-man to defend the 
 State of Indiana at the time Morgan made his raid 
 through Indiana and Ohio. I was mustered out 
 again after Morgan got back into Kentucky. The 
 regiment I belonged to volunteered to defend the 
 State of Ohio, they not yet having organized a 
 regiment, and drive Morgan back into Kentucky 
 from Ohio. After that I went south and worked 
 on the Louisville & Nashville road with head- 
 
148 ROOT'S OWN STORY 
 
 quarters at Bowling Green. I remained on that 
 road for about seventeen months as engineer and 
 conductor of a work train. The guerillas got 
 after me so I left and went into the employ of the 
 government, and was sent to the front at Knox- 
 ville, Tennessee. When Sherman made his great 
 march to the sea, I started with him and we went 
 to a point called Strawberry Plains, but returned 
 and started out again towards Atlanta. I was 
 the engineer on the advance train with him and 
 went with him to a point about sixteen miles north 
 of Atlanta where he met his first actual opposi- 
 tion. I then went back to Chattanooga and got 
 a hospital train and went back with that after the 
 prisoners at Andersonville. We went through the 
 prison and brought all the sick and wounded back 
 to Chattanooga. I remained with the govern- 
 ment until 1865, the close of the war. I then 
 came to Hastings, Minnesota, to visit an uncle I 
 had there, and remained there that winter, and the 
 next spring went to Stillwater, Minnesota. At Still- 
 water I went to work in a lumber mill for Mr. John 
 Atley, and worked with him for about a year and 
 a half. I then put in a winter in the woods, and 
 that spring the St. Paul & Duluth road was build- 
 ing and I made an application for a position as 
 engineer, and in 1870 went to work for the St. 
 Paul & Duluth road at Duluth as engine dispatcher. 
 In 1871 I took an engine out on the road and 
 
ROOT'S OWN STORY, 149 
 
 have served the St. Paul & Duluth Company in 
 that capacity ever since. Of course I have met 
 with a few minor accidents, but nothing of any 
 great importance, and nothing that called out any 
 censure on my part. I married Miss E. M. Fox 
 while I was at work in Stillwater in 1869. 
 
 JIM ROOT'S RIDE. 
 
 Franklyn W. Lee. 
 
 When the angel blows his trumpet and the firmanent unrolls. 
 And the voice of God is calling all the many scattered souls, 
 There's a man who'll lead a phalanx up the jewelled golden 
 
 street 
 To a corner they have saved for him beside the mercy seat; 
 For the angels hate a coward and they love a gritty man 
 And they know Jim Root's a hero on the strictly gritty plan. 
 
 It was early in September, and the earth was just as dry- 
 As a lump of punk and hotter than an upper Congo sky. 
 There had been no rain since April and it needed but a match, 
 To engulf the northern district, set it burning like a thatch; 
 And the people did not wonder when the smoke began to rise 
 Till a pall hung low and darkly, shutting out the summer 
 skies. 
 
 Jim was running on the Limited, and when he left Duluth 
 There were stories of the dangers which seemed only partial 
 
 truth, 
 But the hand that held the throttle was a hardy one and true 
 
150 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 
 
 And though hell was on his orders, Jim was bound to take her 
 
 through. 
 He controlled the lives of many and he knew that all his nerve 
 Would be needed when he headed for the hades round the curve. 
 
 They had made the run to Miller ere the breeze began to scorch 
 Ere the people saw the waving of that mighty, flaming torch 
 "But I'll run her through to Hinckley," thought the little 
 
 engineer, 
 " Where I'll wire in for orders — it is not too far from here ;" 
 And he yelled to Jack McGowan, who was on the other side, 
 *' Crowd the coal and keep her going, for I mean to let her 
 
 slide!" 
 
 All the horrors told by Dante, all the pictures by Dore 
 
 Are imperfectly suggestive of that blazing right of way 
 
 For the universe seemed flaming and the air would fairly 
 
 seethe 
 
 Till the people in the coaches found it difficult to breathe, 
 
 While the entrance into Hinckley seemed the inner gate of 
 
 hell, 
 With the devil's imps disporting on- the pine trees as they fell. 
 
 To have passed beyond the station would have meant the 
 
 death of all ; 
 To have fooled around for orders from some fellow in St. Paul 
 Would bave been the height of folly, and when people who had 
 
 ran 
 For the train were safely sheltered from the fiend the flight 
 
 began , 
 And, reversing, Jim moved backward through the awful, blazin 
 
 rain 
 To a place where he could harbor all the people on the train. 
 
 There were flames above, around them, underneath — no hand 
 could paint 
 
ROOT'S OWN STORY. 151 
 
 All the terrors of that moment, which made strongmen droop 
 and faint. 
 
 Every car was like an oven ; coaches blistered in the heat ; 
 
 Panes of glass began to shrivel, and, to make the hour com- 
 plete, 
 
 Tongnes of flames crept through the windows as the train be- 
 gan to burn 
 
 And a strange and deathlike whiteness crept o'er faces drawn 
 and stern. 
 
 But Jim Root was on the engine and had naught to bar the 
 
 flame, 
 Though his hand was on the throttle and he stuck there just 
 
 the same. 
 As he backed her through the horror, withSkuuk lake six miles 
 
 away, 
 He had little hope of living to recall that fearful day ; 
 But the engineer was plucky, and with Jack McGowan there 
 He was good for any duty, for he had a life to spare. 
 
 When his hand began to blister, why, the other one was strong, 
 And when both were singed and broiling they did duty right 
 
 along; 
 When his overalls were smoking, there was hardy, faithful 
 
 Jack, 
 Who was standing with a bucket pouring water down his 
 
 back. 
 Once or twice Jim almost fainted, once or twice fell off his 
 
 seat, 
 But he rallied like a hero as he fought away the heat. 
 
 And he saved a train of people, just for common duty's sake- 
 Held the throttle, cool and gritty, till they reached the little 
 
 lake, 
 Till the hundreds went in safety from the charred ill-fated 
 train, 
 
152 
 
 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 
 
 And he never gave a whimper in his agony of pain, 
 Never murmured — no, not even when his fearful ride was o'er 
 And he sank, all burned and nerveless, on the blackened, burn- 
 ing floor. 
 They will tell you of the heroes who left no good deed undone; 
 They will say that all the honor should not go to merely one; 
 But whatever men accomplished for the grateful ones to tell, 
 When in future years they speak of all the horrors of that hell, 
 
 It was Jim, who, sticking bravely in the glaring face of death. 
 Saved three hundred human beings from the all destroying 
 breath. 
 
 When the day of judgment cometh and the firmament unrolls, 
 And the voice of God is calling all the many scattered souls, 
 There's a man who'll lead a phalanx up the jewelled, golden 
 
 street, 
 To a corner they have saved for him beside the mercy seat ; 
 For the angels hate a coward, and they love a gritty man, 
 And they know that Jim's a hero on the strictly gritty plan. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
 he Hon. C. D. O'Brien, who was 
 one of the passengers on the 
 Duluth limited gives the follow- 
 ing graphic account of the af- 
 fair as he saw it. He was ac- 
 companied by his son Richard, 
 and by his brother, Dr. Harry 
 J. O'Brien. Mr. O'Brien says: 
 "We left Duluth on the St. Paul 
 limited train for St. Paul at 1:55 on the after- 
 noon of September 1st. It had been smoky 
 throughout the northern forests and over Lake 
 Superior for a long period, and as we left Duluth 
 the wind increased strongly from the southwest 
 and smoke rolled down in such quantities that the 
 
 153 
 
154 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN 
 
 city of Superior across the bay was no longer visi- 
 ble. We expected that on reaching the top of the 
 hill near Thompson station to get out of the 
 smoke, bnt on arriving at that point the smoke 
 was still in great clouds on both sides of the road, 
 partially obscuring the sun. There were some fires 
 burning between the St. Louis river and the line of 
 road between Thompson and Duluth, but they were 
 not near enough to the track or of sufficient size to 
 create any apprehension . After leaving Thompson 
 the next stop was Hinckley, the point which we 
 never reached, but at Barnum, a station outside of 
 Thompson, the smoke had so increased as to ren- 
 der objects almost indistinguishable; farther 
 down, at the lower stations, electric lights were 
 lighted in the mills and the gloom continued to in- 
 crease. Fourteen minutes before we reached the 
 place where the train finally stopped it became 
 absolutely dark, the lamps were lighted in the ear 
 but it was impossible to discern anything outside ; 
 and this condition lasted for just fourteen minutes, 
 when we ran out of it into a dim smoky atmo- 
 sphere through which the tops of the trees and im- 
 mediate objects could be discerned. During all this 
 time there was no sign of actual fire, nor could we 
 even discern the reflection of fire upon the smoke 
 on either side of the track. About a mile from 
 Hinckley the train suddenly stopped, and at the 
 same time the smoke lifted and the location of 
 
EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 166 
 
 Hinckley was visible ; from it light smoke was curl- 
 ing tip, but the sky was visible in patches. We 
 then supposed that we had gotten out of the smoke. 
 Just as we stopped a number of people came run- 
 ning through the underbush and woods on the left 
 side of the track towards the train, crying and 
 making indescribable noises ; there were men, wo- 
 men and children, and the number seemed between 
 twenty and thirty. As they got to the wire fence, 
 fencing the right-of-way they tore themselves 
 through the fence, the men tearing the women 
 through, throwing the children across, and seem- 
 ingly entirely demented and crazed by fear. Not 
 having seen any fire, this condition of things was 
 unintelligible to most of the passengers. For my- 
 self, I stepped out upon the platform and down to 
 the ground on the left side of the train, and while 
 the sky was reasonably clear in front it was suffo- 
 catingly hot and the ground appeared to be very 
 much heated. Just as I stepped back upon the 
 platform I heard a roar as of a cyclone or tornado, 
 and the trees upon the west side of the track were 
 bent and twisted as though by the beginning of a 
 cyclone which apparently came from the south- 
 west. I stepped across to the other side of the 
 train and looked towards the southwest, when a 
 sudden blast of hot air struck the car, requiring 
 the closing of the door. After it passed I stepped 
 out again and just as I did so ascertained that the 
 
156 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 
 
 roar was caused, not by a cyclone of wind (although 
 the wind was blowing very heavily), but by a 
 burning cyclone, or mountain of bright flame 
 which was rolling up from the Grindstone river 
 directly upon the train. I stepped back and closed 
 the door of the coach, and about that time the 
 train commenced to move backward. It had only 
 gone a short distance when a rush of. flame struck 
 it, breaking out the glass in the doors of the car 
 and in the smoking-room, setting the latter on fire. 
 I then stepped back in the coach through the smok- 
 ing-room and found the aisles crowded with the 
 passengers, numbers of whom were women and 
 children. The train was gathering headway to 
 the rear all this time, but in what seemed a very 
 short time there was a rush of flame all over the 
 train, when every window- on both sides of the car 
 burst out and the flame seemed to envelope the 
 train top, bottom and side, setting the coach on 
 fire on both sides, on top and on the roof. The 
 passengers pulled down the rubber blinds in the 
 chair car, but these only lasted a moment when 
 another wave ' of flame swept through burning 
 those up, and the flames swept through the car each 
 side and through the windows. During this time 
 the male passengers were passing wet handkerchiefs 
 which were wet in the cooler, and the linen covers 
 of the seats in the chair car which had been torn 
 off were saturated with water and passed to the 
 
EXPERIENCES OF HON. C, D. O'BRIEN. 157 
 
 women and children to protect them. At one time 
 the train gave a lurch and we supposed it was off 
 the track, but it was evidently the force of the 
 wind that had lifted the car and we continued to 
 rush backwards. For a moment we passed out of 
 the flame,andthesmokepouringinatthe windows 
 from the outside was sensibly cooler than the flame 
 or air had been, and we supposed we had escaped, 
 but in a moment later discovered that the train 
 was so thoroughly on fire that it was impossible to 
 put it out. In a short time, the duration of which 
 I cannot give, the train stopped and the passengers 
 in our coach (which was then on fire entirely for 
 the first third and on fire underneath at the rear 
 and all through the roof) got out upon the right 
 of way on the west or right hand side of the train 
 as it faced towards St. Paul. Here some one cried 
 to go back into the train and not to leave it, and 
 some of the female passengers attempted to do so 
 but they were pulled back, as the train was then 
 uninhabitable and was simply a roaring mass of 
 flames. The group of people, consisting of eight 
 or ten, in which I was, laid down on the right of 
 way, keeping their faces close to the earth and 
 crawled toward the fence which was distant fifty 
 feet from the track. 
 
 It was suffocatingly hot, we were blinded by 
 smoke and the rush of the hot air, and were 
 covered by the cinders that were flying in all direc- 
 
158 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 
 
 tions. We, however, succeeded in crawling through 
 the right of way fence and getting to a patch of 
 sand which was some twenty or thirty feet west 
 of the fence. There again the sirocco-like hot air 
 almost overwhelmed us, but we lay prone upon 
 the ground, and by keeping our faces almost buried 
 in the sand succeeded in escaping suffocation. One 
 of the young men in the group said that there was 
 water to the south of us, that he had seen the 
 glint of it as the train stopped, and the colored 
 porter, John Blair, who was heroically endeavor- 
 ing to save the passengers of his coach, stood to 
 the south of us and his back to the smoke and 
 flame, sprinkling the prostrate women and children 
 from a fire extinguisher. Some of the party 
 crawled up on their hands and knees to the south, 
 a distance of about two car-lengths, and then 
 found by feeling that there was water, and upon 
 returning the entire party scrambled, crawled and 
 were pulled and pushed up to a little pond which 
 afterwards turned out to be about sixty feet wide, 
 and the women and children were rolled in it. 
 Those who could not lie down crouched as low as 
 they could get, and we remained there for a period 
 that I cannot give but until the deadly heat and 
 the flying cinders had somewhat lessened and the 
 wind, still blowing with great violence and fully 
 charged with smoke, was somewhat cooler. It 
 was impossible to see objects at a distance of but 
 
EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 159 
 
 a few feet on account of the smoke, and in addi- 
 tion all in our party were more or less blinded so 
 as to make vision even more difficult, and it was 
 only at intervals and with our backs to the wind 
 that we could open our eyes at all; but having ascer- 
 tained that the weight of the fire had passed over us, 
 as we were undoubtedly in a clearing of a few 
 acres in which there was no material to burn, we 
 removed from the deeper water to a place where 
 the water was only about six inches deep, and 
 after lying there some time longer we again moved 
 to where the ground was partially dry and finally 
 moved out upon ground which was absolutely dry. 
 By the light of the burning train, and particularly 
 the tender, upon which the coal was all on fire and 
 brightly blazing, I was enabled to get a glance at 
 my watch and saw that it was just six o'clock ; 
 we had, therefore, been in the water or mud from 
 about 4 or 4:10 p. m. until 6. We lay in groups 
 upon the ground assisting each other to the best 
 of our ability during the night and until 3 o'clock 
 in the morning, when a party of rescuers from 
 Duluth who had left their train three miles north 
 of us came down with a physician and some 
 lanterns. At four o'clock a relief party from 
 Hinckley got through, and a little later hand-cars 
 arrived bringing some milk, bread, water, and 
 stimulants, which were sadly needed by the suffer 
 ers. At 5 o'clock the hand-cars were connected 
 
160 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 
 
 together with planks and the women and children 
 and the most injured people placed upon them, and 
 we started back for Hinckley, a distance of six 
 miles, being over the road through which our train 
 had backed. It is impossible to describe the ap- 
 pearance of the country. Before the fire it had 
 been covered with a heavy growth of small trees, 
 principally poplars, birch and tamarack ; here and 
 there among them were a few larger trees, and 
 some of the older stumps were standing, but from 
 Skunk Lake, where we had stopped, to the bridge 
 at Hinckley and as far as could be seen on each 
 side of the track the ground was swept as with a 
 broom of fire ; no vestige remained of the railroad 
 fences, very little of the telegraph poles, a small 
 portion of these latter being standing in some in- 
 stances ; and the herbage and foliage were abso- 
 lutely swept from the ground. So great had been 
 the heat that the ties were charred and burned, the 
 rails in many places twisted so out of shape that 
 the hand-cars had to be lifted around them, and 
 the sides of the cuts presented a baked and calcined 
 appearance ; the bodies of deer and rabbits lay 
 along the track, and when some two miles and a 
 half from Hinckley we came across the first human 
 bodies the full horror of the situation was appar- 
 ent to us. Between the point where we stopped 
 and the bridge at Hinckley on the road side in- 
 side the right of way and along the road were 
 
EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 161 
 
 some twenty-two bodies, some in groups of three 
 or four, others singly, all burned to a crisp and 
 some of them partially consumed. It would be 
 useless to attempt to describe these horrors; no 
 words could give or paint the situation, and the 
 effect upon the nerves of the survivors of our train 
 when we came upon these scenes was a severe one, 
 for there we beheld demonstrated what our fate 
 would have been had it not been the heroic courage 
 of our engineer and his fireman. Some slight idea 
 of the volume of heat through which our train 
 was run can be given when it is told that the coal 
 on the tender was set on fire on the top and burned 
 down through, and when it is further related that 
 within a short time after our train stopped the en- 
 tire train with the exception of the engine was 
 reduced to smouldering coals ; no vestige of any of 
 the cars remaining except the iron-work, and the 
 tender being filled with flaming coal which had not 
 been consumed when we left there. 
 
 To James Root, the engineer, and his fireman Mc- 
 Gowan, are due the credit ofhaving saved the lives 
 of the passengers on that train as well as the refu- 
 gees from Hinckley who were taken aboard, on the 
 occasion of our first stop. How they were enabled 
 to do it is unintelligible to those who found exist- 
 ence almost insupportable inside of the cars, while 
 those two men were in the very front of the flame 
 which was pouring down upon them and only pro- 
 
162 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 
 
 tected from it by the slighter structure of the cab. 
 The engineer was severely cut about the head by 
 the flying glass, and it is said fainted twice or three 
 times while running backwards and was replaced 
 upon his seat by the fireman. The morning further 
 demonstrated his judgment in stopping the train 
 where he finally did, for there was no other point 
 within reach where there was sufficient clearing to 
 save the lives, of the passengers, and the train itself 
 was entirely consumed within a short period of the 
 time that it stopped. It could not have run back- 
 wards for three minutes longer without having 
 burned every person in it, for at the time of the 
 stoppage all of the cars were on fire both on the 
 outside and inside. The porter of the chair-car, 
 John Blair, who stood in the rear of his group of 
 passengers and played upon them with the fire- 
 extinguisher, cannot be too highly praised. The 
 conduct of the women and children in our car is 
 equally beyond praise. They were cool, collected, 
 and obeyed orders absolutely. I do not know of 
 any one, man, -woman or child, in our car who 
 flinched from his duty, and while I presume nobody 
 expected that we wouid get out of the car alive or 
 that in case of getting out we would survive, each 
 acted with a self-possession that was simply won- 
 derful. 
 
 No estimate of time can be given as to the dur- 
 ation of the actual horrors of the situation while 
 
EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 163 
 
 instant death was staring us in the face, but we 
 stopped to take up the fugitives at either four or 
 five minutes past four o'clock, we must have run 
 back the fi.Ye miles at a high rate of speed, and 
 probably arrived at Skunk Lake at 4:10 or 4:15. 
 From that time until a quarter before six to six 
 o'clock none knew whether we would survive or 
 not. The conductor of the train, Sullivan, did his 
 duty until the last. A short time before the train 
 stopped he passed through it from rear to front 
 reassuring the passengers and doing his duty to 
 the fullest and most complete extent. It is said 
 that afterwards he became insane; no one realizing 
 the horror of the situation and the fearful respon- 
 sibility attaching to his position could wonder at 
 it; the only wonder is that the survivors of this 
 train have continued to retain their reason. 
 
 Of course there were incidents of different kinds 
 connected with that two hours of horror that 
 stand out sharply in the mind and reflection of 
 each of the survivors. I presume that none of 
 them are alike or that none saw the same occur- 
 rence, but speaking for myself I can only say that 
 while I remember them, I find it impossible to sit 
 down and relate them, for as the mind reaches 
 back over the occurrence the horrors are again 
 renewed and seem more impossible of contempla- 
 tion, than they were while they actually occurred, 
 and every nerve was strained to preserve judgment 
 
1$4 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 
 
 and reason while they existed, nor can I now un- 
 derstand how it was possible that we were saved. 
 
 OTHER EXPERIENCES. 
 
 Mrs. E. W. Sanders, of St. Paul, wds.<i passenger 
 on the south bound limited that was^ "burned at 
 Skunk Lake, and passed the horrible ordeal, with 
 much fortitude . She was accompanied on the train 
 by seven children, consisting of her own family and 
 some cousins of theirs and they all succeeded in 
 escaping death from the flames. When the train 
 reached Skunk Lake, Mr. C. D. O'Brien assisted 
 Mrs. Saunders in getting her little flock together in 
 safety in the water, and once there did not abate 
 his efforts in their behaif, wetting cloths and throw- 
 ing water over them until the fire in its intensity 
 had passed. Mrs. Saunders appreciated Mr. 
 O'Brien's efficient services to herself and her chil- 
 dren at their time of need, and is loud in expression 
 of gratitude and commendation. They lay in the 
 water for nearly six hours, when feeling the fire 
 had passed they made their way to the dry ground 
 and remained their until relief came in the morn- 
 ing when they were taken to Hinckley on the hand- 
 cars, and from thence to her home in St. Paul. 
 
 It was an awful experience for anyone to endure, 
 
DR. E. L. STEPHAN. 
 
OTHER EXPERIENCES. 165 
 
 and for a lady of Mrs. Sanders temperament it 
 was especially so, yet through it all she never once 
 lost her presence or mind or self-control, and 
 proved herself, as a woman can, equal to an emer- 
 gency which makes the hearts of stronger brothers 
 quail with fear. Aside from the fact that she 
 eaught a severe cold and suffered more or less from 
 the nervous shock, Mrs. Saunders and her proteges 
 are none the worse for their experiences, yet they 
 all feel that their lives hung by the merest thread 
 and are grateful to an omnipotent power for their 
 deliverance. 
 
 Mr. John Craig, chief of the Hinckley Fire De- 
 partment, whose heoric conduct infighting the fire 
 has often been spoken of and whose , good judg- 
 ment warned the people that the town must burn 
 in time and to save themselves, tells his story as fol- 
 lows : "About 2 o'clock we called out the fire de- 
 partment and went to the west side of the town. 
 We had 2,000 feet of hose. At that time we never 
 dreamed that the town would burn. From the 
 point where we were working we saw the fire start 
 in the other side of town. They came after us to 
 leave where we were and go and help those on the 
 east side, so we started over. I telegraphed Rush 
 City for more hose. When I came back up town I 
 found everybody gone. I got my wife on the East- 
 ern Minnesota train, but they got away before I 
 could get my mother and sistertoit, and we finally 
 got into the gravel pit." 
 
166 OTHER EXPERIENCES. 
 
 Dr. E. L. Stephen, of Hinckley, who was con- 
 spicuous both at the time of the fire and in the try- 
 ing days that followed, says : " I was in my office 
 until it got so hot it wouldn't hold me. I then 
 went out and went through all the houses in the 
 south part of the town to see that no one was left 
 behind. The men were all out fighting fire and it 
 was the women and children that were left. I 
 carried a number of children to the train. I don't 
 know how many. I should think though at least 
 twenty. I went into my office the last thing to get 
 some articles I wanted, and when I opened the 
 door the fire was right upon me, and I closed the 
 door again and waited until the first gust had 
 passed, I then ran and got on to the Eastern 
 Minnesota train. I went to Duluth, but came 
 back on the first relief train and walked about fif- 
 teen miles through Sandstone to Hinckley. I 
 counted forty-seven bodies at Sandstone. 
 
 The majority of the corpses showed no sign of a 
 struggle. They seemed to die almost instantly, not 
 from smoke or from fire, but from one breath of 
 the heated atmosphere. I saw one man in parti- 
 cular who fell while runniug, and his legs were in 
 just the position of taking the next step with his 
 arms stretched out in front of him. I shall never 
 forget the scenes of that fiery holocaust. It was 
 terrible. I saw people leave their houses and fall, 
 and perish within twenty feet of their door-step, 
 

OTHER EXPERIENCES. 167 
 
 and the heat was so intense that I was obliged in 
 my trip through the houses to hold my breath 
 from one house until I got inside and could breath 
 the cooler air of the next one. „ 
 
 Rev. E. J. Lawler, more familarly known as 
 Father Lawler, had perhaps as close a call as was 
 experienced in the fire. When the fire broke out 
 Father Lawler accompanied by his housekeeper 
 and a Mr. Flynn and his wife ran to the river. The 
 women had a seal plush cloak which effectually 
 shielded them from the flames, and as often as 
 Father Lawler heard a groan from those around 
 him he would go to them and assist and throw 
 water over them. His housekeeper became over- 
 come by the heat and sank, but he caught and 
 raised her and she soon revived. After a time he 
 was himself overcome and fainted, but the thought- 
 fulness of a little lad who happened to be near by, 
 and who held the reverend gentleman's head out of 
 the water until he was able to protect himself 
 again,savedhim. Those who died in the river, per- 
 ished not from the fire, but were drowned. Father 
 Lawler' s eyes were terribly affected by the smoke 
 and burning cinders, and it was necessary to lead him 
 the next morning as he could see nothing. Mrs. 
 Flynn was taken to Pine City and cared for by the 
 Judge of Probate. 
 
 Dr. Cowan, whose picture is given here in con- 
 nection with that of Father Lawler was the 
 
16* OTHER EXPERIENCES. 
 
 coroner of Pine County, sund of course much of the 
 work of caring for the bodies of the dead fell to 
 his charge. A work which he took up and carried 
 on without fear or favor, and in which he exhi- 
 bited a degree of executive ability, "which assisted 
 greatly in straightening out the tangle which they 
 found things in after the fire had passed. 
 
 To the efforts of Mr. John Y. Breckenridge, the 
 Pine City druggist, perhaps as much credit is due 
 for the assistance rendered an afflicted people as to 
 those of any other one man. At the time of the 
 arrival of the news that Hinckley had burned his 
 was the only drug store available to furnish sup- 
 plies to the wounded and he immediately set to 
 work to arrange such articles as might be needed 
 from his stock for the relief of the sufferers, and 
 with his equipment of lint, linseed oil, etc., went 
 to Hinckley with the first relief train. He came 
 back to Pine City with the first train that brought 
 out the sufferers, and from that time forward for 
 three days worked incessantly without rest or sleep 
 to alleviate the afflicted. He was elected secretary 
 of the Pine City Relief Committee, and acted in 
 that capacity as long as there was anything that 
 the committee could do. Throughout the entire 
 period that Pine City found herself responsible in so 
 great degree for the safety and comfort of the 
 refugees, John Y. Breckenridge was in the front 
 rank. He proved himself a man in every sense of 
 
JOHN Y. BRECKENRIDGK 
 
OTHER EXPERIENCES. 169 
 
 the word, and a gentleman worthy of highest 
 tributes of commendation at the hands of a bene- 
 ficent public. 
 
 Mr. Frank G. Webber, of Pine City, had the 
 most revolting and gruesome task that could be 
 assigned to anyone, that of superintending the in- 
 terment of the bodies. He says: "I was on the 
 first relief train that went up from Pine City and 
 took four men and 5,000 feet of lumber to bury the 
 dead. We started in Monday morning with 
 twenty-one men : we found ninety -six bodies at the 
 cemetary ready for interment; they were all burned 
 beyond recognition. We dug a trench sixty feet 
 long, six feet wide and four feet deep, and in this 
 trench these ninety-six unidentified bodies were 
 buried . Sixty-five of these bodies were buried with- 
 out even a box for a coffin, and the balance were 
 furnished that dignity. I went back Tuesday 
 morning with the same men and finished the work 
 Wednesday, burying in all 233 bodies. In handling 
 the bodies we made a stretcher with two poles, 
 and the bodies were rolled onto the stretcher and 
 from that into the trench, which was dug on an in- 
 cline. During the time that burials were being 
 made, the men who did the work were obliged to 
 keep up their nerve and strength in viewing these 
 horrible scenes by the use of stimulants, but Mr. 
 Webber during the whole three days took nothing 
 in the shape of stimulants or nourishment but a 
 
170 
 
 OTHER EXPERIENCES. 
 
 little milk. The total number of deaths caused by 
 the fire will probably never be known, and it is cer- 
 tain that numbers of them will never be identified. 
 Parties of lumbermen and hunting parties are still 
 finding the remains of some unfortunate fellow 
 who had been overtaken and perished, leaving not 
 even a trace of his identify, and scarcely a trace of 
 his existence. So far as is now known the total 
 number of lives lost by the fire in all quarters is 
 476. Of this number sixty-three died at Sand- 
 stone; twenty-two at Pokegama: eleven in the 
 State of Wisconsin ; twenty-two Indians and the 
 balance in Hinckley and its immediate vicinity. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 He author has made no 
 attempt at elegance of 
 diction in editing and 
 publishing the following 
 anecdotes and experien- 
 /W'fl^K^^^S© 1 ^ " ces °^ ^ e surv i vors °f 
 
 »lJf^v ^ e ^ re ' ^ ut ^ as a * me d 
 
 *w " to convey the impres- 
 
 sions wrought upon the different minds as they 
 were related by some of the sufferers, when ques- 
 tioned as to the actual facts of the calamity as 
 they appeared to them. Mayor Webster of Hinck- 
 ley says: u I gave up all hope of saving the town. 
 I went through the house and spoke to my wife 
 and told her the fire was beyond control, and that 
 she must get ready to go to the gravel pit with me. 
 I went to the barn and got the horses out, after a 
 good deal of trouble on account of the smoke. 
 When I got back to the house I found that my 
 
 171 
 
172 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 wife had gone, thinking perhaps I was already on 
 my way to the pit. I then went over to the pit 
 but jny wife was not there. The eastern Minne- 
 sota train was standing on the track, and I went 
 through several cars, but did not find my wife 
 among the refugees. As there were several cars it 
 was impossible for me to get through I thought 
 she must be in one of them. I felt quite easy 
 about her. I accordingly looked to see what I 
 might do for others. Going up town I found a 
 team hitched to a wagon without a driver. I got 
 two women and seven children and drove them 
 over to the gravel pit where I staid myself until 
 the awful ordeal was past. After it was over I 
 again took up the search for my wife, although at 
 first I labored under the impression that she had 
 gone to Duluth on the Eastern Minnesota train, 
 but I have not been able to find a single trace of 
 her or anything that could serve to identify her, 
 She must have become biwildered and perished in 
 the heat. ,, When Mr. Webster became convinced 
 that his wife had been one of the unfortunates who 
 had died in their own door-yard, the realization of 
 the truth nearly destroyed his leason, and for a 
 number of days he seemed like one dazed, not of 
 this world, yet in it. 
 
 Another story that was characteristic though 
 perhaps not as pathetic as the last was that of 
 Joseph Tew, a drayman of the town of Hinckley. 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 173 
 
 He said: "I am a fireman, and fought lire until 
 half past three when it was apparent that every- 
 thing was going I went home and got my wife 
 and six children on the Eastern Minnesota train. 
 The train pulled out leaving myself, my mother 
 and my oldest girl behind . I then drove with them 
 to the wagon bridge, and turning the team lose we 
 descended to the river. We had no sooner reached 
 the water when a perfect shower of cinders and 
 fire fell over us, and I found a couple of old coats 
 and put over the women. After staying in the 
 water about two hours and a half we left the 
 river and went down to the pit and then to the 
 Eastern Minnesota round-house. Those who went 
 north across the wagon bridge were all lost. Why, 
 man, I could show you the place where the next 
 morning men, women and children were piled up one 
 above the other just as thick as those rocks there, 
 pointing to a pile of building stone near by. "I 
 only had an apron that mother gave me over my 
 head." 
 
 Walter Scott in charge of Brennan Lumber Co's- 
 store says : "I got away on the Eastern Minne- 
 sota. Wind blew sixty miles an hour. Up until 
 3 o'clock no one thought there would be any 
 danger for the town. Conductor Powers of the 
 Emergency Train was the coolest man I ever saw 
 in my life. The way he kept his nerve was some- 
 thing wonderful. One of the heroes that perished 
 
174 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 unnoticed and almost unknown was Paul Liske 
 the tailor at Hinckley. He saved the lives of two 
 young ladies by picking them up and carrying 
 them bodily to the Eastern Minnesota train. Not 
 being satisfied with that he went back for others 
 and perished in the flames, being overcome by the 
 heat before he was able to save himself. Some 
 idea can be had of the heat at some points at least, 
 from the fact that at Hinckley, the steel car wheels 
 of some of the freight cars were melted into the 
 rails they stood on so that they seemed like one 
 piece of iron. It is an established fact that 1,200 
 degrees of Farenheit is required in addition to a 
 blast to produce this result by artificial means. 
 
 The escape of Kate J. Barnum the thirteen year 
 daughter of Dr. E. E. Barnum of Pine City is per- 
 haps one of the most interesting episodes of the 
 horrible affair. She had been visiting at Hinckley 
 and had intended to return to Pine City on the 
 day of the fire. The friends with whom she staid 
 all went to the Eastern Minnesota train and she 
 went with them. She was not satisfied however 
 to go to Duluth, but thought of the "limited" 
 which was due at the other depot at 4:05, and it 
 occurred to her, if she could get on board that 
 train she could reach home and set the minds of 
 her parents at rest, as to her safety and where- 
 abouts. She decided to make the attempt and in 
 spite of protests she started for the other depot, 
 
KATE |. BARNl'M. 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 175 
 
 fifteen hundred feet away all alone, and with the 
 one idea in view of reaching that Depot and wait- 
 ing for the other train. She reached the depot and 
 seeing the mill and lumber yards burning became 
 alarmed and went back to the Eastern Minnesota 
 train intending to remain with her friends and 
 make her escape. Bnt the desire to get home was 
 still strong and a second time she left the one to 
 make the other train. A second time she reached 
 the other depot. This time she found the depot on 
 fire and also the bridge across the river. She then 
 realized the train could not possibly get through 
 and that her only hope of life lay in again reaching 
 the Eastern Minnesota train. Again she set out; 
 how this slip of a girl endured tortures and ex- 
 posure that made the strongest men quake and 
 even fall is little less than a miracle. On her way 
 back the last time, she would run as far as she 
 could and then lie down on the ground and after 
 catching her breath would again run on and re- 
 peat the operation. The train was finally reached 
 and boarded, and another ray of sunshine saved to 
 a happy household. All through this terrible ex- 
 perience Kate had been entirely alone and as she 
 said herself, she did not seem to be at all afraid, 
 and it never occurred to her that she needed any- 
 one to take care of her until she had reached the 
 Emergency Train the last time, when she seemed 
 to realize the peril through which she had passed 
 
176 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 and wished for some one to take care of her. She 
 found her protector in the person of Presiding El- 
 der Shannon of Duluth, whom she knew, and to 
 whose Duluth home she was taken and cared for 
 until she could return to her parents at Pine City. 
 Imagine if you can the feelings of a father who 
 knew that such a daughter as this had been ex- 
 posed to the flames and so far as he knew, had 
 perished in a holocaust of this sort, and who was 
 compelled by the call of duty to minister to the 
 wants of others who had suffered from this same 
 cause, for twelve long hours without any word of 
 his daughter in any way and you will understand 
 one reason that Dr- E. E. Barnum of Pine City has 
 to remember that horrible day. Too much credit 
 cannot be given Dr. Barnum of Pine City for his 
 loyal devotion and heroic self-sacrifice to the work 
 of alleviating the pains of the suffering and wound- 
 ed survivors. His time and professional services 
 were given freely gratuitously day and night, 
 without rest or sleep for a period of seventy-two 
 hours. Everything he could do was done freely 
 and willingly even to the free use of his bank ac- 
 count in purchase of medicines and hospital sup- 
 plies. He is in truth one of nature's noblemen, we 
 are glad to be able to give a likeness of him with 
 this volume. The face is one that shows a man of 
 unswerving integrity, earnest, sincerein all his deal- 
 ings, conscientious, true to his highest ideal of right. 
 
E. E. BARNUM OK PINE CITY 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCEvS. 177 
 
 A man who commands not only the respect out the 
 love of the entire community in which he lives and 
 one, whom, the humblest of his patients can point 
 to, proud to be able to call such a man their 
 1 'friend . " At the time the news was first brought 
 to Pine City he was the only physician in the town 
 and upon him devolved the responsibility of caring 
 for the wounded sufferers. He accompanied the 
 detachment of citizens of Pine City on the first ex- 
 pedition to Hinckley. Their train was composed 
 of eight hand-cars joined together with rough pine 
 boards making a continuous train on which were 
 transported the injured people that were picked up 
 along the road. When the remains of a burned 
 bridge was reached the train was disconnected, 
 and the sufferers were either carried accross on the 
 ten inch iron girders or down through the stream 
 and up on the track again at the other side. Dr. 
 Barnum's train of hand-cars was the first to 
 reach the Skunk Lake survivors from the south af- 
 ter the fire. They carrried the cars around the 
 bridge and went on from there to the point where 
 Root's train had been saved, picking up thirty- 
 three dead bodies, and two men who had lived 
 through it along the track. Soon after reaching 
 the spot they made their way to Engineer Root 
 and he was given a drink of milk from the hand 
 of Atty Roberts, who singularly enough had been 
 instrumental in times past of having Root arrest- 
 
178 PERvSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 ed and fined on account of some trouble in stop- 
 ping the ' ' Limited ' ' at Pine City . The fireman Mc- 
 Gowan was still throwing water and caring for 
 his injured chief. An overcoat was put upon him 
 and he was sent to Pine City. The responsibility 
 of overseeing and directing the care of the wounded 
 fell upon Dr. Barnum, although Dr. Cowan and 
 Dr. Stephan of Hinckley, Dr. Harris of North 
 Branch and two physicians of Rush City, besides 
 two members of Dr. Barnum's family did much of 
 the routine work. He had charge of the impro- 
 vised hospitals at Pine City and for the first ten 
 days never relaxed his vigilant attendance upon, nor 
 his duties to them although he was greatly re- 
 lieved by the removal of eighteen of those whose 
 injuries were of the most serious nature to St. Paul 
 and Minneapolis hospitals .—John Hogan of Hinck- 
 ley is a cripple. On account of some affectation of 
 tha hip he is unable to wa'k a single step and was 
 of course absolutely helpless when the fire broke 
 out, he says;- "I had been watching the fire and 
 had made up my mind in case worst came to worst 
 that the gravel pit would be the place for me. 
 My brother had been out fighting fire and came in 
 with his team and I called to him to take me to 
 the gravel pit, he came, lifted me out of my chair 
 and carrying me sat me into the wagon and took 
 me over to the pit. Once arrived there it looked so 
 terrible I asked him to put me on the Eastern 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 179 
 
 Minnesota train, that we might get out of the 
 horrible place entirely. He did so and then went 
 back to the house after my mother, she refused to 
 leave -without my invalid chair, so he put that on 
 and they brought it with them and so it was 
 saved. My brother did not get on the train and 
 for two days in Duluth we could get no news of 
 him in any way, but we finally found him, and 
 you had better believe a happier meeting never 
 took place." 
 
 Mrs. Alex Cameron, of Hinckley, in speaking of 
 the fire says: "My husband is a millwright. On 
 the day of the fire we were out fishing at Grind- 
 stone Lake. About 4 o'clock the sky was over- 
 shadowed and everything became as dark as 
 mid-night. We lighted the lamps in the camp, but 
 soon we found that the fire was upon us and we 
 ran for the boats and put out into the lake drifting 
 with the waves. The wind was something terrific 
 and the waves were running so high that we ex- 
 pected every instant to be swamped, but decided 
 we would rather drown than burn. When we got 
 across the Lake we found an Indian camp and 
 found some potatoes which we cooked and which 
 served to allay the pangs of hunger. After stay- 
 ing in camp over Sunday, Monday morning 
 we started to walk to Hinckley where we arrived 
 after a tramp of about ten miles over the burned 
 ground." 
 
180 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Molly McNeil says: "About 2 o'clock I tried to 
 induce my folks to get away on south-bound limited 
 that left at that time, but they laughed at me. I 
 then packed my trunk and tried to get it to the 
 depot myself. A man came along and told me to 
 drop the trunk and save myself. So I started out 
 on the north road toward the river. I ran right 
 straight across the bridge, being bewildered, I sup- 
 pose, and when I came to my senses the river was 
 half a mile away. Mrs. McNamara and her family 
 were with me up to this time, and someone spoke 
 of Root's train which they said would be along 
 soon. I had forgotten all about the train, and told 
 Mrs. McNamara we had better hurry to meet it. 
 I ran on but she did not follow and that is the last 
 I saw of her. I reached the train and we soon 
 commenced backing up until finally Skunk Lake 
 was reached. I jumped from the bridge, my only 
 thought being to find water enough to drown my- 
 self. My clothes were all afire and I rolled over in 
 the mud and behind an old barrel that was 
 there. While I was there I noticed a large snake 
 coiled up beside me, but that didn't trouble me, I 
 had something else to think of just then. I was in 
 the water about two hours and got to Pine City 
 about 8 o'clock the next morning. I must have 
 been about a mile and a half from Hinckley when 
 I met the train. 
 
 Miss Mary McNeil, an older sister of Mollie's 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. lsl 
 
 had a different yet not less exciting and terrible ex- 
 perience than was endured by Mollie herself. At 
 the time of the outbreak of the fire she was with 
 her mother who was eighty years of age, and to- 
 gether they started for the rive J. Mary says: 
 " Mother told me to go back and look for Mollie, 
 and I turned and started back, but could not en- 
 dure the heat so we started for the river again, be- 
 fore we got there a wave of heat swept over us that 
 was terrible; it seemed to strangle me and I fell; 
 I said "Mother we will have to die right here," 
 but as it was only a little ways further we made 
 another effort, and succeeded in reaching the river. 
 We got to the w r ater and only had an apron to 
 throw over our heads. We stayed in the water 
 about three hours. While we w r ere there we saw 
 several people die around us." It is a singular fact 
 that the old lady in her eigtieth year should have 
 been able to undergo the terrible ordeal, endure its 
 excruciating pain and survive it in the end, w T hile 
 strong men placed in similar circumstances perished 
 beside her. 
 
 Probably the most miraculous escape of the fire 
 was that of Al. Fraser, of Hinckley, and his family, 
 and it is more than probable that he of all the sur- 
 vivors endured the greatest heat and lived to tell 
 the story. He had a wife and three children, and 
 managed to get one of the children on the Eastern 
 Minnesota train, and then got out to help his wife 
 
1S2 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 and the other two, but the train was so crowded 
 that they were not able to get on board, and the 
 train pulled out without them. They then went 
 back into the town and he found a team, and load- 
 ing his family on to the wagon drove out of town 
 on the north road in the direction that proved to 
 be so fatal to so many of the towns people. They 
 went directly across the wagon bridge, and soon 
 the heat became so intense that their wagon 
 caught fire and burned furiously. They all got 
 down onto the ground fully expecting that their 
 last hour had come, and that they were doomed to 
 perish there in the flames. In speaking of it after- 
 wards, Mr. Fraser, said: ''After we had turned 
 the first team loose, I noticed something coming 
 toward me through the smoke which proved to be 
 another team of horses and wagon which had been 
 abandoned by their owners. I caught the team 
 and loading the wife and little ones into the wagon 
 drove on. I found four barrels and a trunk on 
 the wagon, and after driving a little way I found 
 that the barrels were full of water. Just think of 
 it, four barrels of water at a time when above all 
 things else water was to be most desired. I put 
 my children right into the barrels, and broke 
 open the trunk, and wetting the clothes I found 
 there I put them round my wife. About that time 
 two Norwegians came along and crawled into two 
 of the barrels that we had used most of the water 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 183 
 
 out of, and so escaped with their lives at least. 
 One other gentleman was also saved by the water 
 which put in its appearance so fortunately. Mr. 
 Frazer was within a short distance of the dry swale, 
 in which the one hundred and twenty people 
 who went out on this north road lost their lives, at 
 the time the terrible heat had reached them, and 
 he says of it : " When that wave struck them one 
 wail of anguish went up from the whole people as 
 one man, and in less than a minute after every- 
 thing was still except for the roar of the wind and 
 the crackling of the flames It all came so quickly, 
 an instant and all was ovei . There did not seem 
 to be much suffering. There could not have been 
 much. There was -not time. A moment after that 
 first intense wave had passed not one of those 
 hundred and twenty people were conscious, and I 
 do not believe they were alive. The next morning 
 when they were found the bodies did not seem to 
 be badly distorted as if there had been a struggle 
 for life, but they were found lying on their faces in 
 the sand or else on their backs with their hands 
 elasped over their mouths, showing their last 
 thought must have been one of protection from the 
 iierv breath." 
 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MORE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 imilar though the 
 stories of the survi- 
 vors may be they 
 differ in detail. Of 
 course all have the 
 same general char- 
 acteristics and re- 
 cite an experience 
 excruciating and terrible. Their similiarity is 
 especially noticeable in the towns where numbers 
 chose a similar avenue of escape, but in the out- 
 lying districts over which the fire had passed, the 
 escape of the settlers was attended by perils often 
 more appalling and always more varied than that 
 of the towns men. 
 
 It is the purpose of this chapter to give an idea 
 of escape of some of those who were in the country 
 districts when the fire reached them. The escape 
 of the family of J. Erickson, a resident of Sand- 
 stone, is remarkable. On the day of the fire Mr. 
 
 184 
 
MORE EXPERIENCES. 185 
 
 Erickson, with two sons and one daughter were at 
 Sandstone Junction where he owned a small saw- 
 mill and quite a piece of ground, and were engaged 
 in harvesting the small crop of potatoes the 
 ground had produced in the drought of the 
 summer. His wife and one daughter were at the 
 postoffice at Sandstone, and one daughter of the 
 family was teaching school at Partridge. At the 
 first approach of the flames Mr. Erickson and the 
 boys went to fighting fire about the mill, finding 
 they could not save it they went to the potato 
 patch, and as that soon proved too hot for safety, 
 not to say comfort, they started for a small lake 
 about a quarter of a mile distant. It soon 
 became so dark that they became confused, 
 and in some way the old gentleman became separa- 
 ted from the children. They could hear each other 
 call, although the smoke was dense, sight was im- 
 possible a short distance away. The children got 
 into the wagon and made their way to the lake in 
 this way. The old gentleman became completely 
 turned around, got off the road and was going 
 directly from the lake when he heard the voice of one 
 of his boys calling him; he answered and guided 
 by the sound found the boy and made his way 
 to the water where he found the other children 
 with the team. As the first burst of the fire swept 
 over them the horses became frightened and got 
 away from the boy who was holding them and got 
 
186 MORE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 burned. After the fire had passed they walked to 
 Sandstone, three and a half miles and found that, 
 as Mr. Erickson tersely expressed it. "All gone to 
 h — 1." After wandering around awhile they made 
 their way to the river and found the wife and 
 other daughter. At the first approach of the fire 
 they thought it was a cyclone and went to the 
 cellar. They discovered their mistake, however, 
 and after doing so had only five minutes to reach 
 the river before the storm burst over them in all its 
 fury. The girl got out the mone^- belonging to 
 Uncle Sam and saved that, but left quite an amount 
 of her own money in the house, which was already 
 burning, and as they were leaving the steps of the 
 store the roof of the whole structure fell in so that 
 they were none too soon. The daughter at Part- 
 ridge also made her escape, so that here was an 
 exception to the rule, a family whose ranks had 
 not been decimated- by the fire. The case of 
 Thomas J. Henderson, deserves more than passing 
 notice as being one of the saddest and most 
 pathetic incidents of the whole affair. Mr. Hender- 
 son is a. logger who lives at Pine City, but who 
 had gone with his two sons, aged fourteen and six- 
 teen respectively, to a point about five miles north 
 of Hinckley where they were engaged in opening a 
 new road through the woods for the St. Paul & 
 Duluth R. R. In speaking of the fire Mr. Hender- 
 son, said: "I was working with my two boys 
 
MORE EXPERIENCES. 187 
 
 about a mile west of the track when the fire ap- 
 proached. We had noticed things looked a little 
 threatening, but anticipated no danger until the 
 fire was nearly upon us when we started for Mr. 
 Greenfield's house about a quarter of a mile east 
 of the track. When we reached there we found the 
 family going to the cellar of the house and we 
 went in with them. We had been there but a short 
 time when it became apparent that none of us 
 would escape if we staid there long, so we crawled 
 out and ran for a potato patch close by. Our 
 clothes were burning as we left the cellar, and I 
 had a hard fight to put out the blaze. After I did 
 so, the bo3^s one after the other became overcome 
 with the heat and died right there before my eyes 
 Mr. Henderson escaped though his right hand was 
 terribly burned. After the fire had subsided he 
 made his way to Pine City where he met his wife. 
 who seeing him come alone without her boys 
 realized the truth before a word was spoken, and 
 with a wail of "Oh, My God! My boys are 
 gone," burst into a paroxysm of tears and moans 
 "Yes, they are gone," answered the bewildered 
 father, and for days after that the mere mention 
 of the fire would throw him into convulsions. 
 
 Mr. M. E. Greenfield, at whose home Mr. Hender- 
 son and his boys sought refuge fared even worse 
 than Mr. Henderson. In speaking of the affair he 
 said : "I had defended myself against fires on the 
 
188 MORE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 earth. I had no idea that fire was to come down 
 upon me from heaven, btyt that was what it did. 
 Soon after we entered the cellar a shower of living 
 lire began falling all around us, thicker than any 
 hail storm you ever saw, and earring the coals and 
 embers from the burning of the lumber yards at 
 Hinckley. In the cellar with me were my wife and 
 six children, my hired man, John Parrish, and Mr. 
 Henderson, a neighbor, with his two little boys. 
 When the house began burning over our heads we 
 determined to stay in the cellar as long as we could, 
 for we thought every instant that torrents of rain 
 would surely fall, for the sound we heard was ex- 
 actly like heavy thunder, and kept coming nearer. 
 When the floor began to fall in, and the dining 
 table crashed through upon us, we saw that to 
 remain there was sure death, and we opened the 
 outside cellar door, and tried to all get out. My 
 wife and all of my children got out. John 
 Parrish, I think, must have fallen back into the 
 cellar way after helping out two of the children. 
 Mr. Henderson also got out, and I can not say 
 whether his two boys perished in the cellar or 
 somewhere in the clearing. After all were in the 
 potatoe patch in the clearing, one of the children, 
 the oldest girl, ran back into the burning house, 
 and I found her bones among the ashes of our 
 ruined home. In the fields I tore the clothing off 
 from all of the children to keep them from catching 
 
MORE EXPERIENCES. 189 
 
 fite, and watched over them and my wife, going 
 from one to another when I heard them cry out— 
 for it was impossible to see anything— until I 
 thought that all of them were dead ; when I lay 
 down, expecting nothing less than that in a few 
 moments I, like them, should be dead. I was soon 
 aroused by a cry from my ten-year-old boy, Charlie, 
 who is here with me. He wanted me to help him 
 put out the fire in his mother's clothing. That call 
 for help saved all our lives. I had been directly in 
 the path of the hot air blowing from the burning 
 house, and when I went to him I escaped from it, 
 and found the air quite endurable, for the worst 
 heat from the fires at Hinckley had passed. I 
 found my wife still alive, and we succeeded in put- 
 ting out the fire in her clothes, although she was 
 terribly burned. My little boy kept his presence of 
 mind through it all. He tells me now that he kept 
 from burning up by rolling in the dirt to put out 
 the flames which started in his clothes. I do not 
 know how I escaped with so little harm, for during 
 all the time I did not think once of saving my- 
 self." 
 
 Mr. Greenfield was found in a very despondent 
 mood, and expressed the opinion that it would 
 have been better if all had perished together, for he 
 said he had not a cent in the world, and would not 
 know what to do to provide for himself or his 
 family, now pitifully small. He was greatly en- 
 
190 MORE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 couraged when told of the generosity of all people 
 in contributing to the relief fund, and seemed 
 greatly rejoiced over the bare possibility that there 
 might be even a little help for him. He says that 
 the fiery cyclone tore up the roots of some of the 
 largest trees on his farm and carried them long- 
 distances through the air. Mr. Greenfield's hired 
 man John Parrish, of whom he speaks, must have 
 gotten out of the cellar with the others as his bcdy 
 was found six weeks after about three-quarters of 
 a mile from the Greenfield homestead. In his effort 
 to escape he had followed an ox away from the 
 house depending on the animal's instinct to lead 
 him to a place of safety. When he was found dead 
 by the side of the ox his hand was still clinched 
 with a firm grip on the ox's tail, which means he had 
 undoubtedly used to keep from being separated 
 from what he hoped was a means of escape. 
 
 The name of Mrs. A. G. Crocker, of Finlayson 
 deserves a place with those of the heroes of the 
 fire. Mrs. Crocker is a slender, delicate looking 
 woman, but many a man might envy her heroic 
 spirit. After fighting the fire demon all day 
 Saturday and discovering that her house was 
 about the Only one left in the place, she gathered 
 there all the neighbors whom she could find, think- 
 ing as she said. '• I could give them something to 
 eat, and if the necessity arose, we could all take 
 refuge in the little pond near my house.' * 
 
MORE EXPERIENCES. i<jl 
 
 About 5 o'clock a fearful roaring was heard and 
 the cyclone of fire rushed upon them. They all 
 ran for the pond, wrapping the children in wet 
 blankets and throwing water over each other. 
 There they staid until near midnight, throwing 
 themselves down in the water as the waves of fire 
 would pass over them. 
 
 By this time the women and children were so 
 chilled and stiff, they decided to leave the pond and 
 fight the fire from the house which was again in 
 great danger of burning. The children were left 
 on the shore of the pond, and the women and Mr. 
 Crocker fought fire until daylight, and all day Sun- 
 day they all alternated between the fire and pond, 
 seeking relief from fire in the pond. 
 
 Sunday night Mrs. Crocker made her way to the 
 railroad and flagged the relief train as it went 
 down to Hinckley. She was told to get her friends 
 together and they would all be brought to Duluth 
 on the return of the train. 
 
 "Then,", said Mrs. Crocker in telling of her 
 escape, "ensued another night of fighting for our 
 lives. By this time we had used up all our provi- 
 sions and when the rescuers picked us up Sunday 
 night or Monday morning, whichever it was, we 
 were completely exhausted and could not have held 
 out another hour." Nevertheless Mrs. Crocker 
 immediately went to work, doing all she could for 
 those less fortunate than she. 
 
192 MORE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 Mrs. Crocker returned to Finlayson Wednesday, 
 taking with her a supply of provisions for the 
 sufferers there. As her house is standing, she said 
 there was a great deal she could do sheltering and 
 feeding the homeless there. 
 
 The fate of the Best family who lived about two 
 miles south east of Hinckley is one of the most 
 heartrending incidents of the whole affair. Out of 
 a family of thirteen, John Best Jr., and his wife 
 and child are the only remaining representatives, 
 and upon this one man, John Best Jr., devolved the 
 task of giving a decent burial to his father, mother, 
 four brothers, two sisters, one neice and a friend 
 who happened to be stopping with the family at 
 the time. 
 
 Express Messenger Vandersluis of the Eastern 
 Minnesota train that was ditched and came . so 
 near being consumed between Hinckley and Poke- 
 gama on the day of the fire tells his story as 
 folio ws: 
 
 "When we got to Hinckley everything was 
 smoke. It had been that way for two weeks, so 
 we didn't take any particular notice of it. We 
 left Hinckley at 2:30 Saturday afternoon. When 
 we got one mile out everything was as dark as 
 night and one mass of flames. Our train consisted 
 of an engine and baggage car and coach. When 
 we got five or six miles out of Hinckley we noticed 
 that the ties were burning under our train. We 
 
MORE EXPERIENCES. 193 
 
 went through this for about five miles, expecting 
 every minute to go through bridges, as we felt 
 them weakening under the weight of our train. 
 All of a sudden the engine jumped the track and 
 turned over on its side, the coach following, but 
 keeping upright. There were but two passengers 
 aboard, and these, together with Conductor Ed. 
 Parr, Engineer Will Yoge, Fireman Joe Lacher and 
 three brakemen and myself, made up the list of all 
 on board. 
 
 "About 5 o'clock Saturday evening the conduc- 
 tor and myself walked over to Pokegama, two 
 miles away, over the burned ties, passing three 
 charred bodies on the way, with their faces buried 
 in the sand. When we arrived at Pokegama Creek 
 we discovered that the span bridge had beeit 
 burned and also the entire village of Pokegama. 
 All the villagers that were saved were in Pokegama 
 creek, panic stricken. We returned to the coach, 
 and shortly after the people in the ereek walked 
 on to our coach, in all about twent-five men, 
 women and children. We stayed there until Sun- 
 day morning at 5 o 'clock . It was a terrible nigh t . 
 The experience I shall never forget. We tore up 
 our shirts and everything in the way of linen and 
 soaked them with water, and kept them over the 
 faces of the two passengers and the people from 
 Pokegama. They were suffering terribly, being 
 choked and blinded. The conductor, engineer, 
 
194 MOKE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 firemen and myself left for Hinckley, leaving the 
 forakemen and others in the coach asleep or parti- 
 ally so. We found nothing at Hinckley, except the 
 Great Northern four-stall roundhouse and water 
 tank and coal shed. We went into the water tan£ 
 and found some good water of which we drank 
 freely. We also found several loaves of bread, 
 which we broke and ate. We then went into the 
 roundhouse and found some bread and crackers, 
 which we sent back to the sufferers in the coach, 
 and this party was afterward rescued by a relief 
 crew from Pine Cit}\ 
 
 "At least 100 cars of wheat and other mer- 
 chandise was burned in the Hinckley yards. We 
 walked around to where the St. Panl and Duluth 
 depot formerly stood, and took a train carrying 
 sufferers to Pine City. An abundant supply of 
 food and clothes had been sent from Pine City, 
 and the sufferers were being taken care of as fast as 
 possible. We saw the dead lying all around. We 
 staj^ed in Hinckley about twenty minutes. Every- 
 thing was filled with smoke, and we could not see 
 a block away. I do not think that the reports are 
 at all exaggerated." 
 
 The following clipping from a Duluth paper is 
 directly in point as it gives * ' ' Honor to whom 
 honoris due." Presiding Elder W. A. Shannon, 
 who was on the Eastern Minnesota passenger 
 train — the first to return from Hinckley Saturday 
 
MORE EXPERIENCES- 195 
 
 night — makes the following mention of a coura- 
 geous act that has until now escaped recognition : 
 
 " As one of those who took the perilous ride from 
 Hinckley to Duluth on the Eastern Minnesota 
 train in ths midst of the fiery furnace of Saturday 
 last, I wish to add my testimony to the courage 
 and bravery of the trainmen. It took nerve to 
 stand still with flames leaping toward and around 
 them on the wrings of a tornado— as these men 
 did — till 500 people should get on board. Con- 
 ductor Powers and the crew of the freight train 
 which joined us in the mad rush for life, indeed 
 every man connected with the service is deserving 
 of highest praise." 
 
 "I wish especially to refer to 0. L. Beach, the 
 brakeman of the passenger who took his stand on 
 the tender of the freight engine — which was back- 
 ing up and without head light — and never flinched 
 through - all that perilous ride of sixty miles 
 through smoke and flame. 
 
 "Such devotion to duty on the part of these 
 men under such trying circumstances is worthy of 
 public recognition. No one who took that awful 
 ride will ever forget the men who brought us 
 through in safety to Duluth. 
 
 The following account of the coming of the 
 great fire is related by Mrs. James Garnness of Fin- 
 layson, whose farm stood on high ground over- 
 looking Hinckley, Sandstone and the surroundiinv 
 
196 MORE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 country. About the middle of the day, which was 
 an intensely hot one, the air grew so heated that she 
 could not hold her hand up over her head for any 
 length of time. It was like plunging it into an 
 over heated oven. Then the air gew so hot lower 
 down it was almost impossible to breath. Look- 
 ing in the direction of Hinckley they saw flames as 
 if darting from the sky in " tongues," and 
 "sheets," and watched the terrible spectacle grow 
 more and more awful. The town of Sandstone 
 then became enveloped in the same kind of flame, 
 while Hinckley was lost sight of in the dense 
 smoke. The flames spread rapidly, and though at 
 first they could not believe it possible the fire would 
 come as far as they were, they very soon saw there 
 was almost instant danger. The first appearance 
 there was a ball of flame which fell from the air 
 and lighted beside the gate of the front yard, burn- 
 ing itself out without spreading in the least like a 
 gasoline flame. Then these became more frequent 
 and they saw that all the country was to be en- 
 veloped in the rushing whirl of fire. The very air 
 seemed to burst into flame ; the heavens rained 
 fire, and the clouds above so close to earth opened 
 and shut, making the alternate light and darkness 
 almost blinding. The family all went to some 
 ploughed rising ground back of the house, carry- 
 ing with them large cans of water and blankets. 
 They had to move very quiekiy for the heat grew 
 
MORE EXPERIENCES. li>7 
 
 so intense, and the flaming air came nearer and 
 nearer, and the darkness enveloped all things. The 
 whole family crawled tinder the blankets, which 
 one of them from time to time would wet from the 
 large milk cans of water beside them, and this 
 they did by thrusting out their hands quickly and 
 upsetting first one and then another, as the 
 blankets grew hot almost to bursting into flames, 
 while their houses and all that belonged to them 
 burned. They lay under the blankets for hours, 
 and when the worst had passed, spent the night on 
 the ground longing for day. When it came the 
 sight can better be imagined than described. 
 There are many strange freaks related as to this 
 extraordinary fire, and one of them occurred at 
 this place. Two farm machines, one a harrow and 
 one a reaper stood on a field not far apart. The 
 harrow was scarcely scorched though made of 
 wood, but the other was completely burned, even 
 the iron and steel parts melted into a shapeless 
 mass by the intense heat. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ANOTHER STORY — SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 
 
 nterprise, has al- 
 ways been and still 
 is the watchword 
 
 V of Hinckley, and in 
 
 J^i the race, Mr. An- 
 
 * gus Hay, editor of 
 
 Hinckley Enterprise is always to be found in the 
 front rank. It affords a pleasure to me to be able 
 to give those who may peruse these pages the story 
 of one, who took such a prominent and important 
 part in the events which we have essayed to chron- 
 icle in this little volume. The reader may be as- 
 sured that the tale is honestly and modestly told, 
 and certain it is, no hero ever faced a dangerous 
 task with more fortitude than was displayed by 
 Angus Hay and his companion Carl Yeenhoneen, 
 in their perilous trip over a smoking and burnings 
 track, when they carried the news of Hinckley de- 
 struction to Pine City and the outside world. Mr. 
 Hay writes as follows:- 
 
 19S 
 
ANOTHER STORY -SOME PERTINENT FACTS; 199 
 
 ' The experience of one who has passed through 
 the Hinckley fire! The truth would seem like the 
 mildest fancies of crazy imagination; no pen can 
 portray its terrible reality; no tongue can even tell 
 the bare truth of the awful ordeal. At the noon 
 hour word was given that the villagerswest of the 
 St. Paul & Duluth tracks were being hard pressed 
 by flames Which threatened their homes . Chief Craig 
 of the fire department ordered his men out, and 
 volunteers followed the firemen to assist in saving 
 the property. The fight was a noble one; the west 
 side of the village and the Brennan Lumber Com- 
 pany's mill plant were in great danger; the hose 
 was too short to reach the spot where the fire was 
 the greatest. The chief telegraphed to Rush City 
 for hose. The alarm was growing greater, and 
 every man and boy in the village who could leave 
 his home was carrying water to quench the flames. 
 At short intervals the wind was so hot it almost 
 blistered one's skin. The men worked like beavers 
 to keep the flames from crossing to the main part 
 of the village east of the track, and every one was 
 confident the fight was won, but the fire which 
 started from the Mission Creek fire came stealthily 
 along like a tiger. The wind blew a hurricane; 
 strong men were hard pressed oftentimes to move 
 against it. The south-bound train on the Duluth 
 arrived at 2 o'clock— two hours late— and many 
 of the women and children went south to places of 
 
200 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT PACTS. 
 
 safety. From this hour on the fire had control, 
 though it met a worthy foe in the gallant little 
 band who fought it for supremacy. Women be- 
 came alarmed, but their fears were quieted by 
 • those who were none the less in fear, but who had 
 cool heads. The southmost house on Main street 
 was Nels Anderson's; on saving this home de- 
 pended the safety of the village. Teams hauling 
 water, were dashing along the street; women 
 were afraid, and children were crying; men's faces 
 were a study — bleached with smoke and driven 
 sand and blanched with fear for the safety of their 
 homes and their families. 
 
 Chief Craig came dashing down the street on 
 his horse and cried, "We can't save the town; it's 
 burning at the south end; run to the gravel pit; 
 don't lose a moment, but fly!" Then commenced 
 a hurrying and a scurrying for safety such as I be- 
 lieve few, if any, in this place ever took part in or 
 saw or ever will see again. I was four blocks 
 from my office when Anderson's house caught fire. 
 I ran as quickly as I could to the office and when 
 James Willard, my faithful typo, and I tan through 
 the office to the rear door large coals were falling 
 in the yard. We intended saving several articles 
 in the print shop, but soon gave the idea up when 
 we saw distressed women and children trying to 
 reach a place of safety. Picking up the "Enter- 
 prise" files and a "fat" subscription book we went 
 
ANOTHER STORY-SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 201 
 
 out to help those who needed assistance. Some 
 woman with three children was tottering along 
 the sidewalk. I picked up her baby and carried it 
 until I saw a man driving with a horse and buggy 
 toward the Eastern depot. I put the little one 
 into the rig and went back to help the mother. 
 The Eastern train had left the depot then and the 
 mother and children were put in the gravel pit. I 
 went down the street again to the corner of the 
 Morrison hotel, but could not endure the heat 
 around the corner. It drove me back, and I ran 
 for the gravel pit. I saw a woman crossing the 
 Duluth tracks at the round house. I believe now 
 it was Mrs. Blanchard. Her body was found there. 
 She seemed to strike her foot against the rail and 
 stumbling, fell. Two people were on the streets. 
 
 Two women were praying in front of the city 
 hall; one was on the driveway, the other on the 
 grass beside her. With unintentional disrespect I 
 stopped the prayer meeting and started the ladies 
 for the pit. Water was better than prayers just 
 at that moment, and I'm glad the women are safe. 
 Seventy people — men, women and children— hud- 
 dled together in that muddy pond with but three 
 feet of water. It is a block and a half longand half 
 a block wide. Houses on the east and south and the 
 depot on the west were all burning. The wind 
 blew direct from the south, and a continual shower 
 of coals and sparks fell on us. Then began an 
 
202 ANOTHER STORY — SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 
 
 ordeal of fire lasting about twenty minutes through 
 which I believe few could stand to pass again. It 
 was terrible in the extreme. It was necessary to 
 keep throwing water on the women, and it de- 
 volved upon very few men to do it. Such a time 
 as that one wishes he had as many arms as an 
 octupus; the Lord knows they could have 
 been used to good advantage. The roar of the 
 storm was so great it was impossible to make 
 one's self heard two feet away. But the wind 
 Avould carry the almost inaudible mutterings of a 
 prayer along to leeward, and the hearers, I think, 
 uttered a silent "amen." We got out of the water 
 in two hours and a half after entering it, and the 
 hot winds too soon dried our clothing. About 
 seven o'clock those who had saved themselves in 
 the river began arriving at the pit. They were the 
 worst used up crowd I have ever seen. Most of 
 the women had to be supported by s trpng arms 
 and the children were carried. Then the first 
 volunteer search party of the great fire went down 
 to the river, where a young man said he saw dead 
 bodies in the river. The party pulled out Mrs. 
 Martin Martinson and her three children, and 
 helped others out of the water who were unable 
 to move. Most of them would have died in a 
 short time if left there very much longer. 
 
 At half-past eight the survivors of the holocaust 
 who had remained in town straggled down to the 
 
ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 203 
 
 Eastern Minnesota railroad round-house, the only 
 building saved in the village. From the round- 
 house a good view could be had of the ruins, and 
 though our eyes were sore and swollen from the 
 smoke, heat and sand, and though we gazed on the 
 ruins of home and business, the scene presented 
 was grandly fascinating. It reminded one of the 
 great panorama of the " Destruction of Pompeii." 
 The streets looked like some climax in a grand 
 drama, the golden glow from the burning build- 
 ings lighting up the scene in a manner strangely 
 grand. Aftei a couple of hours rest in the round- 
 house, seven of us organized for a trip to Pine City 
 to get relief. We took a hand-car and started. 
 Our trip was necessarily slow, as the rails were 
 warped in places and we were afraid the culverts 
 were all burned out. It was my first experience as 
 a pilot on the road, and I confess I know little of 
 the track, but the work was to be done, and it 
 was. At Mission Creek we met the work train 
 putting in new culverts and repairing the track. 
 After considerable talk, we persuaded them to re- 
 turn to Pine City. " Hinckley is burned " spread 
 with lightning-like rapidit}^ through the village, 
 and its inhabitants were not slow in coming to the 
 succor ,of their unfortunate neighbors . The north- 
 bound limited, which was waiting there for orders, 
 was loaded with provisions and men anxious to 
 assist in the relief work. Arriving at Hinckley, 
 
204 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 
 
 food was given to the hungry and the sufferers 
 were made as comfortable as possible and taken 
 to Pine City. The work crew, with four hand-cars 
 loaded with relief men, started for Skunk Lake^ 
 where the south-bound St. Paul & Duluth limited 
 was burned. We arrived there about three o'clock 
 in the morning and found the belated passengers 
 camped beside the slough. We loaded passengers 
 bound for St. Paul on the hand-cars and began the 
 return to Hinckley about daylight. Along the 
 track was strew some thirty bodies who had suc- 
 cumbed to the fire and heat. At one point a wom- 
 an lay, face downward, her arms outstretched, 
 and under each arm lay two little children. She 
 bared her body to the heat in the hopes that her 
 little ones might be saved. At another point the 
 paternal love of a father was shown in the same 
 way for his eight-year-old boy. Coming back to 
 Hinckley, w r e were told by Allen Fraser, the man 
 who made the greatest fight and won in the Hinck- 
 ley fire, that more than a hundred dead bodies lay 
 in the marsh where he had saved his wife and little 
 ones and two men. The report was too true. It was 
 a gruesome sight, indeed, to see at first at day- 
 break a field of two acres covered with one hun- 
 dred and thirty burned bodies. No battle-field 
 ever could present a sight so terrible when death 
 in its most horrible form mowed down its victims. 
 In most cases there was little suffering before 
 
hinckley's fire chief iohx t. craig. 
 
ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 205 
 
 death. The victims, apparently, were suffocated 
 with smoke before the cruel flames lashed their 
 bodies. Sunday afternoon organized relief corps 
 assumed charge of the work, and from this on the 
 gruesome task of burying the dead and allieviat- 
 ing the suffering of the burned was carried on. 
 
 Anyone item in anyone instance could be woven 
 into columns of truth— startling, and, to one who 
 was so fortunate as to have never had the ex- 
 perience, seemingly unreal. 
 
 But Hinckly will rise again. Its business men 
 are of that true blue stamp that can never be dis- 
 couraged. Its people are sincere in their under- 
 takings, and have confidence, and justly, too, in 
 the future of the village. Though the fire made the 
 loss enormous as to property and inestimable as 
 to life, it placed it twenty years ahead as a farm- 
 ing country. When the legislature meets it will 
 probably be called upon to place monuments in 
 memory of those who fell at Hinckley, Sandstone 
 and Pokegama. 
 
 When we again hear the songs of the birds in the 
 summer, and the golden grain is being gathered in 
 autumn from the fertile soil around Hinckley, the 
 tale of the great Hinckley fire will be still being 
 told. 
 
 I would be ungrateful indeed were I to end this 
 feeble sketch without, as one of 1,500 people, ex- 
 tending my most sincere thanks to all the people 
 
206 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 
 
 • 
 
 of the country for the generosity, kindness and 
 assistance given these people when "a friend in 
 need was a friend indeed." Words are inadequate 
 to express the feeling which wells up within me 
 when I would thank the people for their kindness. 
 
 Angus Hay. 
 Rev. P. Knudson, the Presbyterian minister at 
 Hinckley, proved himself -worthy of bearing the 
 title of a shepherd of his flock, for no shepherd was 
 ever more solicituous for the welfare of those 
 under his charge than was Mr. Kundson and his 
 estimable wife in this hour of trial. In speaking 
 of the affair, he said that over two hundred of 
 those who were burned might have been saved had 
 they heeded advice and kept away from the river. 
 " The fact is," he went on, " they lost their reason 
 and stampeded like a lot of frightened cattle head- 
 long to destruction. Some tried to escape by 
 teams, and they were found dead in a heap after- 
 wards. I never saw a sadder sight. The horrors 
 of a battlefield are nothing in comparison. None 
 of us expected to be alive when the fire waves 
 passed over us, and those who did escape were 
 alone and helpless on the charred desert without 
 anything to eat or drink. Few bad any clothes. 
 I got six burned watermelons, and they were de- 
 voured by the people in the twinkling of an eye. 
 My wife milked one of the cows which escaped in 
 the pit, and that kept the children's bodies aiid 
 
ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 207 
 
 souls together. The Eastern Minnesota's water- 
 tank, the only structure left above ground, was 
 afterwards discovered, and proved our salvation. 
 Providence alone saved that for us. We were 
 all too blind to see each other/' 
 
 The greatest sorrow caused at Hinckley was 
 occasioned by the horrible death of Thomas G. 
 Dunn, telegraph operator at the St. Paul & Du- 
 luth station. Mr. Dunn was a universal favorite 
 with the boys of the St. Paul & Duluth. He was 
 the greatest hero of all the railroad men. He 
 waited at the key in the telegraph office for orders 
 for the limited train due in five minutes. But no 
 orders came, no train came, and the depot was 
 burning over the brave boy's head. Friends tried 
 to persuade him to leave his key, but he remained 
 until every passenger had left the depot. No one 
 else could do it. Other depots were closed. No 
 one could give orders ; no train could leave. His 
 grave is hallowed by the salt tears of the entire 
 community as well as by his fellow workers on the 
 line of the St. Paul & Duluth. His name will 
 always be remembered as worthy of the highest 
 praise, and an elaborate monument will be erected 
 by his sorrowing friends to mark the spot where 
 he lies. 
 
 Another very sad case is the death of Orlando 
 Rowley. He was on the limited that burned at 
 Skunk Lake, and when the fire had passed his body 
 
208 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 
 
 was found about three hundred yards from the 
 point where the train had stopped in a little trench 
 which runs from the shallow water to a swamp 
 near the lake, which he had undoubtedly entered 
 and followed, thinking by this means to reach the 
 lake and thus find deeper water and safety. Mr. 
 Rowley was the general passenger and freight 
 agent of the Duluth & Winnipeg road, and was 
 quite well known in both of the Twin Cities as 
 well as Duluth. 
 
 The list of heroes of this great fire will never be 
 enrolled save in that list where every man's deeds 
 are recorded. 
 
 There was the engineer of the "limited," who 
 picked out the only green spot for miles and bore 
 two hundred souls to safety through the terrible 
 ordeal, standing erect in the roasting heat, which 
 only iron fibres could endure. 
 
 There was the little hero, a West Duluth boy of 
 fourteen, who dragged two smaller children along 
 the weary miles from the wreck of the train to 
 salvation, where rescuers found them. 
 
 There was the young lover who carried his sick 
 betrothed for a mile through the flames on his 
 back to a place of safety, while the heat was so 
 intense that others walking beside him, and with 
 no burden, lay down to die. 
 
 There was the man who, after fighting the fire 
 for two hours, took up a crippled brother and bore 
 
ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 209 
 
 him in safety to the relief train. 
 
 There were telegraph operators who, by quick 
 decision and quicker action, saved hundreds of 
 lives. 
 
 There was the daughter who stayed beside the 
 bedside of her mother, who being in the pangs of 
 maternity, could not be moved, and who was not 
 to be dragged away from sharing her mother's 
 death until forcibly pulled from the already burn- 
 ing house. 
 
 There was gruff and good-natured Bull Henly, 
 the Hinckley sectionman, who stood in the road 
 and turned the steps of the flying people towards 
 the gravel pit. 
 
 There was little Freda Johnson, of Sandstone, 
 who saved the lives of her father and mother and 
 that of her little brother by inducing them to go 
 to the river instead of into the cellar as they had 
 intended. 
 
 There were the dozens of men whose positions in 
 death, as it instantaneously seized them, showed 
 they were hastening at all speed into the very face 
 of flames to the rescue of loved ones. 
 
 It were useless to attempt to enumerate them 
 all. Heroes were on all sides, indeed it required 
 heroic attributes to enable anyone to endure such 
 scenes and still retain their presence of mind enough 
 to assist those who were weaker and less fortunate 
 than themselves. 
 
210 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTvS. 
 
 A general survey of the district after the fire had 
 passed revealed a great many incidents which 
 were interesting and at the same time hard to 
 account for. 
 
 Among the many unidentified dead was a large 
 man frightfully burned. Underneath him was a 
 fragment of one of the pockets of his pants. In 
 this charred receptacle were three silver dollars 
 melted together, also a number of coins of smaller 
 denominations. Close alongside him was a set of 
 loading tools for a shotgun, but no gun was found 
 in the vicinity. Scarcely two feet away from the 
 body was a flask full of powder which had not ex- 
 ploded, nor did it seem in the least affected by the 
 fier}' ordeal, although part of the brass work of 
 the flask was melted into a common mass with the 
 copper sides. 
 
 At Sandstone on the damaged bridge of the East 
 em railway the north and south approaches were 
 reduced to cinders while the middle span was in- 
 tact, and on this part of the structure was found a 
 large dog which had evidently run onto the bridge 
 and was hemmed in by the fires at both ends. He 
 remained upon his perch on the bridge for three 
 days, and w T hen a bridge man finally climbed to 
 where he was he immediately attacked the man 
 rather savagely, and it was thought he had gone 
 mad and that the}' would be obliged to shoot him. 
 This did not prove to be the case, however, and he 
 
ANOTHER STORY — SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 211 
 
 was lowered with a rope and taken to Duluth, 
 and henceforth will bear a name which it would 
 seem even he might remember, that of Sandstone. 
 
 Near Skunk Lake is another and deeper body of 
 water, and into this life-saving pond some fifteen 
 settlers crept, followed not only by their domestic 
 animals, but by two deer, two timber wolves and 
 a big black bear besides smaller wild animals. 
 
 Close by the river at Hinckley on the south side 
 is the remnants of a kitchen garden. A large num- 
 ber of cabbages are there and they are thoroughly 
 cooked, as well as some potatoes, carrots and 
 onions . All the trees , big and little in the enclosure, 
 are totally destroyed, yet a light picket fence is 
 almost unhurt. 
 
 An unknown Swedish woman and child were 
 found in the Hinckley swamp close to town. The 
 woman was lying on the charred leaves of a Swed- 
 ish Bible. Late Saturday evening some charred 
 leaves of what appears to be part of the same book 
 floated down from the clouds and landed in Du- 
 luth on First street near the Kitchi Gammi club 
 house. 
 
 One woman, when she saw the flames approach- 
 ing, and seeing no means of escape, thought to 
 lessen her danger by throwing the contents of a 
 barrel over herself. There was not a great deal of 
 it, and she thought it was water, but it proved to 
 
212 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 
 
 be kerosene ! Imagine the condition of that wom- 
 an when the flames surrounded her. 
 
 Another instance connected with the fire that 
 will prove interesting : Engineer C . P . Fadden and 
 Fireman N. Reider, of the St. Paul & Duluth rail- 
 way, were bringing crippled Engine 19 on oneside> 
 light, from Duhith to St. Panl, and had reached 
 Hinckley before the fire. The dispatcher was just 
 sending him orders for continuance when the fire 
 reached the wires south of Hinckley and they went 
 down. This tied him up at Hinckley with his en- 
 gine, and when the flames struck the town, without 
 going through the formality of asking permission, 
 he ran his engine over the Eastern Minnesota 
 tracks and backed down near their round-house, 
 which was protected slightly by an open patch 
 and a grove of green trees, and was the only build- 
 ing left standing in the town. The engine was 
 slightly scorched and lagging burned, but her crew 
 stayed with her and brought her out in good shape. 
 
 Engineer Fadden is next to Root in standing 
 rights, having been on the road since 1872, and 
 when asked for a description of the conflagration 
 at its height, flames and smoke being all around 
 and over him, replied " he had been in hell, and saw 
 everything there was to be seen except Satan him- 
 self." 
 
 Another instance which illustrates thecapricious- 
 ness of the fire was the case of a farmer living a 
 
ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 313 
 
 short distance from the St. Paul & Duluth track, 
 which he reached and was following in an attempt 
 to escape until he became bewildered and exhausted 
 by the heat and smoke, and concluded he would 
 have to give up and that his time had come. 
 Blinded and suffocated, suffering intensely from 
 the heat, he ran into the woods at the side of the 
 track and there fell unconscious. When sensibility 
 returned he found himself in the center of a little 
 plot of ground not over twelve feet square, which 
 had been spared by the fire. Hearing a hand-car 
 pass a short time after, he made his way with 
 difficulty to the track and received aid from the 
 relief band . He told the men his story and showed 
 them the spot where he had lain, and everything on 
 ^all sides of this one spot had burned to a crisp. 
 
 A team of horses were driven into a clearing and 
 saved, yet the neck-yoke of the wagon was burned 
 from the tongue. 
 
 Numberless incidents of this kind could be cited, 
 which seem almost incredible to one who has not 
 actually seen them. For instance, a young sapling 
 was found growing and in good condition not six 
 feet from a tree thirty inches in diameter, which 
 had not only been burned up, but the very earth 
 at its roots had beencousumed. 
 
 A window holding at the same time both a sash 
 and screen was found after the fire, one lying on 
 top of the other, with the glass of the sash so 
 

 214 ANOTHER STORY—SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 
 
 melted over the wire of the screen that both seemed; 
 as one. 
 
 In the cellar of one house was found the remains 
 of what was once a watch and chain. As it fell 
 the chain hung out almost straight, and had been 
 melted into a solid bar. The watch lay at an 
 angle, the stem downward. The case had melted 
 and collected in a lump where the stem had been 
 and the works had been transformed into a shape- 
 less mass attached to the other. 
 
 Foreman Jim Bean, of the Brennan Lumber com- 
 pany, who was lost, had left his watch hanging in 
 his vest in the mill. A little heap of blackened 
 metal was recognized as Jim Bean's watch by a 
 little fragment of a thin, twisted chain which 
 escaped the action of the fire to make it certain 
 that its owner had gone to his death. 
 
 Perhaps more marvelous was the failure to burn 
 of the claim shanty of Frank Baumcher, just below 
 Mission Creek on the east side of theDuluth tracks. 
 Loosely put together and covered with ragged 
 
 tarred building paper, a more inviting object never 
 was exposed to fire. Green timber went up in 
 in smoke, yet it was overlooked, perhaps as being 
 to valueless to cut any figure in the total of de- 
 struction. 
 
 Trees were hollowed out and burned into all sorts 
 of grotesque shapes. Telegraph poles were burned 
 off in the center, leaving the stump below and the 
 
ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 215 
 
 lop with its cross-arm dangling from the wires 
 above. 
 
 Where there was not enough above the surface 
 to satisfy the appetite of the fire it ate its way 
 down into the depths along the roots of the trees. 
 
 Rather an odd circumstance was that experienced 
 by J. T. Clark and Tom Campbell, of Hinckley, 
 who on the day of the fire were fishing at Lake 
 Eleven, and who were counted as dead. They had 
 no idea of the extent of the disaster, and, as they 
 succeeded in escaping themselves, did not attempt 
 to return for several days. Finally a search party 
 was sent our for them, carrying spades and expect- 
 ing to bury them where they were found ; and it 
 proved a surprise party indeed for all concerned, as 
 the searchers were met by those whom they sought 
 on their way home and still very mnch alive. It 
 is needless to say that the burial was dispensed 
 with in this particular case. Sandstone can boast 
 of an attraction which even Barnum hasn't got, in 
 the shape of a one-eyed pig that somehow or other 
 got out of his pen and into the river. His com- 
 panion was literally roasted alive, but "Paddy," 
 as he is called, escaped, and he is now a privileged 
 character and the pet of the town. He has only 
 one eye left, but, as one of Sandstone's citizens 
 says, "He's no fool of a pig, and he can lick any 
 dog in the town." 
 
 The druggist at Hinckley, speaking of the holo- 
 

 216 ANOTHER STORY-SOME PERTINENT EACTS. 
 
 canst, says: "I filled three barrels with water 
 and left them standing on the platform of my well. 
 After the fire the only thing that was left of those 
 barrels was the bottoms, heads and hoops. They 
 were barrels that had been water-soaked, and still 
 they burned." 
 
 That the Indians of the section shared the fate 
 of their pale-face brethren is vonched for by the 
 following clipping from a Dulnth paper : 
 
 M Pokegama, Minn., Sept. 7.— A courier brings a 
 report that the bodies of twenty-three Chippewa 
 Indians, bncks, squaws and pappooses, lie upon the 
 baked sands between here and Opstead, a small 
 settlement on the eastern shore of LakeMille Lacs. 
 They are scattered over ten miles of country, and 
 will in all probability prove food for buzzards and 
 wolves, as the country where they died is too far 
 from civilization for burial ceremonies. 
 
 "The Indians left their reservation two months 
 ago and built a hunting lodge along one of the 
 forks of Shadridge creek. Chief Wacouta was the 
 " big chief" of the party, and he perished with his 
 followers. The first body found by the courier 
 was that of an infant barely a year old. Then 
 came those of two squaws and five children . They 
 had evidently turned west when the flames swept 
 the forest. A ride of a mile brought him to a pile 
 of ashes, which marked the site of the hunting 
 camp. 
 
ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 217 
 
 There was one tepee, the shriveled raw hide 
 thongs marking the place where it stood. Around 
 it were the ruins of a half dozen birchwood bark 
 shanties, and protruding from the ashes were the 
 fused barrels of rifles and shot-guns. Then for five 
 miles the pathway was lined with charred bodies. 
 
 Pokegama Lodge, Knights of Pythias, which is 
 located at Pine City, deserves honorable mention 
 forthepartit played during the great calamity. 
 As has already been stated, the ground floor of the 
 hall belonging to this lodge was turned into a 
 kitchen and dining room for the use of the sufferers. 
 There were nine members of this lodge that were in 
 the fire, three of whom were burned to death. The 
 lodge cared for the these members, as K. P.'s are 
 always cared for, and in addition quite a sum of 
 money was raised by the lodge, not only for their 
 afflicted brothers, but also for the outside sufferers. 
 Dr. B. E. Barnum, Dr. E. L. Stephan, Dr. Cowan 
 and John Y. Breckenridge, who have been before 
 mentioned as prominent in relief work, were all 
 members of this lodge, and not only these, but all 
 members of the order did all that was in their 
 power for the sufferers. Pokegama Lodge has 
 exemplified the teachings of the order, and words of 
 praise are heard on all sides from the people at Pine 
 City toward the order of Knights of Pythias in 
 general and Pokegama Lodge in particular. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RETROSPECTIVE-A GENERAL SURVEY. 
 
 ^TpHE perusal of' the foregoing pages cannot fail 
 * to give the reader an impression of the calam- 
 ity of which it treats, sad in the extreme; but at 
 the same time to those of a more sanguine temper- 
 ment, comes a feeling akin to pride, in the realiza- 
 tion of the fact, that they are citizens of a com- 
 monwealth, which in truth is a government by the 
 people and for the people, and that in spite of the 
 fact that by this dire calamity whole counties had 
 been laid waste and hundreds had been made home- 
 less and penniless, their sufferings had been relieved 
 in every manner possible by the munificence of 
 their fellow citizens, as soon as the combined 
 forces of lightning and steam could carry relief to 
 them. It brings a realization of " the fatherhood 
 of God and the brotherhood of man." No one 
 who passed through the fiery furnace and escaped, 
 could fail to appreciate the words of one of the fire 
 heroes, Engineer Wm. Best, who in speaking of the 
 calamity said: '* I'm not much of a church^man. 
 We railroad men seldom are, but there's one thing, 
 my friend, I tell you, God almighty was good to 
 us that day." 
 
 218 
 
RETROSPECTIVE-A GENERAL SURVEY. 219 
 
 And for those whom we call less fortunate, to 
 those that have passed beyond, is it for us to say 
 that God in his Infinite Goodness, was not merci- 
 ful to them, too ? They have simply reached the 
 border that must come soon or late, and it s 
 passage was made so quickly they scarcely realized 
 their fate. A moment and all was over, a breath 
 of that hot gas and they were unconscious, another 
 and the soul had passed. This is without doubt 
 the manner of death of the majority of the victims 
 although invariably the bodies were afterward 
 so burned that recognition was impossible. Tbe 
 only gratifying feature of the whole horrible affair 
 has been the manner in which the whole peo- 
 ple responded to the call for assistance. One 
 touch of sympathy makes the whole world kin. 
 Never was a truism more aptly spoken and never 
 was its truth more fully exemplified than in the 
 States of Minnesota and Wisconsin in the few days 
 immediately following the fire. Almost as one 
 man, high and low, rich and poor, capitalists, 
 laborers, professional men and merchants, ladies 
 who were society leaders and those whose paths 
 lay in the humbler walks of life, showed the best 
 sides of their natures and contributed freely to the 
 fund, which was to be used to aid the sufferers. 
 The work was noble, unselfish, quiet and unosten- 
 tatious, because the pall fell upon all alike, and the 
 people mourned with the mourners, and suffered 
 
:220 RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 
 
 with the sufferers, because their hearts and minds 
 were tonched and they felt that the least they could 
 do for their brothers in this, their time of affliction 
 was to give from their bountiful store that which 
 was needed most and they could spare best. Another 
 train of thought which might be followed to some 
 length in connection with the fire, is its origin and 
 the cause which led up to it, from a scientific stand- 
 point. Much has already been written on this 
 subject, and whether its origin was electrical, or 
 was genera ced through spontaneous combustion, 
 or caught in the old-fashioned way it is not in the 
 province of the writer to decide; neither will hecon- 
 sider the question as to whether the fire generated 
 the wind or the wind begot the fire, but is satis- 
 fied to say that nothing so terrible in its effects, or 
 in its appearance has ever come upon any people. 
 Even the description Bulver gives of the destruc- 
 tion of Pompeii is not too much to apply to the 
 destructive elements of this holocaust in the vicin- 
 ity of Hinckley and Sandstone. The loss to the 
 section in dollars and cents will never be known 
 and is certainly very difficult to even estimate, but 
 it is estimated that $12,000,000 will cover the 
 total loss to the lumber interests and citizens in 
 the section covered by this great fire. This is over 
 $2,000,000 larger than the estimated loss in the 
 Johnstown disaster of 188), and the loss is cer- 
 tainly more wide-spread and effects a class of peo- 
 
RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 221 
 
 pie more dependent upon what little they had in 
 the world, in that they were farmers, and in many 
 cases the product of years of toil and cultiva- 
 tion, were wiped out and they were left totally de- 
 pendent, without even an axe to begin a new life 
 with. The loss of life in this case was about one- 
 fifth of the loss in the Johnstown flood and the 
 contributions for the relief are about one thirtieth 
 of the amount received to alleviate the sufferers cf 
 the Pensylvania calamity. 
 
 Inasmuch as thisvolume has portrayed the dark 
 side of one of the blackest chapters in the history 
 of the States of Minnesota and Wisconsin, it is 
 only fair that a few pages should be given to the 
 brighter side, or the prevailing conditions in the 
 country and a few facts which might prove interest- 
 ing to prospective residents of the garden spots of 
 the world. 
 
 In the rush to the prairies beyond ; the great and 
 varied inducements Minnesota offers to home- 
 seekers, investors and promotors of industrial en- 
 terprises have been strangely overlooked. The im- 
 pelling motive that led the early settlers to seek 
 the prairies of the far west and the Pacific shores 
 left no room for scrutiny of the fertile areas they 
 were passing over. Besides the extensive tracts of 
 rich alluvial lands along the many rivers and 
 around the innumerable lakes and the countless 
 mill streams, affording perpetual water.power for 
 manufacturing purposes, there are in addition im~ 
 
222 RETROSPECTIVE — A GENERAL SURVEY. 
 
 mense areas of mixed timber and prairie lands 
 dotted over with never failing springs, lakes and 
 running streams of pure clear water to entice tha 
 stock-raiser, wool-grower, gardener and all, who 
 wish to engage in any line of diversified farming. 
 With a healthful climate all the year round, every 
 variety of soil for all the products of garden and 
 field, with excellent transportation facilities and 
 convenient markets, there are all the factors that 
 contribute to the health, comfort and prosperity 
 of the industrious settler. 
 
 There are millions of acres in the state now to be 
 had at from $2 to $5 per acre, on eighty acres of 
 which any industrious man could make his family 
 comfortable and independent, after enduring for a 
 short time the toil and privation incident to the 
 making of a home on unimproved land. In a few 
 years at the rate at which desirable land is being 
 occupied the present splendid openings will be no 
 longer within the reach of the incoming home- 
 seeker. With its delightful climate, health, excel- 
 lent water, cereal crops, grasses, wealth of 
 minerals, stock raising capabilities, unsurpassed 
 timber, an industrious peaceable people, this great 
 grain, stock and dairy country, Northern Minne- 
 sota, offers unparelleled attractions to all classes 
 of immigrants. 
 
 Many people in the east have little or no idea of 
 the true conditions of life and the accompaniments 
 
RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 223 
 
 of civilization to be found in the west. The preva- 
 lent conception of eastern people is of Indians in 
 native garb and reckless cowboys with an absence 
 of the comforts of civilization and law and order 
 of settled communities. They are surprised to be 
 told that civilization in many respects is in a more 
 advanced stage in the west than in the east. 
 Many small towns of Minnesota can boast of 
 electric lights, electric railways, telephones, tele- 
 graphs, water- works, libraries and a fine class of 
 public, commercial and resident buildings, un- 
 equalled in towns of similar size in the eastern 
 states. The western man quickly hears of what is 
 new in science, religion, literature or business, as 
 he is vigorous, intelligent and quick to move; he 
 has adapted and is using the eleetric force to light 
 and heat his house and propel his railways, the 
 power of steam to plow his fields and thresh his 
 grain before these improvements are generally em- 
 ployed in similar ways in the east. Owing to the 
 rapid growth of settlement his live newspapers, 
 churches, schools, societies and the desirable social 
 conditions are soon established. 
 
 One of the first things thought of by a man who 
 contemplates removing his family to a new 
 country is the facilities for educating his children. 
 No doubt many have been deterred from settling 
 in the west by a groundless fear that the newly 
 settled district would not have the educational 
 
224 RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 
 
 advantages, religious privileges and pleasant sur- 
 roundings that they would desire and conse- 
 quently have turned aside to less desirable regions 
 farther south. As far as Minnesota is concerned a 
 few facts will dissipate this fear. This state has a 
 permanent school fund $11,508,800, This rich 
 endownment is more than double that of any 
 other state in the Union, Kansas and Texas, ex- 
 cepted, and very much larger than either of these 
 alone. No state in the Union has a more compre- 
 hensive school system, embracing common schools 
 where the rudiments of all branches of education 
 are taught, high grade schools, normal schools for 
 the education of teachers, an agricultural college 
 and experiment station ; a University and Medical 
 Colleges for iDrofessional training, and the deaf, 
 dumb and blind are taught whatever modern skill 
 or science can impart. These institutions have 
 ample pecuniary aid and are under charge of 
 teachers who will compare favorably with those 
 of any other state. The permanent fund of the 
 State University is considerably over one million 
 dollars, and in number of students ranks third 
 among the universities of the United States. The 
 annual revenue for the support of the schools of 
 the state is $3,700,000. The above list does not 
 include denominational universities and colleges of 
 which there are a large number. There is proba- 
 bly no state in the Union that pays more for the 
 
RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 225 
 
 support of all classes of educational institutions 
 and none pays it more cheerfully than Minnesota. 
 No state makes a more generous provision for its 
 public schools or has a more complete and effective 
 system ; and among the attractions of this state 
 and the inducements it holds out to intending 
 immigrants none are more worthy of attention 
 than these facilities for popular and religious educa- 
 tion. 
 
 There are over five million acres of free govern- 
 ment lands in the various counties of Northern 
 Minnesota still unoccupied, and the Northern 
 Pacific, St. Paul & Duluth and Great Northern R. 
 R. Companies offer over two million acres of land 
 for sale at prices ranging chiefly from $2 to $6 
 per acre and on easy terms . To the rich and varied 
 resources of the state combined with its healthful 
 cl|mate is due its rapid advancement in population 
 and wealth. There have been 1,328,336 acres of 
 government lands taken up in the past three years 
 and the remaining five million acres may be ex- 
 pected to be appropriated in the near future. 
 
 Three important river systems have their source 
 in Northern Minnesota, the Mississippi, the Red 
 River of the North and the St. Louis and other 
 streams flowing into Lake Superior. This posi- 
 tion of Minnesota at the head of the waters, so to 
 speak of the continent, is typical of her com- 
 mercial and industrial situation. 
 
226 RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY 
 
 Northern Minnesota consists of diversified tim- 
 ber and prairie lands interspersed with innumer- 
 able lakes, streams, and natural meadows. Many 
 charming locations can be had by the shores of the 
 sylvan lakes and on the banks of the clear running 
 streams. All the grains, grasses, vegetables and 
 small fruits of temperate latitudes grow in profu- 
 sion, and the convenient markets of St. Paul, 
 Minneapolis, Duluth and Superior, and many 
 prosperous towns throughout the state afford 
 ready sale for the products of the forest, farm and 
 garden. To those who wish to engage in general 
 farming, stock-raising, wool-growing, dairying, 
 gardening, poultry-raising, bee-keeping or the rais- 
 ing of small fruits no more attractive or suitable 
 region can be found than Northern Minnesota. 
 The woods abound in game and the lakes contain 
 the finest varieties of fresh water food-fish, compris- 
 ing black and rock bass, lake trout, white fish, 
 muskallonge, pickerel, pike, perch, catfish, and 
 wall-eye pike. The climate of the state is health- 
 ful and invigorating. The summers and autumns 
 are nowhere more delightful. The dry pure air 
 mitigates the summer's heat and modifies the 
 winter's cold. The climate has for years been 
 remarkable for its beneficial effects on consump- 
 tives, more particularly the pine forests regions of 
 the north. 1"!;? n^i'irtcrc-i'P Is^lic rofjOTiP rr!"! 
 
RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 227 
 
 every summer multitudes of visitors who are in 
 quest of health, recreation and enjoyment. 
 
 The recent extensive forest fires have accom- 
 plished for the settler what would otherwise 
 require years of unremitting toil. Over large areas 
 of fine agricultural country have the fallen timber 
 and underbush been completely cleared from the 
 surface, leaving comparatively little to be done by 
 the settler to prepare the ground for agricultural 
 operations. This is eminently true of extensive 
 areas along the line of the Northern Pacific and 
 St. Paul and Duluth Railroads. 
 
 PINE COUNTY. 
 
 This is the county in which the effects of the 
 great forest fires were most severe. It occupies an 
 especially advantageous position being nearly 
 midway between St. Paul and Duluth at the head 
 of the great lakes. The county contains 1,400 
 square miles of land and has twenty-six lakes 
 within its borders. A large number of streams 
 flowing into the St. Croix and Kettle River, one of 
 its largest tributaries, drain all parts of the county. 
 It is not as its name implies a pine country for 
 two-thirds of its surface is covered with a fine 
 growth of maple, oak, ash, elm, hickory, birch, 
 linden, aspen and other hardwoods. The surface 
 is gently undulating and rolling and hilly adjacent 
 to some of the larger rivers. Lumbering up to the 
 
228 RETROSPECTIVE- A GENERAL SURVEY. 
 
 present time has been the leading industry, but 
 since the fine agricultural resources of the country 
 are becoming better known rapid progress in set- 
 tlement may be looked for. A fine quality of sand- 
 stone is found along the Kettle River, and the 
 quarrying and shipment of stone gives employ- 
 ment to large numbers of men. In most of the 
 county there is a fertile black soil about one foot 
 in depth, underlaid with a reddish gray subsoil 
 of clay. Wheat, oats, potatoes, garden vegeta- 
 bles, small fruits, etc., yield bountiful returns. 
 There are 122,340 acres of free government land 
 awaiting settlement, and there is much cheap rail- 
 road land belonging to the St. Paul & Duluth and 
 Northern Pacific Railroads. Two railroad lines 
 traverse the county and the advantageous location 
 of this region to markets renders it an inviting one 
 to prospective homeseekers. The farmer, stock- 
 raiser, gardner, horticulturist, dairyman, or those 
 who wish to raise small fruits or poultry will find 
 in this county inducements unsurpassed by any 
 other portion of the United States, and to the in- 
 dustrious a comfortable living, and early compe- 
 tence is nowhere more assured. 
 
 The present population of the county is 6,000 and 
 the principal towns are Pine City, Hinckley, Sand- 
 stone, Willow River, Finlayson, Rutledge, Sturgeon 
 Lake, Partridge and Kerrick. 
 
 The "Lake Park Region" largely comprised 
 
RETROSPECTIVE —A GENERAL SURVEY. 229 
 
 in counties of Becker, Otter Tail, Douglas and 
 Wadena is the most picturesque and romantic 
 portion of the state. It consists of beautiful 
 undulating prairies interspersed with groves, 
 lakes and fringes of forest trees, the timbered 
 areas becoming more frequent and densely covered 
 as the higher portions of the region are reached. 
 Very much of it is an intermingling of wood- 
 land and prairie, and in considerable areas there 
 is little undergrowth, and large black oaks 
 with widely spreading tops stand far enough 
 apart for the thick growth of grass to thrive be- 
 neath them, giving the locality the appearance of 
 a well kept park. This feature gives it the name 
 of "Park Region." In the wooded district there 
 are occasional marshes partially covered with 
 growths of cedar, tamarack, cranberries or wild 
 rice. No more perfect pleasure resorts are to be 
 found in any part of the world than are afforded 
 by the beautiful lakes of this region, embowered 
 by groves and possessing the park-like features 
 already described. This was the veritable para- 
 dise of the Indian, and it is scarcely less attractive 
 to the civilized men of to-day. It is the ideal 
 country for a home. Its waters and forests are 
 full of life. The soil will produce liberally every- 
 thing that the farmer wishes to raise and reward 
 his industry with a (plentiful harvest. Wheat, 
 oats, rye, barley, peas, flint-corn, timothy, the 
 
230 RETROvSPECTIVE — A GENERAL SURVEY 
 
 clovers, vegetables and small fruits yield bountiful 
 returns. Nowhere is the natural herbage more 
 abundant, botanists have enumerated about 150 
 species and varieties of native grasses among 
 which the most prevalent are blue-joint, northern 
 red top, timothy, white clover and meadow oat 
 grass. 
 
 The soil varies from black sandy loam to clay 
 and sand in places. The cutting and hauling of 
 cordwood, railroad ties, poles, pile timber, staves 
 and wood fibre and pulp for paper manufacture 
 furnish employment to large numbers of men and 
 teams during the winter season. Settlers of 
 limited means can in this way do much to support 
 themselves and famiiies while establishing a home, 
 and those on timbered lands in the neighborhood 
 of saw mills and railroads can clear their farms 
 free of cost. - Many are also employed in the ex- 
 tensive iron mines and lumber camps gf the north- 
 ern counties. 
 
 In the " Park Region " all conditions are favor- 
 able for the raising of cattle, horses and sheep. 
 The grasses are nutritious, the pastures are green 
 all summer, hay is abundant, the numerous lakes, 
 ponds and streams afford pure water to every 
 farm, and the dry crisp cold of the winter is con- 
 ducive to health in the animals. They do not run 
 down during the winter months as they do in wet 
 and changeable climates. Of almost every indus- 
 
RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 231 
 
 try pursued in Minnesota an equally favorable 
 account can be rendered by the inhabitants of the 
 " Park Region." Even corn, which is supposed to 
 flourish best in warmer latitudes can be cultivated 
 successfully here. 
 
 There are several million acres of government 
 lands yet open for homesteading free under the 
 United States land laws in the Lake Park Region 
 and in Aitkin County. The Northern Pacific Rail- 
 road Company also offers for sale over one million 
 acres of land in these districts at prices ranging 
 chiefly from $2 to $5 per acre and on five years 
 time if desired. 
 
 Among the towns of this region may be men- 
 tioned Brainerd, Detroit, Wadena, Perham, Fergus 
 Falls, Lake Park, Park Rapids, Motley, Verndale 
 and Aitkin. 
 
 AITKIN COUNTY. 
 
 This is one of the newer agricultural counties of 
 the state, and little more than one-hundredth part 
 of the more than one million acres included in the 
 county is under cultivation. The soil consists of a 
 sandy loam with a clay subsoil, and the surface 
 was formerly mostty timber with the exception of 
 some fine meadow land in various portions of the 
 county. The recent forest fires swept over more 
 than a third of the county leaving many cleared 
 areas inviting to the settler. The forest portions 
 
232 RETROSPECTIVE — A GENERAL SURVEY. 
 
 consists of belts or patches of pines and other coni 
 fers, alternating with areas of deciduous trees; 
 maples, the ashes, ironwood, oak, basswood, elm, 
 and poplar, the pine prevailing in the northern 
 part. Considerable sugar and syrup is made in 
 the districts where the sugar maple abounds . 
 Cherries, wild plums, strawberries, currants, goose- 
 berries, blueberries, grapes and cranberries are 
 abundant. There are numerous beautiful lakes 
 well stocked with whitefish, bass, trout, pickerel, 
 pike, sunfish and other varieties. Half of the 
 magnificent sheet of water known as Mille Lacs is 
 in this county. This lake has an area of about 204 
 square miles and is deep with clear, pure water and 
 gravelly bottom. Its waters are so clear that ob- 
 jects fifteen feet below the surface may be plainly 
 seen. Its banks are high and firm except at the 
 south end where Rum River issues from it. There 
 ishaidly a lake in the world of similar size that 
 affords so many beautifully residence sites on its 
 shores or better facilities for boating and fish- 
 ing. The county is well watered by nume/ous 
 tributaries of the Mississippi, and is crossed east 
 and west near its central portion by the Northern 
 Pacific R.R. which own 95,000 acres of land within 
 its boundaries. There are also 96,000 acres of 
 free government land awaiting occupancy. Con- 
 sidering its advantages this county offers superior 
 inducements to settlers. The principal towns are 
 
RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 233 
 
 Aitkin, McGregor and Kimberley. Other villages 
 and postoffices are Attica, Libby, Hickory, Malmo, 
 Nichols, Portage and Wealtchood. 
 
 Northern Wisconsin is greatly diversified in stir- 
 face consisting of heavily timbered pine uplands, 
 lakes, rivers and tamarack swamps. As Lake 
 Superior is approached, the country becomes more 
 rugged, the shores of the lake being picturesque 
 and beautiful. No better trout streams are found 
 on the continent than these which enter Lake 
 Superior from the Wisconsin shores . In Washburn, 
 Sawyer and Bayfield counties are numerous lakes 
 abounding in nearly all varieties of fresh water 
 fish. Wild game, including deer, moose, partridge, 
 grouse, bear and occasional cariboo are found in 
 the woods and geese and ducks are very plentiful 
 on the lakes in their season . Like Northern Minne- 
 sota, Northern Wisconsin is the paradise of the 
 hunter, trapper and fisherman, and its soil and 
 timber has many attractions for the farmer and 
 woodsman. 
 
 In the counties mentioned above there yet 
 remain 144,287, acres of government lands open 
 for settlement. There are numerous prosperous 
 cities and towns in this region, among which are 
 Superior, Ashland, Bayfield, Hayward, Shell Lake 
 and Barronett. Lumbering operations are very 
 extensively carried on and the farming communities 
 are rapidly extending. 
 
FINIS. 
 
 For particulars regarding lands and other 
 data of interest to a person contemplating invest- 
 ment or removal to the Northwest, application 
 can be made to Mr. Wm. H. Phipps, Land Com" 
 missioner of the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- 
 pany, St. Paul, Minn., and full information con- 
 cerning the country will be furnished them . 
 
APPENDIX. 
 LIST OF PERSONS WHO ARE KNOWN TO BE DEAD 
 
 John G. Anderson 
 Mrs. John G Anderson, 
 Charles Anderson, 
 Emily Anderson, 
 Mrs. Cora Abbey, 
 Albert Abbey, 
 Floyd Abbey, 
 Lloyd Abbey 
 John Burke. 
 Burke's father, 
 James Beon, 
 John Best. 
 Mrs. Eva Best* 
 George Best. 
 Fred Best. 
 William Best. 
 Bertha Best. 
 Victor Best. 
 Nels Eck. 
 Andrew Edstrom. 
 Edstrom's mother. 
 Mrs. Erickson's friend. 
 
 Miss. Annie Truttman of 
 Diamond Bluffs Wis., 
 visiting with Bests. 
 William Costegan. 
 Mrs. Effie Costigan, 
 Effie Costigan, 
 Irma Costigan, 
 Myrtle Costigan, 
 Jennie Costigan, 
 Billy Costigan, 
 Hazel the baby. 
 David Cain, 
 Mrs. David Cain. 
 Mike Currie, 
 Mrs. Mike Currie. 
 Tom Corbett. 
 Louis Chambers, 
 Pat Fitzgerald. 
 Mrs. D. Donohue; 
 Mary Donohue. 
 Katie Donohue. 
 Esther Donohue. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Mrs. Pat. Fitzgerald. 
 John Fitzgerald, 14, 
 Mary Fitzgerald, 13. 
 Patsy Fitzgerald, 12. 
 Mrs. Nelson Frick. 
 David Frick, 10. 
 Fred Frick, 8. 
 John Frick, 6. 
 Richard Frick, 4. 
 Mrs. W. Grissinger. 
 Collie Grissinger, 10. 
 Mable Grissinger, 8. 
 Nathan Hopkins. 
 Mrs. N. Hopkins. 
 Mother Hopkins; 
 Sister Hopkins. 
 Louis Nelson. 
 Peter Johnson, 35. 
 Mrs. Annie Johnson, 31. 
 Annie Johnson, 12 
 Tom J. Jones, 40. 
 Alfred Johnson, 29, 
 James Kelly, 43. 
 Thomas J. Lowell. 
 Mrs. Thomas J. Lowell. 
 Esther Lowell. 
 Chester Lowell. 
 Mrs. Lind, Skunk Lake. 
 Four children of Mrs. Lind. 
 Mrs. Betsy Nelson. 
 William Nelson, 
 Otto Olson. 
 Three children. 
 
 William Ginder. 
 
 Mrs. Wm. Ginder, 
 
 Willie Ginder, 9. 
 
 Jennie Ginder, 9, 
 
 Winnie Ginder, 8. 
 
 James Gonizar. 
 
 Emma Dolvan, 24. 
 
 Belle O'Brien, 20. 
 
 Annie Wallace, 28. 
 
 Henry Hanson. 
 
 Mrs. Clara Hansen. 
 
 Ed. Hanson, 32. 
 
 Mrs, Ed. Hanson, 29. 
 Annie Hanson, 18. 
 
 Hilda Hanson, 6. 
 
 Edwin Hanson, 4. 
 Jessie Hanson, 8. 
 
 Mrs. John E. Hanson. 
 John McDonald. 
 John J. McDonald. 
 Mrs. Jas. McNamara. 
 John McNamara. 
 James McNamara. 
 Michael McNamara. 
 Mike Murphy. 
 H. W. Mathiason. 
 Mrs. M, Mathiason. 
 Baby Mathiason. 
 Ida Mathiason, 9. 
 Emma Mathiason, 7. 
 Hilda Mathiason, 5. 
 Martinson's Child. 
 Mary Nelson. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Four Children. 
 Peter Peterson. 
 William Penoyer. 
 John Rogers, 39. 
 Mrs. John Rogers, 36. 
 Mary Rogers, 4. 
 Maud Rogers, 2. 
 Baby Rogers, 7 days 
 Chris. Rustin. 
 Mrs. Chris. Rustin. 
 Three children. 
 Paul Schlanow 26. 
 Mrs. Karine Stjerpka, 29. 
 Mrs. Noble Sherman. 
 Romazo Sherman. 
 Leslie Sherman. 
 Johnnie Sherman. 
 Flora Sherman. 
 Fred Sherman. 
 Mrs. Fred Sherman. 
 William Sherman. 
 Bina Sherman. 
 George Sherman. 
 Earl Sherman. 
 Ralph Sherman. 
 Old Tom, 56. 
 Anton Weigel. 
 Mrs. Anton Weigel. 
 Girl 4 years. 
 
 Mrs. Thomas Westby, 34. 
 Sophie Westby, 8. 
 Samuel Westby, 3. 
 Louis Wold, 34. 
 Alfred Wold, 12. 
 
 Gustave Newstrom. 
 Mrs. G. Newstrom. 
 Two Children. 
 Maggie Nyberg. 
 Dennis Riley. 
 Mrs. Dennis Riley. 
 Tom Riley. 
 Jamie Riley. 
 L. Reynolds. 
 Mrs. L. Reynolds. 
 Three children. 
 W. Richetson, 58. 
 Mrs. W. Richeton, 58. 
 John Robinson, 44, 
 Mrs. John Robinson. 
 Three children. 
 Otto Rowley. 
 John Ross, 
 Mrs. H. Paulson. 
 Joseph Stromberg. 
 Mrs. Joseph Stromberg. 
 Charles Stromberg, 21. 
 Oscar Stromberg, 13. 
 Albert Stromberg, 11. 
 Mary Stromberg, 9. 
 Augusta Stromberg, 6. 
 
 Stromberg, 22. 
 
 Mrs. Geo. Winretter, 24. 
 Thomas W T estby, 38. 
 Tom Westby, 10. 
 Ginder Westby, 5. 
 Baby Westby, 1. 
 Mrs. Louis Wold, 30. 
 Ida Wold, 10. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Christ. Wold, 6. 
 Grand father, Wold 62. 
 Mrs. John Westman, 32. 
 Mrs. Westland, 25. 
 Her sister and child. 
 
 Child 1. 
 
 John Westman, 36- 
 Child Westman, 2. 
 Sophie Waski, 29* 
 Baby Waski, 1. 
 
 Fred Molander. 
 Two children. 
 Mrs. Chas. Anderson. 
 Oscar Olson. 
 Mrs. Olson, St. Paul. 
 Thomas Raymond 
 Three children 
 James Barnes. 
 
 POKEGAMA DEAD. 
 
 Mrs. Fred Molander. 
 Charles Anderson. 
 Three child reen. 
 Nora Olson: 
 Charles Olson. 
 Mrs. Raymond, 
 Erick Larson. 
 Mr. Whitney. 
 David Goodell. 
 
 PINE CITY. 
 Sandy Henderson, 13. John Henderson. 12. 
 
 ACTUALLY IDENTIFIED. 
 
 Axel Hanson, Bill Nesbitt, 
 
 Tom Dunn, opr. Dennis Riley, 
 
 Jerry Crowley, Mrs. Martinson and 
 
 five children who were drowned. 
 
 WISCONSIN'S DEAD. 
 
 Alex Erickson. 
 
 Williams. 
 
 Maggie Bargron, 25. 
 Mrs. Tawney, 26! 
 Walter Graft, 18 months. 
 
 Theophile Bedard. 
 Frank Bargron, 30; 
 Isaac Tawney, 4/1 'i 
 Elisha Tawney, 6. 
 Willie Tawney, 13. 
 
 Jessie Tawney. 4. 
 
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