Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2023 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 Daily American Sunday, 3 January 1892 FIRE AND DEATH NASHVILLE'S DUAL VISITATION OF HORRORS Many Magnificent Storehouses Burned to the Earth The Total Loss Will Aggregate a Half Million Dollars Starting the Store of Webb, Stevenson & Co The Flames Work Their Way North and South Fanned to Fury by a Gale of Wind The Western Union and Entire Noel Block Destroyed Tragic Death of Capt. Gowdy and Two of His Men They Are Crushed Beneath Fallen Walls While Fighting Valiently List of the Losers and Estimate of the Insurance - Particulars of the Second Greatest Fire in Nashville The small crowd that gathered in response to the fire alarm from Box 5 at 5:40 o'clock last night little thought that the cause of the alarm was to develop into a conflagration that will stand in Nash- ville history second only to the destructive flames of 1881. The air was permeated with the smell of smoke; the firemen broke through the alley between College, Cherry, Church and Union streets, but not the least luridity or extraordinary luminousness or any kind of evidence of fire was visible. Then minutes passed; the engines were working; the grand block of buildings occupied by A. J. Warren, Webb, Stevenson & Co., A. J. Rhodes, Atwell & Sneed, and the vacant house lately occupied by Johnson & Murdock, stood gloomy and silent in the early dusk. The crowd grew impatient. Some of them went away, and those who remained were scarcely discernible in the darkness. Suddenly, however, there was a crackling sound, the peculiar tingle caused by melting tin, and a pillar of fire rose from the roof of the building occupied by Webb, Stevenson & Co. A murmer arose from the crowd. The pillar gathered strength and volume, and voices were heard all down the street shouting, "The whole block is gone." They were right. The whole block was gone. And more. The flames seem to have originated on the fourth floor of Webb, Stevenson & Co.'s building, and the exact cause of it must forever remain unknown. On that level stoves, tinware and non-combustible materials generally were kept. There may have been waste paper and the packing taken from around goods received lying about, but those who were in the build- ing during the day cannot recall the presence of a great amount of such in any one place. The last man left the store at 5:30, but it was some hours pre- vious to that when the top floor was visited. Another theory is that the fire originated in the cellar and ran up to the fourth floor before spreading. It was now 5:50 o'clock, ten minutes after the alarm was sounded. The flames had just shown them- selves. Two streams from the engines were playing against the rear, and one crew had gone in at the front with another line of hose. But the streams were weak. The two in the rear could not reach high enough, and the crew that went inside found too many twists in the stairway to reach the seat of the trouble quickly. The chemical engine was utterly helpless, and with the exception of spitting on one or two awnings that were catching it was out classed. The fire god was supreme. He sat upon the lofty elevation and reached his myriad fingers down into the woodwork beneath him. He licked his tongue against the heavens, and seemed to smack his lips at the sweet morsels upon which he fed. Men stood awed. Wagonman PLUMMER had rushed up with the patrol, Chief CLACK had marshaled his detectives and lieut- enants, giving them instructions to watch the flying sparks and work as if they were firemen. Ropes had been stretched across every approach, and the patrol- men stood guard. Thus were preparations made for an audience consisting of nearly the whole population of Nashville to a bon fire that outrivaled hundreds of Parisian spectaculars in magnifficence and classed with jars of earthquakes for destructiveness. The bell in the Cathedral steeple tolled the hour of six. The flames had crept down to the second floor rear of the building wherein they were born, and from the front windows of the top floor those looking out on College street were red with a fire that was fur- ious and a heat that was mighty. The water from the rear drove the forward. The hose that had been taken up from the front entrance was withdrawn. Slowly the licking flames in the centre of the building were seen from the rear to change to a solid mass. The great plate-glass windows in the top story front cracked and fell. An arm of blaze reached out, felt the keen night air, and drew back. It gathered reinforcements from within and bulged out to draw back no more until the roof fell. This had taken five minutes. The crowd had grown into the proportions of a multitude, and every man of them expressed the belief that the whole block would go. Another minute went the way of all minutes. The aerial truck dashed up College street. A sense of hope and relief came over the watchers. The truck stopped directly in front of the burning building. The hook and ladder crew took possession. The til- ler's seat was tipped over, men grasped the ele- vating cranks and the ponderous ladder began to rise. A man stood upon it. The flames were break- ing through the second story windows. He was seen to cover his face from the heat. Then Chief CARELL'S voice rose high above the noisy crowd and the roar- ing of the flames, "Down the street," he said, "back it, quick, men." Dozens of men rushed from the sidewalk. Willing hands rolled the wheels. The man came down, then went up again. It was still too hot. He came down and the truck was backed until it stood in front of Atwell & Sneed, too far from the fire to be of use. It was abandoned and left where it stood. Eleven minutes had been lost with the truck. The telephone, telegraph, time and trolley wires had to be cut to make way for it. The ladder had to be raised and lowered and the whole concern moved three times. That's how the eleven minutes were lost. At 6:15, forty minutes after the alarm was turned on, not one drop of water had touched the front wall. Two minutes later a hose was directed toward it, but it did not seem to be coming from an engine. It barely reached the window sills of the third floor, and did little good. By this time the heat had set the build- ings across College street to smoking, and this one little weakly stream had to be turned fre- quently to keep them from igniting. Chief CARELL was everywhere, and his judgment was never want- ing. But it seemed that all the powers of de- struction were working against him. What little water was thrown was scattered by the wires, and the reservoir or the engines were plainly to blame for the lack of a sufficient supply. At 6:20 o'clock there was a terrific crash, which first struck the ear as the sound of a mightly explosion. It was the falling of the safe in the Webb, Stevenson & Co. building, from the second floor into the cellar. During the next few seconds nothing could be seen but a wall of blackest smoke, mingled with thou- sands of sparks, nothing could be heard but the voices of many men, and nothing could be smelled but the stifling stench of burning paint and wood. When the air had cleared a little it was seen that the three upper floors of the house occu- pied by A. J. Rhodes & Co., furniture, were ablaze and in an instant the second floor was red and the windows were falling in. Then there was a second crash, sounding more like an explo- sion than the first. It was caused by the falling of another safe, this time from the third floor into the cellar of the Rhodes building. It was now 6:25 o'clock. The Webb-Stevenson house was nothing but a shell. The Rhodes build- ing was a solid mass of red, its fantastic blaze dallying with the clouds. Several men were stand- ing across the street. The floors of the Webb, Stevenson building crashed through. Again there was darkness and smoke this time revealed in the glare from the Rhodes building. Then the Webb- Stevenson front wall tottered outward and a loud yell rang down the street. The men in reach fled for their lives. The wall fell. The pavement across the street was now buried with the bricks and mortar of which the wall was made. The fall occurred at 6:26. The streams playing on the fire were still weak. Another attempt was made to man the aerial truck. The hook and ladder company sprang to their places, with JESSE BROOKS, the negro driver, on the ladder. The ladder was raised almost to a perpendicular position. For some reason a halt was called. BROOKS was perhaps forty feet from the ground. The base was wheeled around, so that the ladder stood at an angle from the side of the truck. Another halt was called, and the men on the ground seemed to be looking at the fire. The inclined ladder was too heavy for its base, and began to pull the truck over. BROOKS was carried rapidly to the ground, the ladder striking and crashing through the awn- ing frame in front of Bradford Nichol's store thereby easing the fall. Strange to say, BROOKS was not hurt. The truck had been turned on its side. BROOKS fell at 6:30 o'clock, and several minutes elapsed before the volunteers from the crowd and the firemen could right the truck. It was then backed down across Church street and left for good, having proven a complete failure. At 6:36 o'clock the first real stream of water was turned on the front of the buildings. For the first time water was thrown as high as the fourth floor. In the rear the men had better success. From the very first they had good pressure from the engine, and several streams playing at all times. It was the front that suffered for water, but even if a sufficiency could have been brought to bear at that point it is doubtful if the con- flagration would have been one whit less disas- trous. A high wind was blowing, and to this one fact more than all others the great destruction was due. From the moment that the flames broke through the roof of the Webb-Stevenson building until 10 o'clock at night when the flames were gotten under control the streets east and south of the fire were flooded with storm after storm of flying sparks as large as human hands, on the gutters and pavements and the open roadways were channels down which rivers of flame ran. The crowd was kept fighting the fire through all those hours, and many a man has holes burned in his clothing this morning. At times it was im- possible to distinguish anything more than an arm's length away. The miracle of the night is that those sparks did not set houses afire all the way to the river. From the roof of every building within four blocks south and east great rivulets of fire ran. Those who were on top of them describe the appearance of the tin roofs as that of a bed of coals under a political barbecue. Not one flame has been re- ported as originating from the sparks. And this is a miracle. The floors of the Rhodes building fell through at 6:45 o'clock, and shortly afterward the top part of the front wall toppled into the street. The general talk now ran to the effect that the Warren building would be saved. The wind was blowing the smoke and flames from its south wall, and no flames had been seen within it. But at no time after the Webb-Stevenson building had burned did those who watched from College street expect that either the building recently vacated by Johnson & Murdock or the one occupied by Atwell & Sneed, would be saved. The wind was dead against them. However, a little blaze crept around the rear end of the Warren building, took hold on the win- dow frame, cracked the glass and crept in amongst the furniture. That settled it. The wind had no- thing to do with it afterward. The little blaze within five minutes had possessed itself of an entire floor, and by the time another five had passed, every window in the structure was red, and from most of them the glass had been broken. At 7 o'clock a long, slender tongue of flame reached from the Warren building across the street and applied the torch to the cornice of the Phillips, Hood & Co. building, but before the blaze had gained any headway a stream that had been playing on the Warren building was switched across the street and the blaze gave up the ghost. The sight to the bystanders at this moment was magnificent. The seven stories of the Warren build- ing, on the north and against the direction of the wind, were wrapped in a garment of flame from the ground seemingly to heaven. The windows were great devils' eyes, and in the majesty of the flames the firemen seemed like infants trying to dam the ocean. The Rhodes building, to the south, was a roaring furnace, and the great gap between where the Webb- Stevenson building had been was a livid mass of red hot brick and lurid flashes of blue flame. For fifteen minutes men stood spellbound. Then the upper walls of the Warren building showed cracks, and a moment later the seventh story tot- tered into the alley to the north, and into the newly created space to the south, dulling the brightness of the flames for an instant, but giv- ing permanent strength thereto. A cheer arose from the crowd, but those who added to its volume little knew that within a short while the falling of a wall would create a sadness throughout this city for the death of several firemen who died fighting the very fire upon which they looked. At 7:40 o'clock the East Nashville Fire Company's nozzlemen were seen upon the roof of Phillips & Burtorff's building, dragging their hose after them. Then the signal was given and water began flowing from the nozzle. When the stream had attained its full strength it was directed into the windows of the Warren building. At this time the party on the Phillips-Burtorff house consisted of four negro firemen and two white men, one of whom was GEO. T. THOMA, clerk to Mr. B. J. McCARTHY, manager of the Phillips-Burtorff foundry. It was 7:45 o'clock. The attention of the onlookers was attracted from watching the efforts of the firemen to keep the front wall of the Johnson & Murdoch building cool by a shout from those who were in the neighborhood of the Fourth National Bank. The remaining six stories of the Warren walls were seen to waver. A great shout of warning went up to the firemen on the Phillips & Buttorff roof. The latter seemed not to notice. THOMA and his companion stepped back, then THOMA went forward again to call the fire- men, and before he could get back the Warren build- ing crashed over on the Phillips-Buttorff structure, sweeping three of the firemen down to instant death, burning THOMA badly and setting flames to the build- ing on which they stood. The name of the dead are: Capt. CHAS. C. GOWDY, HARDY EWING and STOCKLEY ALLEN, all colored, and members of the East Nashville company. ALLEN was driver of the reel. THOMA was taken to his home in West Nashville. He is not seriously hurt. Rumors ran through the crowd that six or eight men had been caught under the wall, among them PORTER BUTTORFF, son of the member of the firm. AARON COCKRILL, the fourth man on the Phillips & Buttorff building, saw that the wall was coming in time to get out of its reach. The Phillips & Buttorff structure was almost cut in two by the weight of the wall that fell upon it, and within five minutes afterwards the entire building was afire, and within thirty minutes it was as it is this morning. The vacant house where Johnson & Murdoch used to be did not catch until 8:20 o'clock, not un- til after Atwell & Sneed's house was in a blaze from the rear, strange to say. It was said that a man was seen to enter the rear of Atwell & Sneed's building and drop a blaze where it caught. If so, there was nothing strange about it. But when these two houses followed the example of their neighbors, it seemed that the whole busi- ness part of town east and south of the fire would have to go. The Senate building, in the hollow of the square, repeatedly caught and the flames were repeatedly put out. The old frame building formerly occupied by the Evening Herald was burned. The rear end of Johnson's Restaurant caught on the window frames of three floors twice, and twice the fire was checked. And then the cry ran along the line that the Noel Block was ablaze. At 10 minutes to 9 o'clock the walls of the Johnson & Murdock and the Atwell & Sneed buildings fell, the latter striking the rear end of the Noel Block. As if from the friction of the bricks against the rear of the Noel Block caught along its entire length. The firemen stood at the ends, and for this reason the flames were fiercest near the middle. For four long hours there had been no abatement in the awful work of destruction, and from appear- ances it seemed that there was to be none. Great floods of sparks were falling as if from the clouds, and the gutters still ran with rivers of burning coals. The crowd was dense, a solid mass of human- ity as far as the light reached. It is doubtful if a single man left the scene after he came. After 7 o'clock the crowd in Church street above Cherry, and in fact in every approach to the site of the conflagration, was dotted with many ladies. Before the Noel Block caught, those having of- fices in the building began removing their effects, and after it was seen to be ablaze lodgers at the Maxwell House commenced bundling their possessions preparatory to vacating. A long stream of boys were pouring from Baxter Court, bearing in their arms books, chairs, documents and office appurtenances of every description. Now the fire reached its most awful aspect. Two hundred feet of ruins still alive with the element that destroyed reached along College street, and the rear portion of the Noel block was a wall of flame. The fight was to prevent the fire cross- ing Church street. All through the hours the battle to save across College street had been terrific. It must be repeated. Will it again be successful? Is the fire to end at Church street? It seemed not. Royally the firemen, and police, and private citizens worked. And they were rewarded. The fire stopped at Church street. And today many a man awakes to remember that his property has been wiped out, and many a man who went to work yester- day will not go tomorrow. Thus once more the fatal ground is covered with ruins. Every time the buildings that covered it heretofore have been destroyed finer ones have been erected, until the grand structures of yes- terday made their appearance. It is, of course, too early to know the intentions of the owners, but it is hoped that they will not be so badly crippled that the buildings cannot be duplicated. The block of buildings fronting on College street was erected only a few years ago, and was considered both in architecture and solidity one of the handsomest in the city. The Noel Block, with its stately stone front, was likewise of re- cent erection. It was not entirely destroyed, and what remains will not have to be torn down. The two middle stores suffered more than those on either side, for the reason that the firemen could get at the ends better. It is more than probable that the rents in this block will be repaired at once, and the structure made to shine in all its quondam beauty. It was 10:30 o'clock when the fire was gotten under control. It was 11 o'clock before the greater part of the crowd reached home. at 12 o'clock many people were still in the neighbor- hood. Ten years and some few months over since Nash- ville experienced a fire that could compare in magnitude to that of last night, and it is a little singular that both of them were in the same section of the city, practically upon the same spot. The Noel building, which was badly injured last night, is an exact counterpart of its predecessor, destroyed in 1881. It was built of the same plan, under the same contract, and by the same parties. At the time of the other fire the building was incomplete and the Western Union Telegraph Company was the only occupant. The terrific conflagration is everywhere known this morning, and many a prayer has gone up that Nashville may enjoy many a day of progress and prosperity before her time to so terribly suffer comes again. ===============================================================================