May, TX Fire, Feb 1909

Fire At May, Tex.; Damage $25,000

Three Business Houses Sustain Losses-Powder Explosion Adds To Destruction.

Special To The News.
Brownwood, Tex., Feb. 10.-Fire last night at May, a small inland town eighteen miles north of here, resulted in a loss of $25,000. Three business houses were destroyed with their stock of goods. Losses are as follows: L. E. Donalson $12,000, insurance $5,400; J.T. Miller $10,000, insurance not known; T.D. Snipes $1,000, insurance not known; J.B. Brown $500.

The Donalson stock was almost a total loss. Some of the Miller hardware stock was saved and perhaps one-half of the Snipes drug stock was saved. During the fire a keg of powder exploded in Miller’s store and wrecked the burning building and broke window lights out of almost all the other business houses of the town.

The cause of the fire is not known, but is thought to be of accidental origin. The exact amount of insurance carried could not be learned.

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 11 Feb 1909
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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!