Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1896 — ONTONAGON IN ASHES. [ARTICLE]

ONTONAGON IN ASHES.

LITERALLY WIPED OFFTHE FACE OF THE EARTH. Loss Aggregates $2,000,000, and Includes the Diamond Match PlantInsurance Abont Half—2,3oo People Homeless. Old Ontonagon in Rnins. Ontonagon was wiped out by fire Tuesday. The fire has left absolutely nothing of the town. Two thousand people, who were comfortably housed Tuesday morning are now homeless and without food or shelter. - The ruin involves the extensive lumber and box manufacturing plant of the Dia mond Match Company, an establishment alone worth upward of $1,000,000 and reported to carry abont $500,000 of insiir.anee on lumber and plant. The catastrophe "begun with the small fires -in the’ swamp just south of town, toxvbich.no attention was paid, as they were not considered dangerous. But the wimUfnjsh-, ened to a gale from the south, Up swamm fires were driven into the seasoned'Jun-' her piles in eiose proximity, and before effective defense could bo made the flames were beyond control and driving straight for the village at a rate so rapid that in (thing was thought of but the salvation .of hitman lives. In response to appeals 'the railroad companies sent all 'kvailable engines and cars. At 4 o’clock Tuesday afternoon the operators in the telegraph offices were driven from their keys, as that office was centrally located. The loss is "'•‘11 covered by insurance and some companies, notably the Mechanics, of Milwaukee. are reported very heavy losers. Ihe Diamond Match Company's fire brigade made a heroic light against fearful odds. They were joined by every able-bodied man of the town, but their eftorts to check the progress of the fire were unavailing. The flames burned thenway to the lake, leaving only ruin behind them. There was slight delay on tlie part of the townspeople and the Diamond Match operatives in organizing for defensive measures. When their battle began the huge lumber idles of the match company were* already on fire. These piles had been under tlie summer sun for weeks and wore as dry as tinder. Firemen and citizens choking for breath, burned in many ins' a ¥o the tpi ink, suddenly fled for their lives.

The Duluth. South Shore and Atlantic, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Roads, which both enter Ontonagon, were appealed to for help. Every available engiuo ifiid car on tlie two roads within reaching distunec was called into service and sent to the burning town. While most of the relief trains were sent to Pori with the rescued people, a great many wore left at Rockland, which, singularly enough, escaped the worst of the tire. All the plant of the Diamond Match Company laid south of the limits of Ontonagon. There the tire was first the fiercest, and from there it swept northward into the town. Before the affrighted people really appreciated how great a danger confronted them billows of flames were sweeping over their homes, the postoffice, the county buildings, the pewspn per plants and the telegraph office. The operator stayed at his post until the fire was cracking the glass iu the windows of the building he was in. Then he fled with tho multitude, which had ceased to fight, and was only seeking a place of safety. The relief trains of the railroad companies, unable to reach their depots, which Were surrounded by tire, stopped out in the center of the district where Once were millions of feet of standing pine. Through the stuinpage people, wandered as best they could and boarded the ears. Not one of the hundreds of homeless brought away any property but the clothing worn when the lire first became alarming. There was no time lor saving property. It was a race for life, and men and women ran, leaving behind them the savings of years, to be destroyed in a few seconds by the flames.

The most frightful feature of the fire aside from the probable loss of life, is that the destruction of Ontonagon is in nil probability permanent. The thriving place, tlxe oldest town on the Upper Peninsula. will never be rebuilt. The pine forests, which gave it prominence lor many years and led the Diamond Match Company to make it the headquarters of their manufacturing interests, have disappeared. There is no more timber to be cut. That the mills will be rebuilt no one believes. There is not a business block nor a house of any value standing. The homeless are being sheltered iu box cars so far as possible. All that made the town a place of business importance has gone with-the flawest, and 2,500 people are left wanderers op the face of the earth. The loss will aggregate between sl.000,000 and $2,000,000. The town had a system of water works installed a year ago. but it appears to have become dis-i. aided early in the light, and to have been practically useless when most needed. The people burned out of their homos will have to receive outside assistance or suffer from cold and hunger this winter. The amount of lumber burned is estimated at .’iO.OOO.tMK) feet, but this cannot be confirmed, owing to the fact that all wires west of Nestoria have been down since early in the afternoon and details as to the stock of lumber on the docks and in the yards of the Diamond Match Company are not obtainable. It is safe to say that at least 20,000,(XX) feet has been destroyed. Owing to what was supposed to be fairly good tire protection the insurance companies have written lines freely on Ontonagon property, and in consequence some of them are heavily caught. The Milwaukee Mechanics did a heavy business there, and must lose correspondingly. The insureure carried by the Diamond Match Comimny is said to have been $500,(MX 1 . This was on the lumber and manufacturing plant. 'file' tire was staWed by a farmer while burning brush about two miles southwest of the city several days ago. It had nearly gone,nout when he.,gale of Tuesday merging started it up, and destruction followed. Ontonagon was on the shore of Lake Superior, where the Ontotiagon River einp-'. ties. The village was formerly a mining town, but the mines weregradually abandoned. and the lumber industry became its principal support. There have been thousands of acres of pine within reach of (>ntonagoa. artd millions of feet of logs were floated down the river every year and made into lumber in the saw mills of the village. The mills gave employment to some SiN) men. and a box factory employed 100 more. Resides there were planing mills and other industries on a smaller scale. There were Catholic. Episcopal Methodist and Presbyterian churches; a. opera bouse, with a seating capacity m S(X), built a short time ago: a bank, a fine public school building and a court house. Two newspapers, the Miner and the llerahl, wore published. It is safe to say at least, one-half of the late oat crop near Warren is ruined by wet weather. Acres have been cut and are not dry enough to haul. This, is also true of the potato crop. Hugs and rot will reduce the yield greatly.