Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016 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 Ludington (Michigan) Record Vol. XVI Old Series No. 19 Vol. 3. New Series No. 34 Thursday, January 11, 1883 p. 1, col. 5 DISASTROUS FIRE IN MILWAUKEE A fire occurred in the Newhall House Milwaukee yesterday that surpassed any horror of its kind for years past. The full particulars of the catastrophe will doubtless appear in this evenings' papers. The following bulletin was received yesterday by MR. ALEXANDER. January 10, 3 p.m. Fire started in the kitchen of the Newhall House and escape was soon cut off from upper stories; flames spread very rapidly, dense smoke filled the halls, and guests lay stupified in halls and corridors, jumped from windows; pavements covered with dead and dying; 80 servants in upper story; R. HALL, Binghamton, N.Y., jumped from sixth story window; drove hips into body. ALLEN JOHNSON, a wealthy commission merchant, and wife among the dead. JOHN GILBERT and bride, of Minneapolis. PALMER troupe dead. C. W. BRIGGS, Grand Rapids; N. MILLER, Ripon; GEORGE YOUNG, J. A. MANNING W. D. LEWIS, publisher, Chicago; A. J. CASE, New York; J. O. MAHONEY, Rock Island; J. CRAIG, Des Moines; the TOM THUMB party. Thirty dead lying in American Express building. Total loss placed at 87. The hotel was built in 1857; loss $500,000. Heroic act was that of a fireman from Chicago, who crossed the alley on a ladder at an altitude of 150 feet to the burning building and carried in repeated trips twelve fainting and naked servants to places of safety. Business suspended entirely; excitement intense. It appears from what news could be gleaned before going to press that the fire commenced before daylight in the morning, thus enabling the Chicago fireman to be on the ground before the telegram was sent. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- p. 2, col. 3 DREADFUL CALAMITY ----------------- Burning of the Newhall House at Milwaukee. The Number of Lives Lost Estimated at One Hundred. Thrilling Scenes In and About the Blazing Death-Trap. Heroic Work of the Rescuers. A few minutes before 5 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, Jan 10, the Newhall House, in Milwaukee, which sheltered at the time 200 souls, was discovered to be on fire. In an incredibly short space of time the large hostelry was a mass of ruins, and it is probable that 100 persons lost their lives. Many leaped from the windows, only to be mangled by the sidewalks below, or to be shockingly lacerated by the intertwined telegraph wires, while others sank back into the flames, appalled at the dreadful distance to the street. There were sixty young girl servants in the house, and but eleven were rescued, some of whom were fatally injured. Many escapes from a dreadful death are recorded, and the heroic deeds of some of the firemen in aiding and saving the help- less make a bright spot in the dark tragedy. The total loss, in- cluding injuries to adjoining buildings, will foot up $500,000, and the insurance is $102,000. A detailed account of the dreadful holocaust, gleaned from the reports telegraphed to the daily press, is printed below. The fire was said to have caught in the basement, shot with lightning rapidity up the elevator shaft, and burst forth in terrific volume from the roof. The flames spread out in the dif- ferent stories as they were reached, and, in a few minutes after the first alarm, the floors on the south end of the building were a sea of fire, all burning at once. Guests, awakened from their sleep by the heat or the bursting of flames into their rooms, were forced to the windows, where their heartrending cries rang in the ears of the vast concourse of people gathered in the street, power- less to render aid. Men who in the daily walks of life have been accounted heartless and unfeeling wrung their hands in despair, running about utterly bewildered, exclaiming; "My God! my God, this is horrible!" Then a black object would appear on the outside of the window, driven out by the smoke and flame, a piercing scream rend the morning air, and a heavy thud would announce that a human being had dropped from the dizzy height to meet death on the pavement below. At one time there were six persons hanging from six window- sills at the fifth story at the same time, crying in agonizing tones for the help that could not be rendered them, and one after another loosened their grip and met their fate. One man, by letting himself down at arms' length from a fifth story window, put his feet through the window below and reached the fourth floor in safety. The operation was repeated until the third floor was reached, each point in his perilous descent being greeted with encouraging cheers from the bystanders. As he was putting his feet through the top of the second story window his hand slipped from the sill above, and with a wild shriek of des- pair he fell backward, turning over several times and striking the pavement on his head, and was mangled beyond recognition. Another man jumped from the fifth-story window, struck the telegraph wires on Michigan street, bounded up, and came down a mangled mass of flesh and bones. A number of people dropped out of the different stories on to the jumping-canvas, but, in a majority of cases, they were killed outright or sustained injuries from which there is little hope of recovery. During the progress of the fire two men appeared at a window in an upper story, and, as they looked down upon the scene below, the floor of the room gave way, and, with an agonizing shriek, they fell backward into the vortex of flames. MR. ALLEN JOHNSON and his wife sprang from a fifth-story window. He was caught in the jumping canvas, but sustained injuries from which he died. His wife struck on the telegraph wires, bounded over, and was also caught, but was so badly injured that she only survived her husband about six hours. In three-quarters of an hour after the discovery of the fire the building was a total loss. At 5:30 o'clock the Broadway front of the building, unsupported by rafters from within, gave out, and came thundering to the pavement. Shortly after that the tottering walls of the southeast corner of the building followed, tearing a heavy telegraph pole to the ground, which felled BEN VAN HAAG, a truckman of Hook and Ladder Company No. 2, beneath its weight. Poor BEN, a favorite in the department, received fatal injuries. He died in a few hours later, faithful to his post unto death. While these scenes are being enacted, on the Broadway and Michigan sides of the ill-fated building, one of still greater horror was being enacted in the alley in the rear. The servants' quarters were in the northwest quarter of the building, remote from the place in which the fire was raging, but all means of escape by the stairways was cut off by the flames. As the terrible roaring and crackling of the flames struck upon their ears they became panic stricken, and eight of them followed each other in leaping from the dizzy height to the ground in the alley. The jumping-canvas was on hand, but it was powerless in the conflict with death, and was clotted over with the victims blood. At this juncture the cool-headed hero of the day appeared upon the top of the building, opposite the servants' quarters with a ladder in his hand. For a moment the long, unwieldy thing poised in mid air and then descended, with a crash, through the window of the hotel. It framed a bridge across the alley, however, and before it became steady in its position, the man had crossed over into the hotel. Then, amid the cheers of the multitude below, the man dragged the helpless crea- tures across the slender bridge until fully a dozen were rescued. They were all of them in their night-clothes, and many were badly frozen before they could be taken to shelter. A woman in a dead faint, and unable to help herself in any particular, was dragged across in safety, but at one time the whole of her body was hanging over clear of the ladder, while the brave man held her by one of her ankles. The crowd below held their breath in suspense, expecting every moment to see the ladder turn over or break beneath the terrible strain. The man, however, was equal to the emergency, and, by a herculean effort, pulled her upon the slender bridge and finally placed her out of danger, while the crowd, which had endured the most painful suspense for fully ten minutes, burst forth with round after round of applause. As early as 6 o'clock the bodies of seven unfortunate waiter girls, once blooming in youth, were stretched upon the snow and ice, with broken limbs, writhing in agony until death ended their sufferings. After almost superhuman efforts, ladders were stretched from the roof of the bank-building across the alley to the sixth story of the hotel, and the brave fire-laddies carried ten girls across the frail bridge, four of them dead. The maze of telegraph wires encircling the building on the south and east sides played sad havoc with the unfortunate who made the frightful leap. Several of the bodies were fairly cut deep into by the wires, and then the torn and bleeding forms would drop to the ground. Others would hit the wires crossways, rebound, and be hurled to the ground with a dreadful crash. To the poor unfortunate waiter-girls (all lodged in the sixth story and the attics) the saddest lot had fallen. Of the sixty young girls only eleven were heard from as alive as late as evening. The dead and a portion of the wounded were conveyed to the American Express office. The wounded were cared for at the Kirby House and the stores on East Water street. JOHN F. ANTISDEL, the principal proprietor, was driven crazy over the terrible affair. He ran up and down Michigan street, moaning and crying; "Oh! Oh! My God, who set that nitro?" Over his head was a black cloth. He held his hands heavenward as if invoking divine aid. When he came to the mangled body of one of his guests his ravings were pitiful in the extreme. All efforts to soothe him failed. His son and partner, JAMES ANTISDEL, stood on the street, silent and undemonstra- tive, as if paralyzed by the horror. All of the landlord's family es- caped. MR. NASH too, is almost wild with grief, and can only say repeat- edly; "Oh, my God! If these lives were not lost! I don't care anything about the loss of the building, if these people had only been saved." He was a one third owner of the building and contents. MRS. LIBBIE CHELLIS, for ten years in charge of the dressmaking department in T. A. Chapman's store, occupied a room in one of the upper stories, fronting on Michigan street. Surrounded by flames, she appeared at one of the windows, and for an instant looked imploringly down at the throng below, and then fell back into the vortex of fire and perished. There was a fire escape within her reach, but the poor woman was so completely overcome by the horror of her situation that she was powerless to act. JUDSON J. HOUGH, of Peoria, Ill., who had both legs broken and received other internal injuries by jumping from a fifth story window into the canvas held by the firemen, died at the Central Police Station. MR. HOUGH was visiting the family of ALLEN JOHNSON. He was a special agent of the Northwestern National Fire Insurance Company of the city, and leaves a wife and four children. He was about 40 years of age. There was a touching scene when he tried to tell the bystand- ers where he lived. He spelled out the words "P-e-o-r-i-a, w-i-f-e, b-a-b-y!" One of the saddest facts in connection with the awful catastrophe is the fate of MR. and MRS. JOHN GILBERT. MR. GILBERT is connected with the Minnie Palmer Company, playing the part of the gambler in "My Sweetheart." Monday, in Chicago, just before leaving for Milwaukee MR. GILBERT married a young lady to whom he was devotedly attached, and who reciprocated the love bestowed upon her. Wednesday morning the fair young wife lay in the morgue dead, and at the Plankinton House, writhing in agony, lay the husband, but step from death's door. There was a strange incident when MRS. GILBERT's body reached the morgue. An Irishman identified the corpse as that of his daughter. He at once proceeded to strip from the fingers of the dead woman her sparkling rings and to wrench the ornaments from her ears. At that moment old MRS. DONAHUE reached the morgue, and, with a passionate burst of grief, recognized the the body as that of her daughter-in- law. "It's my child," cried the alleged father, still stripping the jewelry from the dead woman's person. The grief-stricken old lady and the robber confronted each other, and the painful scene amid the ghastly surroundings created the greatest confusion. The multitude by this time had swelled to thousands, who stood in perfect awe, but few having self-possession and resolution enough to lend a helping hand on the canvases stretched out to receive those of the despairing inmates of the burning pyre who risked the leap down to the stone sidewalk 100 feet below. At first there were only LIEUT. ROCKWOOD, DETECTIVES RIEMAN and McMANUS, OFFICERS O'BRIEN and CAMPBELL, and a few Sentinel men stretching the heavy canvas, which required fully thirty strong men to handle successfully. A poor fellow stood on the cornice of the fifth story corner window for twenty long minutes, not daring the fearful leap. Finally he became bewildered, to judge by his actions, or dumbfounded by smoke, and slid off his perch to the canvas below. The few who held it could not give it the neces- sary resistance. The body fell, unhindered by the canvas, with a crash which sent a shudder through every witness. The shattered body was carried into the American Express office. All the while hundreds of people had been looking on, nobody responding to the demands of the officers for aid. Everybody seemed to be spellbound. The terrible spectacle seemed to have paralyzed every bit of will-power. In the sixth-story window, right over this unfortunate, sat the figure of a man, crouched upon the window-sill, gazing like one absent-minded into the fiery abyss below, motionless, but from time to time sending up a heartrending shriek. Steadily the flames encroached upon him. He did not seem to mind it. Then the flames singed his hair, licked his night clothes. One despairing look he gave to the crowd below, and then tum- bled back into the sea of fire. A man and woman appeared at a window of the third story. They were recognized as ALLEN JOHNSON and his wife. A canvas was stretched below the windows of their apartment, formerly occupied by PROF. HASKINS and lady, and a thousand voices called, beseeching them to jump. MR. JOHNSON kissed his wife, then leaped into the air and shot downward into the canvas, but his weight was such that the canvas was pulled out of the hands of the few who held it, and he landed on the ground with deadly force. His wife followed. Her body struck the veranda and fell to the ground lifeless. MR. ALLEN died shortly afterward in the express office, and his dead body was laid beside that of his wife until they were borne away. About a dozen jumped from the Michigan street front. Each leap meant death or shattered limbs, and not less than four unfortunates at one time lay upon the icy sidewalk in front of the Chamber of Commerce clad only in night-shirts, blood and brains oozing from the wounds through which the bones protruded. Some were carried to the express office and others to the ground floor of the Mitchell building, where cots had been hastily arranged, and from there they were carried off to the houses of kind-hearted people. GEN. TOM THUMB and wife, who were stopping at the hotel, had a narrow escape. They were awakened by a policeman, and hurriedly made their exit through a window and down a long ladder. MRS. THUMB making the descent in the arms of the officer. They lost all their baggage. HON. WILLIAM E. CRAMER, editor of the Evening Wisconsin, and wife, who had rooms on the second floor, received serious but not fatal injuries, and he is now under medical care at the Plankinton. MR. CRAMER was badly burned about the hands and head. MRS. CRAMER's hair was badly burned, as were also her hands and feet. Sixteen of the victims have been positively identified, as follows: ALLEN JOHNSON, commission man, Milwaukee; MRS. ALLEN JOHNSON, Milwaukee; D. G. POWERS, inventor, Milwaukee; J. H. HOUGH, traveling man, Peoria, Ill.; MRS. JOHN GILBERT, wife of the actor; MISS LIBBIE CHELLIS, dress-maker, Milwaukee; MR. HUFF, insurance agent, Iowa; MRS. KELLY, servant; MISS O'NEIL, servant; BESSIE BROWN, chambermaid; THOMAS E. VAN LOON, capitalist, formerly of Albany, N.Y., later of Milwaukee; MAGGIE OWENS, servant, Milwaukee; KATE LINEHAN, servant, Milwaukee; MAGGIE SULLIVAN, servant, Milwaukee; AUGUSTA GEISE, servant, Milwaukee; MARY McDADE, servant, Milwaukee; MITCHELL HALLAN, servant, Milwaukee; C. HEWEY, conductor, Wisconsin Central, Milwaukee; MARY McMAHON, Milwaukee; CHARLES KELSEY, TOM THUMB's servant; MARY CONROY, laundress, Milwaukee; OTTILLIE WALTERSDORF, kitchen girl, aged 18; CATHARINE MONAHAN, pantry-waiter, BRIDGET O'DONNELL, hall-girl, Sun Prairie, Wis. The Newhall House was built by DANIEL NEWHALL and his associates in 1857. The original cost of the structure, including the lot and furni- ture, was $270,000. It was situated on the southeast corner of Broad- way and Michigan street; was built of Milwaukee brick; the dimensions were 120 x 180 feet. It was six stories high and had 300 rooms. The hotel was a tinder-box, a fire-trap. Instead of brick partition walls, trestle-work of twelve-inch pine timber formed the main support and constituted the principal divisions of the entire building above the ground floor. A Milwaukee dispatch of the 12th inst. says: There were 110 guests and sixty-seven employes in the building. Of these twenty have so far been identified among the dead, forty-eight are missing and sixty- seven are known to be saved, leaving forty-two unaccounted for and supposed to be in the ruins. The tottering walls were torn down yes- terday by a force of 100 men employed by the Board of Public Works. The Common Council indulged in a squabble as to the expense of rescu- ing the bodies, three Aldermen opposing the prosecution of the search. A week will be required to remove the debris. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================