Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 201, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1910 — WESTERN FOREST FIRES CAUSE CONCERN HERE. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN FOREST FIRES CAUSE CONCERN HERE.

Jasper County People Have Relatives I* Western States Near Scene of Destructive Forest Fires. Jasper county people are worried about relatives in Montana, Oregon, Idaho and Washington, owing to the intense forest fires that have been raging there Ibr*several days. Many people have relatives near the burnt districts and white it is improbable that they are in any personal danger, it is feared that they may be and also that their farms may be greatly damaged. Near Hamilton, Mont., live Mr. and Mrs. Ed Mills, and Mrs. Julia A. Healey is at the home of Mrs. Mills, her daughter. A telegram to the papers Tuesday from Hamilton stated that the fire was raging in forests near Woodside, which is only a mile and a half from the Mills farm. No word has been received by relatives here from there for several days. E. E. Stephenson, formerly of Parr, whose wife is now at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Kirk, in this city, has a fruit farm near Missoula, also in the burning district. Considerable concern is also felt for Mr. and Mrs. Jennings Wright, of this city, who with Mr. and Mrs. Albert Marshall, of Medford, Oreg., are supposed to be on a hunting expedition in the mountains some 90 miles from Medford add in the neighborhood of the fires. The only ones heard about that have really been in danger, are Mr. and Mrs. Walter Osborne, who had claims near Lane, Idaho. Mrs. Osborne is a sister of the wife of County Treasurer J. D. Allman. Mrs. Osborne Tuesday telegraphed her father, Levi Hawkins, of Crawfordsville, that they had been driven from their homes by the flames. A telegram to the Indianapolis Star says: “The four families of Homesteaders who were reported burned to death on LaTour Creek, Kootenai county, Idaho, escaped by wading fifteen miles along the bed of the creek with fire burning down to the water’s edge, forcing the refugees frequently to submerge themselves when the flames reached their faces. The families were those of Walter Osborne, B. A. Smith, F. O. Andress and J. O. Andress. The aged father of the Andress boys was borne on a stretcher by the other men. They arrived at St. Joe with their clothing charred and almost falling from their bodies." Mrs. J. J. Eigelsbach, mother of Mrs. Albert Marshall, of Medford, Oreg., left for there Tuesday evening. She was somewhat alarmed, owing to the belief that her daughter and her husband might be hunting in the stricken district. Relatives here will be greatly eased when they have received word of the safety of thein kinfolks in the northwest.