Steubenville, OH Fire, Aug 1893

STEUBENVILLE BADLY SCORCHED.

A Very Serious Fire There Yesterday Afternoon.

TWENTY BUILDINGS DESTROYED,

And a Dozen or More Others More or Less Damaged.

THE LOSS WILL REACH ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.

One Man Badly Burned, and Another Murdered During the Fire - Help Sent from This City - The Origin of the Fire Not Definitely Explained.

The worst fire known to the history of Steubenville broke out in B. N. Lindsay's wash house, on the east side of Fourth street, about half-past two o'clock yesterday afternoon, and burned for two hours, totally destroyed about twenty buildings, and damaged a dozen others to a serious extent.

The aggregate loss was variously estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but the first named figure is probably the one nearest correct. Nothing could by told of a definite nature about the insurance, last evening, but it is known that several of our local companies held policies on the burned structures.

There was no loss of life directly attributed to the fire; but during the progress of the blaze a murder occurred on Market street in the center of the business portion of the city, which added immensely to the popular excitement.

THE FIRE AND THE RUIN IT WROUGHT.

About half-past wo [sic] a fire broke out in some unknown manner in the wash house adjoining the residence of B. N. Lindsay, on the east side of Fourth street, south of Market. An alarm was promptly turned in and the department responded, but before the firemen could get down to effective work the flames had spread to Falk & O'Neal's restaurant, ice cream saloon, etc., adjoining on the south, and fanned by a stiff breeze which was blowing from the north, adjoining property was soon on fire, on the south and east, and it became patent to the thousands of people who had been by this time attracted to the scene that Steubenville was in for one of the biggest conflagrations in all her history. The firemen brought every bit of fire-fighting apparatus at their command into play, and were aided by hundreds of volunteers from among the ranks of the citizens, but despite every exertion the flames spread from house to house along the east side of Fourth street, and to the east towards Court street, and a few minutes after three o'clock, after a consultation between Mayor Scott and Fire Chief Barney Martin, it was resolved to telegraph to Wheeling for aid, and a message was dispatched to Mayor Caldwell, asking for help. This message was received about half-past three o'clock, and after a conference with Chairmen of the Fire Committee Edward Robertson, the Atlantic engine company was ordered to Fourteenth and Water streets, and a train of flat cars on the Pan-Handle road was prepared to take the apparatus to the threatened city.

Meanwhile the fire continued to spread, and at half-past three had burned south almost as far as Adams street, had crossed Court street to the east, and had did considerable damage to property on the west side of Fourth street, taking hold of several buildings on that side of the street, upon different occasions, but being as often extinguished by the firemen, who kept a close watch upon that side. At four o'clock it was seen that the fire would at least be confined to the square north of Adams street, and would not extend west of Fourth, and half an hour later the danger was passed, and when the Wheeling train arrived, at twenty-five minutes of five, after a remarkably fast train, their services were not needed. The Wheeling boys would, nevertheless, have limbered up their engine a little, but it was found that the suction pipes would not fit the fire plugs, the threads on the screws not being the same on the pipes as upon the plugs. This difficulty could have been overcome had the situation been a serious one, but as it was, the apparatus was taken back to the cars, and about half-past five was loaded up.

A complete list of the buildings burned or damaged is as follows:

BUILDINGS DESTROYED

On Fourth street, east side - L. N. Brandenburg, grocery; E. B. Potts, notions, etc.; Henry Shafer, music; Leavisson, notions, etc.; William Swearingen, meat shop; Dr. E. A. McLain, residence; John Shilling, residence; Humble's millinery store; Falk & O'Neal's restaurant, ice cream saloon and residence; Atlantic Tea Company; George Fisher, grocery; Lindsley's stable; Shaw & Ford, plumbers; Patriotic Order Sons of America; Walter Haler, saloon.

East side Court street - Shannon's stables; Louis Anderson's stable; Wm. Helms & Son, blacksmith shop; Laughlin's double dwelling house.

West side of Court street - Jacob Chapman's blacksmith shop.

PARTIALLY DESTROYED OR DAMAGED.

East side of Fourth street - Jacob Eagle's New Home; Lemuel Branenburg's grocery.

West side of Fourth street - Mrs. D. W. Meyers' residence; A. P. Rabe's novelty store; Hugh Robinson's grocery; Porter & McKee's meat store; J. W. Stuart & Co., music; James Barry.

North side of Adams street - residence of the Misses Paxton; dwelling owned by Hugh S. Coble; residence of Hugh S. Coble; "Round Corner Hotel" stable.

In addition to the list, several other buildings suffered from a slight scorching, broken glass, blistered paint, or other comparatively small damage, but these individual small losses will be quite large in the aggregate.

Soon after the fire broke out Frank Grace, William Stark, and several other volunteers were in the second story of Lindsay's stable, getting out some buggies, when the flames burst in upon them. There was general and hurried exodus from the place, but before Grace could get out he was badly burned about the face, neck and hands. He was also quite badly injured by a fall from the burning building, and it was freely reported during the fire that he would die from his injuries. Happily, his hurts are not so bad. William Stark was among those who jumped, and it was also reported that he had been badly hurt, but his bruises were of a trifling nature. Several other people had narrow escapes from injury, but none were hurt beyond a few trifling burns.

As the fire progressed most of the walls of the burned buildings came down with a crash, and at four o'clock one standing on the west side of Fourth street and looking east, could have an uninterrupted view clear across through Court street to Third, a distance of two squares. The whole of the lower portion of the immense square was a mass of torn and twisted walls, smoking embers and blazing ruins, while on the south side of the block, along Adams street, the buildings were almost completely wrecked, the water destroying what the fire had spared. With the exception of H. S. Coble's brick residence, and Lemuel Brannenburg's grocery, on the corner of Fourth and Adams streets, both structures being of brick, not a building on that half of the square will ever be habitable again.

On the west side of Fourth street several of the business houses were badly damaged by the intense heat, and on two or three the fire got a pretty good hold. It looked for a time, about half-past three, as if the square west of Fourth street would share the fate of that east of it, and many household effects and business stocks were removed to places of greater security.

TRIP OF THE WHEELING FIREMEN.

It was four o'clock when the work of loading the Atlantic engine and hose wagon on two flat cars was completed at Fourteenth and Water streets, and Engineer Frank Leary pulled open the throttle of engine No. 85. On board the cars, in addition to Foreman John Ritter and his crew, were Councilmen Robertson and Dinger, of the Fire Committee, D. R. Brooks, John L. Shriver, Attorney T. M. Garvin, Sheriff A. A. Franzheim, Constable Lon St. Meyers, Lieutenant Walter Terrill, Officer William Carney, George Stamm, Frank Caldwell, Edward Duffy, and a dozen or fifteen more equally well known people, all intent on seeing the fire and lending a helping hand. The prgress made was not fast until the "Top" mill was reached, then Engineer Leary let his machine out is earnest, and the way that engine ran was a caution to the crowd upon the flat cars with the steamer and hose wagon. Short Creek was reached in seven minutes after leaving the mill, Wellsburg in seventeen minutes from Wheeling, and when the flying engine was pulled up at Wheeling Junction she had made the ran from the "Top" mill in just twenty-eight minutes, doing a mile a minute for a good deal of the way. In five minutes more the train was at the Pan-Handle depot in Steubenville, and the engine was being unloaded, while the Wheeling men, black with engine smoke and their eyes and ears filled with cinders, broke for the fire, dragging the hose wagon with them. The train had been givena great cheer as it flew through Wellsburg by the large crowd about the depot, but that was nothing to the hearty greeting they got from the people of Steubenville, and many ran out from the sidewalks to help drag the fire machines through the streets in the corner of Fourth and Adams streets. The visitors were given a hearty greeting on every side, although not a man of them could have been recognized by his dearest friend, so covered were they with dirt. Preparations were at once made to get the Atlantic to work, but it was found that the engine coupling would not fit the fire plug, and without taking action to remedy this defect, it was decided that the Steubenville firemen were sufficient to finish the fight they had carried on so well, and in half an hour or so the Wheeling outfit was taken back to the cars and loaded for the return trip. The train arrived back in this city about half-past seven o'clock.

The smoke from the burning buildings in Steubenville could be seen from the Wheeling train soon after it passed through Wellsburg, and there was much excitement manifested all along the road, the people being out at almost every farmhouse and dwelling from Wellsburg to the Junction, and everywhere along the route handkerchiefs were waved at the flying special with the fire apparatus aboard.

The Wheeling Register, Wheeling, WV 15 Aug 1893
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!