Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1908 — ANOTHER BIG FIRE OVER AT GOODLAND [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER BIG FIRE OVER AT GOODLAND

Masonic Temple and Other Property Valued at $16,000 Destroyed Early Saturday Morning. Goodlartd, Newton county, twenty miles southwest of Rensselaer, was visited by another expensive conflagration early this Saturday morning, and before the fires could be extinguished the Masonic building and a frame and sheet iron building ad- ■ joining it. were burned to the ground, including the la»-ge implement and harness stores of R. H. Ross, who removed to that place from Monticello not long ago. • The fire was discovered at about 3 o’clock in the work room of the Ross harness store in the small frame building, which was covered with sheet iron. The building was partly two story, the heat from it was so intense that the Masonic building, a two story brick building, was ignited and burned to the ground. The ground floor of tlie Masonic building was stocked with implements belonging to Mr. Ross, and all of these were destroyed, the total loss to Mr. Ross be- • ing about SIO,OOO. He had insurance in the sum of $6,500, havng reduced it from $8,500 only a few Weeks before the fire. The Masonic building was valued at $4,500 and there was $2,000 insurance on it. The frame building was valued at $1,500 and was the property of a man named Surface living in Indianapolis. The total fire loss was $16,500, and oh this there is at least $9,000 insurance. -Goodland has suffered greatly from fires, their school building having been consumed by flames the 21st of last January.