Great Fire in Clarksville, Tenn.

A destructive fire occurred at Clarksville on the 13th . The best judges estimate the loss at $500,000. The burnt district covers fifteen acres. The GRACY Warehouse covered over one acre itself. The Hartford Insurance Company lost about $16,000; the Equitable, of Nashville, $18,500; Liverpool and London, $9,000; Home, of New York, $10,000; Aetna, Hartford, and State, of Nashville, $7,500 each; Continental, of New York, $3,000; and Phoenix, of Brooklyn, $12,000. These are estimated as comprising the aggregated loss on between fifty and seventy-five of the principal houses.
It is now definitely ascertained that fifty-seven house were destroyed by the Clarksville fire, including the best buildings in the city. The insurance is estimated at $150,000. The fire is regarded as the work of an incendiary, with whom the blacks seemed to deeply sympathize, refusing aid in suppressing the flames.

Policeman PHILLIPS shot and killed a negro named SEATS while resisting him with stones. This aroused a feeling among the blacks, who threatened to mob PHILLIPS, and he was placed in jail for safety.

It is supposed the fire was the result of the recent lynching of a negro for the attempted rape of a white girl, and SEATS'S death.

Nine hundred hogsheads of tabacco[sic] were destroyed by the fire and rain. The list of houses embraces all kinds of business, and among them newspaper offices, court-house, bank, Central Hotel, hook and ladder houses, two jewelry stores, two dry goods stores, eight groceries, two public halls, and ten residences.

The Richwood Gazette Ohio 1878-04-18