Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2024 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Boston Daily Globe Monday, 17 November 1873 Destructive Conflagration at Haverhill, Mass. Loss about $200,000 A Staggering Blow to the Shoe Business of the City. Haverhill, November 16, - The conflagration here, this morning, will be remembered as the most exten- sive that has occurred in the local history of the city. It broke out at 2:58 o'clock, when a policeman, patrolling his beat, saw a small flame issuing from a wooden building known as the Washburn block, situ- ated in the central business part of the city and near the Merrimack River. The engine houses of the "City of Haverhill," one of three steamers belonging to the City Fire Department, was within a stone's throw of the point where the fire was discovered. An abundance of water was to be had from the Merrimack or the Little River, which enters the Merrimack near the engine house, and as there was no wind there seemed no cause to fear that the fire would be exten- sive. The main business street of Haverhill is Washington street, and it was between this and the river that the fire originated. The steamers went into position promptly, on the river bank, got well at work, and would probably have brought the fire under easy subjection, or confined it to the wooden structures, had it not been for the intensity of the heat and the volumes of smoke, which compelled them to cut loose from their hose and fly into Washington Square. The flames made the most of this interval of inaction. Half a dozen little frame structures, tene- ments, stables and rookeries scattered along the river bank and around Washburn block, furnished the kindlings, and by the time the firemen were in readi- ness to begin work anew, the fire had seized on Gilman's frame building, standing on Washington street, occupied by A. W. Chase and Boynton & George, shoe manufacturers. The fire was still at work on this building when Prescott's block, adjoining, on the west, the finest manufactory in the country, blazed out at the roof, and in a few minutes occurred the explosion which occasioned the fatalities of the fire. Fears had been entertained of the boiler in Prescott's basement, but no attention had been paid to two or three barrels of shoe manufacturers' cement that were stored in the factories above. This cement is composed largely of turpentine, and, as soon as the flames touched it, a frightful ex- plosion occurred, throwing over the east wall of the Prescott building on Gilman's frame building, the fall of the rear wall at the same time carrying down what was standing of Washburn building. The lives lost were those of MR. AMOS GEORGE, a shoe manufacturer, who had gone into the Gilmore build- ing to save his books, and AMOS HEATH, an employe of Mr. BOYNTON, a shoe manufacturer in the same building. PHILIP TYRELL, a shoe maker who barely escaped the shower of hot bricks, believes that there is another body in the ruins, but it has not yet been found. The explosion at Prescott's block gave new impetus to the flames, and they swept westward on the south side of Washington street, taking, is succession, the manufactory occupied by Russ & Noyes, Johnson & Wiggin, Johnson & Carlton, L. A. Finney, Kimball Brothers, A. L. Kimball, and minor firms. Within about two hours the fire swept over an area of about 40,000 square feet, reduced eighteen buildings and stores to ashes, and occasioned a loss, total or partial, to thirty-five business firms, all of whom except Sawyer & Johnson, machinists, were connected in some way with the manufacture of shoes. About a tenth of the manufacturers in Haverhill are losers, and the whole loss will aggregate $180,000 to $200,000, on which there is an insurance of about $100,000. [Transcriber note: value of business losses omitted from this transcription.] MR. GEORGE, one of the victims, has a wife and step-daughter in Haverhill. He has lived there from twenty to thirty years. HEATH lived in Bradford, and owned a house or two there. Assistant Fire Engineer CHENEY was injured in the face by a fall, and Captain LITTLE of Steam Fire Engine Essex, was injured in the head and arms by a falling wall. A fireman, named HUTCHINSON, fell througha roof, and another was injured slightly. Aid was summoned from Lawrence at 4 o'clock, and Washington 4 of that city came over the ten miles between there and Haverhill, on the highway, in one hour and ten minutes. Nothing is known as to the origin of the fire, except that it started in Washburn block. The blow will fall severely upon Haverhill at this time, as the burned out firms employed from 600 to 800 operatives. ===========================================================================