Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1910 — Town of Reynolds Rejuvenated By a Costly Fire. [ARTICLE]

Town of Reynolds Rejuvenated By a Costly Fire.

Some times a fire is a good thing for a town and for the people in a town. For many years Reynolds, White county, was regarded as a very poor and dilapidated town. It deserved some of the jokes people said in talking about it. If a person is a joke it is that person’s own fault, but if a town is a joke the fault is with the people of the town and in the case of Reynolds it took a fire to save the old town from the junk pile. The fire came on the night of Aug. 27th, 1907. It was a big fire, yes, a good big fire, and it don’t make any difference how you interpret the word “good.” It wiped up as choice a lot of old frame shacks as ever disgraced an otherwise good little business burg. It went from one end of the block to the other and improved the looks of things with its brush of fire.. The shacks were not well insured. They were a bad risk and the rate was high. The stocks of goods likewise were poorly Insured. That was tough on the owners. But a fire is no respecter of financial conditions and sheds no tears. Reynolds did not cry much over the “spilt milk.” Brick and cement buildings sprang from the ashes and Reynolds moved up a notch in the standing of towns in this section of Indiana. There is. no better looking small town anywhere now than Reynolds, and a fire, a costly fire, that worked some hardships, did it. Town property there is worth more, farms in that neighborhood have increased in value, there is more satisfaction to the man who does business there, and the business men, for the most part the same men who suffered heavy losses, are enjoying conveniences that were impossible prior to Aug. 27, 1907. It’s an ill fire that _burns no one some good. Reynolds was rejuvenated and now the risk is better and insurance is cheaper and all are happier and a lot better off.