Memphis, TN Steamer GOLDEN CITY Fire, Mar 1882

A HOLOCAUST !!

A Mississippi River Steamer Destroyed by Fire.

About Sixty Deck and Cabin Passengers on Board.

Thirty-five of Whom Perish in the Pursuing Flames.

Passengers Jump Overboard to Drown in the River – Frightful Scenes.

Stowe's Circus on Board the Steamer and a Total Loss.
The Steamer Sinks.

A BURNING BOAT.

Thirty-Five Persons Perish in the Flames – A Terrible Scene.

(By Telegraph to the Sentinel)
MEMPHIS, March 30 – The Cincinnati and New Orleans packet, Golden City, en route from New Orleans to Cincinnati, burned at the wharf this morning at 4:30. Fifty lives were lost, principally women and children.

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, March 30 – The steamer Golden City, of the southern transportation company's line, when approaching the wharf this morning, at half-past four o'clock, was discovered on fire by the second engineer, ROBERT KELLY, who immediately notified Capt. BRICE PURCELL, and the pilot on watch. The boat's bow was at once headed for the shore, and in four minutes afterwards she touched the wharf at the foot of Beale street, where the coal fleet is moored. A line was hastily thrown and made fast to one of the coal barges but the current being swift it soon parted and the burning steamer floated on down the river, a mass of flames, with many of her passengers and crew on board, who were unable to reach shore and were lost. The Golden City left New Orleans last Saturday en route to Cincinnati. She carried a crew of about sixty. She had aboard forty cabin passengers, fifteen of whom were ladies and nine children. Her cargo consisted of three hundred tons, among which was a lot of jute. The fire is said to have had its origin in this combustible material. Among those known to have been lost are:
DR. MONAHAN and wife, Jackson, Ohio.
MRS. CRARY, Cincinnati.
MISS LUELLA CRARY, Cincinnati.
W. H. STOWE, wife and two children.
OLLIE WOOD and wife, Henderson, Kentucky.
MRS. ANNA SMITH, Massachusetts.
MISS CAMPBELL.
MRS. HELEN PERCIVAL.
MRS. L. E. KOUCS (unsure of spelling), and three children.
The books of the steamer were lost, so it is impossible to gather a complete list of the lost and saved. All the officers of the steamer are safe except the second engineer, ROBERT KELLEY. He, it was, who first discovered the fire, gave the alarm and stood at his post of duty until cut off by the flames, for the fire spread like lightning, and he sacrificed his life to save others. Nearly all of the cabin and deck crew saved themselves. Stowe's circus was taken aboard at Nidalia, Louisiana, and six cages of animals and birds together with the ticket and band wagon, tents and horses were lost. MARLON PARRELL, one of the pilots, was in the clerk's office when the alarm was first sounded, and he rushed through the cabin, bursting in the state room doors and awakening the passengers. So rapid did the flames spread that within five minutes after discovering the fire, which broke amid-ship, the aft part of the steamer was all ablaze.

Continued on page 2