Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1893 — ACRES ARE IN ASHES. [ARTICLE]

ACRES ARE IN ASHES.

RUIN WROUGHT BY THE SOUTH CHICAGO FIRE. Many Families Destitute of Shelter, Food and Clothing—Thieves Tillage tho TerrorStricken People—Money Loss Not So Great as Reported. A Blackened Waste. Late reports say that the loss from the terrible fire' which nearly swept the village of South Chicago off the earth will be at least ono-fourth less than was estimated during the progress of the conflagration. The official report of the police is that 131 houses were burned in place of 200 or 250 as reported first. One who is familiar with the character and cost of the structures said that the average cost of the burned dwellings was $1,500, and that they were mostly insured. A conservative estimate of the losses on buildings, exclusive of the larger ones, churches and the like, is $190,500. It seems “impossible, however, to get anything like an accurate statement as to the amount and value of property destroyed. Bv the time the cooler estimates of tne fire were complete the total losses were figured like the sums given below: LOWEST ESTIMATE. 131 buildings at Louis Frey's ertlmate of average cost of $1,500 $196,600 German Lutheran Church, Ulst street and Superior avenue 11,000 Zion’s Lutheran School, 9lst stroct and Superior avenue.... 3,800 First M. E. Church, Superior avenue, between 90th an i 9lst streets 6,000 Sunday Creek Coal Company, George K. Edwards’ estimate 60,000 A. T. Thatcher estate, coal plant, Harbor avenue and river 26,000 Total $291,090 HIGHEST ESTIMATE. 131 buildings at George K. Edwards' estimate of average cost of $2,200 $286,000 German Lutheran Church at 91st street and Superior avenue 11,000 Zion's Lutheran Sohool at 91st street and Superior avenue 3,600 First M. E. Church, on Superior avenue, between 90th and 91st streets 6,000 Sunday Creek Coal Company, Superintendent L. H. Bullock's estimate.. . .176,000 A. T. Thatoher estate, coal plant, Harbor avenue and river 26,000 Total ....$606,600 Various rumors wore current as to the origin of the fire, which those best informed declared was caused by a small bonfire built, by the children of Conrad Papp, who lived at 142 Ninetyfirst street. In some manner a spark from this bonfire foil upon some hay which was stored in a barn in the roar of Papp’s house. A hot breeze from the northwest had blown stoadily all day, and everything was like tinder. When the flames wore seen bursting through the roof of tho barn, the combustible material with which the Papp residence was surrounded proved to be ready fuel for their progress, and it was evident from tho start that a serious blaze was inevitable. The flames were spread rapidly by tho flying sparks in every direction, and seeing that tho surrounding property was in imminent danger, Captain Wilson at once turned in a 4-11 alarm. Another theory is that 9-year-old Birdie May, daughter of John May, who lived 1 “at 9048 Superior avenue, started tbo'fconflagration while at play in the* yard of Patrick Tulley’s house in she roar of William Giles’ residence at 159 Ninety-first street. It is said that the child threw away a burning piece of paper she had lighted and it lodged under the porch of the Tulley house, setting the rubbish on fire, the flames from which caught tho house. Mrs. Tulley barely escaped from the house with her two children. From there the fire spread to the Giles’ house and soon through the entire burned district.

Nearly oi.e hundred and forty buildings went down before the flames like straw in a furnace, and an immense district, twenty acres in extent, is all that remains in. blackened and distorted ugliness of what was the site of a multitude of happy and contented homes. Immense lumber yards and huge coal sheds vanished b afore the fierce onslaught of the fire, and hundreds of South Chicago’s population stood panic strickon and appalled around the charred fragments of their former homes. Utter desolation prevailed among the homeless. Women and children roamed the streets until 3 o’clock in the morning. Some of them were given shelter by kind neighbors. Others slept on the bare ground in hack yards and vacant lots. Children. were * crying for,food and their parents had none to give them. The community seemed paralyzed by the misfortune that had overtaken it. If the stories of the homeless ones around those ruins are to be believed the excitement attending the fire was made the occasion of wholesale robbery. Men with wagons drove up to the houses nearest the fire, coolly loaded on their vehicles everything portable in the places and drove away in spite of the protests of tho rightful owners.