South Bend, IN Morrison Hotel Fire, Jun 1900

Fatal Hotel Fire.

South Bend, Ind., June 20.-Fire in the Morrison Hotel early this morning resulted in the death of L.C. Smart, a telephone lineman, and the serious injury of six other persons. Loss $25,000.

New Haven Register, New Haven, CT 20 Jun 1900

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Hotel Fire

Causes One Death and Numerous Injured.

Incendiary Work.

Explosion in the Hostelry-Guests Cut Off by Flames-Panic Ensues-Property Loss,

South Bend, Ind., June 20.-(A.P.)-Morrison hotel, early today was destroyed by fire which is supposed to have been of incendiary origin. One man was killed, six persons seriously injured and a number of others received minor injuries.

The killed is L.C. Smart, of Hudson, Mich., a telephone lineman. The injured are: Mrs. F. Smith, actress, leg broken and badly burned; F. Smith, actor, burned; Fred Myers, Adrian, Mich., traveling agent, burned; John R. Johnson, South Bend, burned; Michael Lynch, South Bend, injured in the head; William Allen, Muncie, Ind., actor, burned about the head.

The fire started in the rear and was followed almost immediately by a terrific explosion. Instantly a panic ensued and guests ran into the corridors only to find escape by the stairway cut off by a mass of flames. Mrs. F. Smith was blown through a window on the third floor.

The property loss is estimated at $15,000.

The Evening Repository, Canton, OH 20 Jun 1900

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Killed At South Bend

Louis Smart, a Former Lenawee Boy Meets Death.

Jumped from a Hotel Third Story Window.

Louis Smart, a young man who resided with his mother at Hudson , met death tragically at 2 this morning at South Bond, Ind. He was boarding at the Morrison house in that city, and fire broke out there at the hour mentioned. Mr. Smart was cut off from the stairway, and plunged out of a third story window, the fall to the ground below causing almost instant death.

Word was received at Hudson this morning, and the young man’s uncle, Ex-mayor Henry O. Hall, accompanied by Undertaker Z.C. Lowe, went to South Bend to bring the remains home. They are expected there tonight, and the funeral will probably take place Friday under K.P. auspices.

The unfortunate young man was the only son of the late Dr. A.R. Smart, who was born in Adrian, and whose family is well known through Lenawee. He went to South Bend Sunday to take a position with the Bell Telephone Co., he being an expert electrician. His untimely death is universally regretted. A sad phase of the unfortunate affair is in the fact that his widowed mother does not believe he is dead, and when the remains reach home the shock will be terrible to her.

[illegible] has relatives in Adrian, Hon. Seth Boan’s and Asa Aldrich’s families being connected. Mrs. Lula Spence will go to Hudson to-night, and Mrs. Asa Aldrich to-morrow.

Adrian Daily Telegram, Adrian, MI 20 Jun 1900

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