Detroit, MI Michigan Central Freight Bldg Fire, Nov 1850

M. C. R. R. FIRE IN 1850.

NOVEMBER 20, 1850, in the early morning, fire broke out in the large cupola of the Michigan Central freight building, an immense structure for those days, and quite as extensive, it seems to me, as the present one. The building and all its contents were lost, including 10 freight cars, 15,000 barrels of flour, 25,000 bushels of wheat, 2,000 bushels of corn and a quantity of miscellaneous freight.

Of the flour, some 1,000 or 1,500 barrels happened to be piled on the dock, on the river front. Most of this was rolled into the river to save it from the flames, and settlers all along both sides of the river to its mouth got the benefit.

The fire was supposed to be the work of an incendiary, through the agency of some kind of an apparatus confined in a small box filled with combustibles. It was set to explode at a certain hour. As free access was had to the cupola during the day by persons desiring to get a fine view of the river and opposite shore, it was an easy job for a visitor to deposit such an article in that locality if so disposed, and quietly and safely wait the result.

I think the fact of the burning of the depot by one of the railroad conspirators was established at their trial for lawless acts on their part perpetrated against the Michigan Central Railroad Company. I presume many will remember this trial. It came off at the Firemen’s Hall, this city (I do not remember the date), and attracted wide attention. Eminent counsel were engaged on both sides, prominent among whom were Colonel John Van Armen, of Michigan; Hon. W. H. Seward, of Auburn, N. Y., and Hon. Eli Cook, of Buffalo, N. Y. I was in the court room many times during the trial.

Early days in Detroit : papers By 1906 Friend Palmer, page 347
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