Irving Zuelke Music Company

Appleton Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Dec 24, 1921

From GenDisasters:

Business District of Appleton Threatened

(Special to The Northwestern)

Appleton, Wis. – In sub-zero weather, firemen from Appleton and five surrounding cities fought a fire at the corner of College avenue and Oneida street, which, for a time, threatened the entire business section of this city. While it was possible to prevent spread of the flames, the structure attacked was completely destroyed, with a loss estimated at a quarter of a million dollars.

The property involved was a brick building, directly at the corner with a frontage of sixty feet, on College avenue, and 100 feet deep along Oneida street. It was occupied by two stores and several offices. It was owned by Irving Zuelke and his loss on the building alone is placed at $65,000. All that remains standing is the front wall, and that will have to be razed…. [more at the link above.]

The Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, WI 26 Jan 1928

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Before the fire:

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SEVERAL thousand people, many of whom came from cities as far as 100 miles away, visited Irving Zuelke’s new music store at the corner of Oneida -st and College-ave during his formal opening. The store is one of the finest of its kind in the middlewest, comparing very favorably with the best in the largest cities.

Enormous changes have been made in the interior of the building, as well as in the exterior. Every possible convenience for customers and for the business has been installed. All the rooms are beautifully appointed and arrangements were made for the fastest service for customers.

The main floor, used largely for general display purposes, is beautifully finished and well arranged. Highly decorative lighting fixtures have been installed and soft carpets add to the elegance of the room.

The display windows on two sides of the building are attracting a great deal of attention. They are spacious and so arranged that they can be decorated with the maximum effectiveness. Wax figures are used effectively in decorating the windows.

The piano room, radio room and phonograph room are on the third floor and a recital hall also has been fitted up on that floor.

The sales rooms are well equipped for demonstration and display purposes. Nothing that would add to attractiveness or to comfort has been omitted.

Appleton Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Dec 18, 1924

Appleton Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Dec 13, 1926

Street Car Struck by Coal Train

Ashtabula, Dec. 17. — Eight dead and seven injured was the toll of the wreck here last night when a Lake Shore and Michigan Southern coal train struck a street car. Two additional bodies, that of David Stowe and Mrs. Rose Thompson were found today. All of the injured are expected to recover.

The coal train crashed into a street car on the Ashtabula Transit Line at the Center street crossing. The car, which was carrying passengers down town, was struck in the middle and demolished.

The dead:

Miss Laura Leaphart, aged 20, daughter of C.H. Leaphart, this city.

Mrs. W.H. Cook, aged 45, this city.

Mrs. Geo. Kitson, aged 38, this city.

Mrs. Frank C. Barttell, this city.

David Stowe, this city.

Mrs. Rose Thompson.

The injured:

Ralph Cluff, leg and arm broken; may die.

Mrs. C.P. Hendershot, badly cut about the face.

Volna Barttell, aged 7, daughter of Frank Barttell, head injured and wrist broken.

Mrs. Stewart, cut and bruised.

W.P. Guthrie of Erie, Pa.

The missing:

Mrs. Eva Pancoast and 12-year-old daughter.

D.E. O’Connor, engineer.

O.E. Hirshberger, fireman.

James McCutcheon and Thomas Mullen, motorman and conductor respectively of the street car, escaped serious injury. McCutcheon is being held pending an investigation.

The conductor’s register book, which was found among the wreckage, showed that 13 fares had been collected. It is believed that several other bodies are buried beneath the wreckage.

From the appearance of the wreck, it is thought that the engineer, seeing the car in front of his train, suddenly applied the brakes. Fully a dozen cars, filled with coal, were piled 50 feet high. Workmen started at once to dig away the coal which covered the debris of the street car.

It is said that the gates at the crossing were not down and that the watchman, on duty at the time of the collision, is missing.

Eighty feet of the wall in the brick building occupied by the Richards Bros., wholesale grocery was caved in by the derailed cars. A large hole was torn in Fred Dorman’s grocery and a load of coal dumped inside.

The Center street crossing is the most dangerous in this city, as four tracks must be crossed by the street cars.

The Newark Advocate (Newark, Ohio) Dec 17, 1912

Whisky; It Burns

Image from Life in Western Pennsylvania

FIRE CAUSES A PANIC.

EIGHT PERSONS BADLY BURNED IN PITTSBURG.

Employee Unable to Escape from a Big Building — Walls Fall and Crush Adjoining Houses — Many Persons Hurt in the Crowd.

PITTSBURG, Pa., Oct. 28. — The explosion of a barrel of whisky in the big warehouse of the Chautauqua Lake Ice company yesterday afternoon caused the destruction of over $500,000 worth of property and serious injury to eight persons. Several of the injured, it is feared, will die. A score of more of others received slight cuts and bruises or were trampled on by the mob surrounding the burning buildings. Those seriously hurt were:

T.J. HEILMAN, married; dropped from the third floor to the ground; hands and face terribly burned. His injuries are considered fatal.

MARTIN GRIFFITH, married; dangerously burned.

EDWARD SEES, body and head badly burned; may not recover.

WILLIAM COX, dangerously burned about face and body.

W.M. SMITH, painfully burned; will recover.

LIEUT. FRANK McCANN of engine No. 7; struck by falling bricks and left leg broken.

WILLIAM WISMAN, struck by falling timbers and skull fractured.

JOHN REISCHE, badly hurt by falling timbers.

It was just twenty minutes after 1 o’clock when a number of employes on the third floor of the ice company’s buildings were startled by a loud report, and almost instantly the large room was ablaze. The men started for the stairs, but the flames had already cut off their retreat, and the only means of exit left them were the windows, fifty feet from the ground. By this time the heat was so intense that they were forced to creep out upon the window sills and hang by their hands until the fire department arrived. The flames bursting from the windows burned their hands and faces, but they hung their until the firemen placed their ladders in position and brought them down.

To aid to the excitement it was discovered that a large tank of ammonia was located in the cellar of the ice company’s building, and the police, fearing an explosion, quickly ordered the occupants of the houses on Twelfth street to vacate. All the houses in the neighborhood are a cheap class of tenements and crowded to suffocation with Poles and Slavs. When they were told to move out a panic indescribable started among them. House-hold goods store goods, children and everything that could be carried away were rushed to a place of safety.

The walls of the Mulberry alley side fell in with a crash and a few minutes later the eastern wall came down. The debris buried a low row of tenements in the alley and a three-story brick dwelling on Thirteenth street. The tenements were occupied by families, but fortunately they had been deserted some time before the walls fell in. Not one of the families had a chance to save any of their goods and all their furniture was destroyed. The ruins took fire immediately, and for a while the entire tenement district of Penn avenue was threatened with destruction.

When the walls of the big buildings fell the great mob of people made a rush to get out of danger. Many men tripped and fell and were trampled under foot. Several received painful but not dangerous bruises. Sheets of iron were cast from the burning buildings by the fury of the flames and hurled into the crowds. Scores of people received slight injuries, which were dressed in neighboring drug stores.

The Daily Review (Decatur, Illinois) Oct 29, 1893

Another article about the same fire:(I think the above newspaper got the date wrong)
Davenport Daily Leader (Davenport, Iowa) Oct 27, 1893

Again with the whisky barrels? Really?

MAY REACH TWENTY-FIVE DEAD.

Pittsburg. Feb 10. — The lost of life and property by the fire last night in the great cold storage plant of the Chautauqua Lake Ice company, was the greatest in the history of Pittsburg. At least fifteen persons were killed, over a score injured and property valued at a million and one-half destroyed. The loss of life was caused by the explosion of several hundred barrels of whisky in the ware house, knocking out one of the walls.

The dead are: Lieut. of Police John A. Berry, John Dwyer, William Scott, Jr., the son of President Scott of the Chautauqua State Ice Co.; Stanley Seitz, George Loveless, Mrs. Mary Sipe and her mother; Stanley Sipe, Lieut. Josep Johnson, a fireman name unknown; William L. Wallenstein, and three unknown men.

The missing are: Nathaniel Green, accountant of the Dailmerer building, supposed to be in the ruins; Thomas Lynch, iceman in the employ of the Chautaqua company, supposed to be in the ruins; Edward Berry watchman of the storage building.

It is believed that at least ten more bodies are in the ruins, which are still too hot to be moved. The principal losses are: Union Storage company, $775,900; Hoever’s Storage Warehouse and contents, $600,000; Chautauqua Ice company, $150,000.

Three more bodies were taken from the ruins this forenoon. The dead it is now thought will reach 25. Those taken out this morning were: John Hanna, Bookkeeper and cashier of the Chautauqua Lake Ice Co.; John Scott, another son of President Scott, and an unknown fireman.

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Later. — But eight bodies were recovered instead of 14, as first reported. Four are missing, and the firemen believe that a number of others are still under the ruins. The correct list of the identified dead is Lieut. Police Berry; John Dwyer, William Scott, Jr., Stanley Sipe, George Loveless, William A. Wallrobenstein, Josiah Hanna, and William Smith. The missing, Nathaniel Green, Thomas Lynch, John Scott and Edwin Barry.

Davenport Daily Leader (Davenport, Iowa) Feb 10, 1898

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More about the Chautauqua Lake Ice Company:

The Olean Democrat (Olean, New York) Mar 14, 1889

The Olean Democrat (Olean, New York) Jan 15, 1891

Schoolmarm ‘Somewhere at Sea’

“Let’s Go,” Says Flier Schoolmarm

MISS MILDRED DORAN, 22-year-old school teacher of Flint, Michigan, wants to be the first woman to make a transpacific flight, and she’s on her way with PILOT AUGIE PEDDLAR, who considers himself lucky in winning the job. Two aviators vied for the privilege of transporting the fair passenger, and on tossing a coin, Peddlar won. They arrived yesterday at Fort Worth, Texas, on their way to Long Beach for the hopoff in August. – P&A photo.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Jul 17, 1927

Schoolmarm ‘Somewhere at Sea’

MISS MILDRED DORAN, the flying schoolma’am of Flint, Mich., lone representative of her sex in the Dole race, whose plane, named after her and piloted by Auggy Pedlar, has been missing between here and Hawaii for more than 23 hours. No word of the craft’s position has been picked up by radio stations or the numerous navy and merchant vessels along the route of the flight.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Aug 17, 1927

Story Of Miss Mildred Doran’s Life Told By Artist In Sketches

She was born in Flint, Michigan, the daughter of William Doran.

When 16 her mother died.

She worked her way through high school as a telephone operator. William Malloska learned of her struggle and staked the girl to a teacher’s course at Michigan State Normal School.

Taught school at Caro, Mich.

When the Dole Prize was announced, Malloska decided to enter a Flint plane.

He joked with his protege. “How would you like to go?” he said without meaning it much. She tossed a coin between Pedlar and Sloniger and Pedlar won.

The Miss Doran had to make a second start after turning back when engine trouble developed.

Planes and ships started combing the Pacific for the lost flyers.

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) Aug 20, 1927

By WILLIAM H. RITT

Exclusive Central Press Dispatch to The Kingsport Times

CARO, Michigan. — As grim, gray United States destroyers and great battle planes glided over the waters of the Pacific ocean in desperate search for Miss Mildred Doran, Caro school teacher lost in a plane with two others, a little boy sat on his porch steps here and wished aloud that he could help “somehow” to find her.

The little boy is Richard Goodell, 11, the “most spanked” boy, according to other pupils, in Miss Doran’s class. But now the spankings are past and all Richard wants is to hear that Miss Doran is on her way back to Caro to tell the children of her fateful flight toward Hawaii.

“Miss Doran was one of the best teachers a person ever had,” Richard will tell anyone. “She never spanked very hard, and then she always hit us kids on the hand, just a little. I guess we deserved a lot of it. Gee, she was nice, though.”

Marjorie’s Very Own Plan

While Richard worried over Miss Doran’s fate, little Marjorie Moore, nine, put into effect a plan of her own. Marjorie began saving her pennies, doing without ice creams cones and “shows” in order that her small fund might grow all the faster.

“As soon as I get enough money,” Marjorie said, as she helped hunt for a picture of Miss Doran at her home, “I’m going to spend it for a trip to California. Then I’m going to help them hunt for Miss Doran.”

Marjorie is the type of little girl who dreams a great deal. The other night she had a dream.

“It was the nicest dream,” she said. “I dreamt that I took an airplane and found Miss Doran. She was so glad to see me. I picked her up and we came back to Caro in my plane. All the people just hollered they were so glad to see her back again.”

Then there is Geraldine Jones, a little eleven-year-old, who hasn’t missed an edition of the city papers distributed in Caro since Miss Doran, John Auggy Pedlar, pilot, and Lieutenant V.R. Knope, navigator, flew away in the plane named after the young teacher.

“I think I was one of the first persons Miss Doran told that she was going to make the trip,” Geraldine said, proudly, as she scanned some headlines in a vain hunt for the good news. “I didn’t want her to go. I was afraid. You know the Pacific ocean is awful big, and airplanes aren’t so good, anyway.”

Though it was county fair week at Caro, in the shops and on the street, at the postoffice and at the little brick railroad depot Miss Doran and her plight were the chief topic of conversation. The elders, unlike the children, believed there was no hope.
An Airplane Descends!
One afternoon an airplane suddenly appeared above Caro, swung over the town and settled in a field to the east.

Miss Doran’s former pupils, watching in the street, and filled with the absurd hopes of childhood that it might be the biplane in which she departed, bounced up and down in glee.

But Ole Louck, station agent at the small railroad station, stopped his game of horseshoes with some passengers waiting for the only southbound trains of the day, long enough to sadly shake his head.

“Nope,” he said, “she’s gone. Miss Doran took a brave chance, but failed. And this town has lost a very fine little citizen, too.”

The Kingsport Times (Kingsport, Tennessee) Aug 31, 1927

The map shows an imposing total of ten trans-oceanic flights this season, but against them were nine failures, costing more than a score of lives. Among the season’s heroes were Lindbergh (above), Byrd (left) and Chamberlin (below). Among the victims was Miss Mildred Doran (center insert), lost on a flight to Honolulu.

Appleton Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Nov 17, 1927

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MLIVE 2008 article:

Memorial lost, just like air pioneer Mildred Doran, says Flint Journal columnist Gary Flinn

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MLIVE 2011 article:

Nephew sheds new light on Flint woman Mildred Doran’s tragic final flight

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On YouTube:

Dole Air Race (1927)

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By BERYL MILLER

Old father neptune seems to be bearing out the age-old superstition of sailors that women who dare the sea bring ill luck, misfortune and disaster.

Of eight trans-oceanic women flyers who have dared Neptune’s wrath, just two have escaped death. These are Amelia Earhart, who barely succeeded in reaching Wales on an attempted flight to London, and Ruth Elder, who was rescued by a freighter when forced down at sea.

Latest victim of Neptune’s ancient curse is Mrs. Beryl Hart, who was lost with Captain W.S. MacLaren, in an attempt to cross the Atlantic with the first load of airplane freights.

Eight aviatriees? who risked their lives over teh swirling sea are shown above:

1 — Mrs. Frances Grayson, who, in her plane, “The Dawn,” took off from Roosevelt Field, L.I., for Newfoundland, two days before Christmas, 1927, for a trans-Atlantic flight. Neither she nor her companions, Oskar Omdahl, Bryce Goldsborough and Fred Koehler, were seen again.

2 — Mildred Doran, the pretty Flint, Mich., school teacher, who left her blackboard and on Aug. 16, 1927 roared away from Oakland, Calif., toward Hawaii in an attempt to win the $35,000 Dole prize. She and her crew, John Pedlar and Lieutenant V.R. Knope, went to a watery grave.

3 — Mrs. Beryl Hart, who, with Captain W.S. MacLaren, in the monoplane, “Tradewind,” disappeared en route between Bermuda and the Azores on a proposed flight from New York to Paris, recently.

4 — Amelia Earhart, whose trimotored plane, “Friendship,” landed at Burry Port, Wales, June 18, 1928, after a 2000-mile flight from Newfoundland with Wilmer Slultz and Louis Gordon.

5 — Hon. Elsie Mackay, who sailed away to oblivion, March 13, 1928, in the plane, “Endeavor,” on a proposed flight from England to America with Captain Walter Hinchliffe.

6 — Lilil Dillonz?, Austrian actress, who got as far as the Azores in her intended flight from Germany to Newfoundland, late in 1927, and after repeated attempts to continue, gave up the venture.

7 — Ruth Elder, who barely eluded Neptune’s clinches when her plane, “The American Girl,” was forced down at sea, luckily alongside a freighter, on her attempted flight to Paris, in 1927, with George Haldeman.

8 — The 62-year-old Princess Lowenstein-Wertheim, who, with Captain Leslie Hamilton and Colonel F.F. Minchin of England, were lost on a flight from England to Canada in the “St. Raphael,” on Aug. 8, 1927.

News-Palladium (Benton Harbor, Michigan) Jan 15, 1931

It Was a Death Race

Image from Wikipedia

IT WAS A DEATH RACE.

Whaleback’s Efforts to Pass the Virginia Causes a Steampipe to Burst.

Chicago, Ill., June 24. — The whaleback Christopher Columbus steamed up to the last point Saturday night struggling beyond its strength to win a moonlight race of excursion boats, and was a cripple at its dock early Sunday morning. There was a big hole in the top of the last of its battery of six boilers, the varnish of the cabin was steamed into wrinkles, and in the salon there was the smell of salves on the red wounds of six of the crew caught in the hold when the pope to the engine was blown into fragments. This terrible accident was caused by the summer folly which makes the lake captains crazy to race their ships into port.

Two men were killed and thirteen were seriously or painfully injured. The dead are:

E.J. STITE, fireman, 24 years old; lived at Paxton, Ford county, Ill.; died at 8:20 this evening at St. Luke’s hospital.

UNKNOWN MAN, supposed to be Frank Wilson, a fireman; face so badly scalded that he has not yet been identified; died at 5:15 o’clock this morning at St. Luke’s hospital.

The injured are:

John Hoppe, fireman, resided 200 West Madison, flat 3; inhaled steam and lungs badly scalded; hands, arms and chest seriously scalded; will probably die at St. Luke’s hospital.

Frank Rosner, fireman, resides at West Newton, Nicollet, Minn.; face, hands and arms scalded; at St. Luke’s hospital; may recover.

Arnold Keine, deaf mute, lives at Dubuque, Ia., aged 21 years; face and both hands badly scalded; at county hospital; may die.

George W. Kehoe, waiter in cafe; face, hands and arms scalded and right hand ct. Resides 122 Carol street, Buffalo; at St. Luke’s hospital; may not recover.

James Larimer, fireman, scalded on face and body; may recover.

Miss Boxheimer, pianist Bowman orchestra; severely burned about face and hands.

H.H. Darrow, 278 Chestnut street, Chicago; musician; face badly scalded.

George W. Kell, waterman, Buffalo; badly burned about face and hands.

J.E. Ryan, fireman, 614 Forty-sixth street, terribly burned about face, body and arms.

Nix Seter, waterman; terribly burned about head and face.

Miss Jessie L. Stone, 262 Campbell avenue; scalded in face, not seriously.

The inquest began at 2 o’clock this afternoon. Steamboat Inspector Stewart H. Moore stated positively that the accident was not due to any overpressure of steam, nor was it the result of racing with the Virginia. An expert in marine boilers ventured the explanation that water had accumulated in the pipe leading from the boiler not in use to the steam dome. When steam was turned on in this boiler the water was shot with resistless force against the iron-casting leading to the dome. As the accident occurred the instant steam was turned on it would seem that there is a good deal in this explanation.

Image from Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Chicago, Ill., June 24. — Stewart H. Moore, local government inspector of steamboat boilers, has made an examination of the steampipe which burst on the whaleback steamer Christopher Columbus on the southbound trip Saturday night, injuring two persons fatally and a score less seriously. “The breaking of the steampipe, to my mind,” he said, “is an accident that could not be foreseen, nor anticipated. It only serves as an illustration of the treachery of cast-iron, and cast-iron is the only thing for boiler makers to use on pipes of this character. So far as I can see, the break was not the result of a flaw, but the metal was in good condition. That it should happen could not be guarded against, and the officers of the boat are in nowise to blame for the injury done.”

The Columbus has a batter y of six boilers and it was the connection of the sixth one with the main steam pipe that had been blown loose at both ends. Everybody who was in the engineroom was burned by the escaping steam and the roar caused a panic on deck. Engineer Webster heroically performed the task of shutting off the valves on the different boilers, preventing further escape of steam. In doing this he was badly burned. The ship was then off Waukegan and she laid there until the injured had been cared for and arrangements made for using a battery of three boilers.

Hobbling along like a lame horse the Columbus finally reached her dock at Chicago at 5 a.m. It was charged that the Columbus was racing with the Virginia and that in trying to catch up to the Goodrich steamer the whaleback’s boilers were crowded beyond the legal limit, which was 170 pounds. Officers of both steamers, however, deny that they were racing.

Centralia Enterprise and Tribune (Centralia, Wisconsin) Jun 29, 1895

Image and article from Tower Accidents and Other Stories

Deadly Fire at Keenan & Jahn’s

Image of Detroit Hook & Ladder Co. No.8 from Detroit Historical Society   (not the firemen in this article)

SAD FATALITY.

Several Lives Lost in a Fire at Detroit This Morning.

FIVE FIREMEN KILLED.

And Quite a Number of Others are Seriously Injured.

CRUSHED BY A WALL.

One Bystander Killed and Several Injured — Loss About $60,000.

Image from the Burton Historical Collection

DETROIT,. Oct. 5. — Fire at 7:45 o’clock this morning completely gutted Keenan & Jahn’s furniture store at No. 213, 215 and 217 Woodward Avenue, entailing a loss of $60,000 on the stock and $25,000 on the building. The fire started in the boiler room and shot up the freight elevator shaft, obtaining such headway that the firemen were unable to save any portion of the building contents.

Six men were killed and four or five were severely injured by the falling of the walls.

The name of the dead are:

MICHAEL DONAGHUE, chemical engine No. 1.

PIPEMAN RICHARD DELY, engine No. 9.

PIPEMAN JOHN PAGEL, engine No. 9.

MARTIN BALL, engine company No. 9.

JULIE G. CUMMINGS, truck No. 8.

FREDERICK BUSSEY, a clerk.

The injured are:

FRED DRAHEIM, engine No. 8, badly injured.

E.E. STEVENS, chemical engine No. 1, badly injured.

MICHAEL C. GRAY, badly hurt about head and body.

LIEUT. PATRICK O’ROURKE, engine No. 8, badly injured.

F.E. STOCKS, pipeman engine No. 8.

BARTHOLOMEW CRONIN, pipeman engine No. 8.

JOHN B. NEWELL, truck No. 2.

LESLIE E. McELMURRAY, fireman.

THOMAS GURRY, fireman.

HENRY HERIG, inspector.

None of the last six maned are badly injured.

The floors of the building fell in at 9:15 o’clock, and the front and rear walls immediately collapsed. The men of Engine company No. 9, chemical No. 1 and truck No. 2 were working in the windows and doors of the ground floor in front. In the rear the men of engine No. 8 were playing on the fire from a bridge that spanned the alley. The men wee working close to the rear walls when they collapsed and they were completely imbedded in the debris. Every man in the company except the captain was more or less injured, and Frederick A. Bussey, an inspector who was standing beneath the bridge, was killed.

The work of rescue was immediately begun, and in fifteen minutes the men who had been working in the alley had been taken out.

The firemen working in the front of the building did not fare so well, however. When the first cract of the falling floors was heard the men started to run, but the walls came down on them so swiftly that all were buried under tons of brick and mortar. The walls did not fall outside of the middle of the sidewalk, and the last brick had scarcely touched the walk before the work of rescue in front began.

The first body recovered was that of Lieut. Donaghue. Then the bodies of Pagel, Dely, Cummings and Ball were taken out in succession. Michael Gray was badly injured, as was also E.E. Stevens.

The building was a five story brick with 12-inch filled walls, and it is said that it had been condemned as being unsafe. The insurance on the building foots up $10,000 and on the stock about $50,000.

Fort Wayne News (Fort Wayne, Indiana) Oct 4, 1894

Image from Shorpy (click link for huge, very detailed and awesome image)

This is Woodward Avenue in 1910. Keenan & Jahn still have a furniture store located there, but according to the following information posted at DetroitYES!, it is not on the same block as it was at the time of the fire. I am not sure if the  Keenan & Jahn Furniture store in the smaller picture above is pre-fire or post-fire, but it in the big image from Shorpy, the store is located in a corner building, while the other appears to be sandwiched between two buildings.

From DetroitYES!:

One of the persons who already commented on Shorpy about this photo has provided the wrong location for it. He apparently did not know that Detroit renumbered all of their street addresses in 1920 because he used the old 260 address on the building at the far left to provide the Google Street Views.

Using the 1910 Detroit City Directory, I’ve confirmed that that this photo was actually taken from Grand Circus Park where Park Ave. (foreground) intersects with Woodward. [Google Street View]

According to the 1910 Directory, the building on the right was the Grand Circus Bldg. at 261-271 Woodward. Its tenants included “Keenan & Jahn Furniture” (261-263), “Goodyear Raincoat Co. and Rubber Store” (265), “H.R. Leonard Furniture” (267-269) and “T.C. Mau Furrier” (269). Sharing the 271 address were “A.L. Le Gro, Dentist” and “Frederick W. MacDonald, Dentist”.

Deadly Cloudburst Hits Tennessee Mountains

Image from the Stoney Creeker – The Lewis Farm Historical Photos

12 DEAD IN FLOOD IN TENNESSEE HILLS

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Twenty Miles of Southern Railway Washed Out and Thousands of Acres of Farm Lands Are Ruined.

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Johnson City, Tenn., June 14. — Twelve known dead, four seriously injured, more than a dozen houses, barns and mills demolished. 20 miles of the Appalachian division of the Southern railway made impassable and thousands of acres of farm lands ruined, constitute the toll of the most disastrous cloudburst ever recalled in this section.

It appeared to have its center near Hunter, Siam and Carden’s Bluff, and on Little Stony creek and Blue Springs creek, where a house in which two families lived, went to pieces, taking nine lives.

The storm came without warning Friday night and early Saturday.

Aside from the impassable condition of roads the section is very mountainous, cut by precipitous bluffs, coves and many streams. Most of the houses and farms are in the valleys and lower lands, in the path of the rising streams, which feed the Watauga and the Doe rivers.

Unconfirmed reports from other sections told of persons missing and believed to be dead. Relief parties have started from Elizabethton and Hampton and from this city. Broken roads, however, prevented them penetrating further than the outer edge, except by primitive modes of travel. Telephone and telegraph lines are down.

No word has been received from Fish Springs and Butler, Tenn., good sized villages believed to be in the center of the devastated area. The cloudburst came as a climax to a day of heavy intermittent rains, swelling streams already raging torrents and sweeping everything before them.

The stricken area is partly traversed by two branch line railways, both of which are badly damaged and by highways which were not the best in dry weather and now no longer exist.

A telephone message from Elizabethton, the nearest point to the stricken area gave as known dead as follows:

Mrs. Pearl Lewis and her children, William, 14; Mary Lou, 4, and a 2-year old son, and an infant daughter; Lum Smith and wife and their son, Willard, 7, and a 6-year-old daughter of W.G. Ellis, a farmer.

The Lewis and Smith families lived in the same house. The Ellis family lived in the Stony creek section near Hunters.

Members of a second family named Smith and another named Norton also are reported missing.

Unconfirmed reports from Carden’s Bluff indicate eight known dead. Impassable roads and lack of telephone wires have prevented verification of this report.

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Image from Stoney Creeker

AGENT OF RED CROSS ON WAY TO REGION

Atlanta, Ga., June 14. — Upon receipt of a news dispatch that the towns of Hunter and Carden, Tenn., had been virtually wiped out by a cloudburst, southern division headquarters of the American Red Cross here announced they had dispatched a staff representative to the territory to take charge of relief measures.

Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana) Jun 15, 1924

And on the same page of the newspaper:

Down East.

Just got back from an eastern town,
Where mornings are dark, where rain comes down
And washes corn from the listed rows —
Down where the muddy Missouri flows.

Got out of bed at my usual hour,
In the chill and damp from the midnight shower,
Dressed in the gloom of the early light,
Wished for the warmth of sunshine bright.

Wanted to travel the open spaces,
Tramp along where the Yellowstone races
Down from the heights, from melting snow
Where clouds ride high and warm winds blow.

I saw no distant mountains where mighty rivers rise
From snows that fall in winter, or where the eagle cries;
I saw no rugged rock rims across the valley floor,
Nor heard the river dash and churn in restless midnight roar.

— H.S. Tool, Billings.

Billings Gazette (Billings, MOntana) Jun 15, 1924

Avalanche!

Three persons were known to have been killed in an avalanche that buried 20 automobiles beneath tons of snow on Snoqualmie pass, 65 miles southeast of Seattle in the Cascade mountains. A rescue worker is shown searching a partially excavated machine for additional victims.

(Associated Press Photo)

Oshkosh Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) Feb 25, 1936

Image from  Mining Artifacts & History – Colorado Mines [A wealth of great pictures and information]

Rescuers Free Miners Trapped By Snow Slide

Three Killed In Avalanche

OURAY, COLO. —  Twenty miners trapped in a tunnel of the famous Bird Camp gold mine by a snow avalanche were reached by a rescue party early todya. All were taken out safely.

The men had been imprisoned twelve hours while rescue workers form Ouray and the surrounding country dug through ten foot snow drifts. Three men were killed and one was injured critically when the avalanche roared down Devil’s Slide of Chicago Hill, smashing a bunk-house and closing the mouth of the tunnel.

All those killed were in the bunkhouse, crumpled beneath tons of snow. One body was recovered. The others probably will not be recovered until the spring thaws melt the snow.

The rescue workers found the twenty men in good condition, though suffering from cold, exposure, and hunger. Their rescuers had had to fight drifts blocking highways to reach the mine, before attacking the snow mountain blocking the tunnel.

While they dug, they heard the trapped men through the snow. Communication through the glazed, white walls had established that all were alive.

The dead were Mrs. Rose Israel, fifty, of Ridgway, Colo., the mine cook; Chappie Woods, mine foreman, and Ralph Clinger, blacksmith. Mrs. Israel’s crushed body was recovered.

James Dunn, mine superintendent, was injured critically. He lay for three hours under the debris of the bunk house before rescuers heard his calls for help and dug through the snow to free him. He was near a window of the wrecked and buried house. Otherwise, the rescuers might not have been able to reach him.

W.G. Funk, electrical engineer was standing beside Dunn just inside the door of the bunkhouse when the avalanche struck. He was buried in snow for more than an hour before he was rescued. He suffered no harm.

The Bird Camp Mine is one of the most famous diggings in the west. From it came the fortune of Tom Walsh, pioneer Colorado miner. Father of Mrs. Evalyn Walsh McLean, famous Washington publisher, and a United States Senator. At one time it yielded $5,000 a day in gold ore.

The mine had been worked for silver and copper before Walsh acquired it in 1896. He recognized its potential wealth in gold where other miners, accustomed to silver-lead carbonates of the Ouray country, would never have regarded the Camp Bird one as gold bearing. Walsh recognized gold in tellurium form in the dump piles of refuse from previous workings.

Times Herald (Olean, New York) Feb 25, 1936

 

Three Killed in Avalanche in New York

(Assoiciated Press)

West Point, N.Y., April 8. — Roaring down the face of Storm King mountain an avalanche of loosened rocks smashed three automobiles tonight, killing three persons and injuring three more.

A huge boulder struck the car driven by Otto Seilhelmer of East Patterson, N.Y., killing his wife and son, Otto, Jr., 8. Seilhelmer and his daughter, Geraldine, 18 months, suffered minor injuries.

From the wreckage of another car were dragged Mr. and Mrs. Lambert Sharknys of Brooklyn. Sharknly died of a fractured skull. His wife was less seriously hurt. Another boulder crashed into the rear seat of a third car, narrowly missing Dr. F.E. Lehman and Miss Agnes Wolz, both of Long Island.

Greeley Daily Tribune (Greeley, Colorado) Apr 9, 1934

The Icy Stage

Image from Golden Landmarks

A TERRIBLE SITUATION

We copy from a Montreal paper the following description of the loss of a mail stage in the ice, followed by the death of the driver, and a narrow escape from death by a passenger:

The night was intensely cold and dark; a drifting snow had fallen, which had obscured the track, and as the stage was on its way from Port St. Claire to Lachine, the horses got off the track and gradually edged to the unfrozen portion of Lake St. Louis. There were but two passengers, Mr. Ogden of Quebec, and Mr. Russell of Ancaster. When the leaders plunged into the water, Mr. Ogden and Mr. Russell both leaped from the stage; the first made good his footing on the main ice, but Mr. Russell’s cloak unfortunately got entangled, and before he could extricate himself, he found himself in deep water.

He clung to the stage, but as the night was dark he could see nothing of his companions. The horses swam with the stage about two miles until it grounded on a shoal, near the Isle Dorval, where the horses perished. Owing to the intense cold, Mr Russell’s clothes were immediately frozen to the stage, otherwise he must have been swept off, as the wind was blowing strongly. Soon after the plunge, Mr. Russell called out to the driver, Mudge, who answered that he was on a sheet of ice and drifting down; but the night was so dark that they could not see each other. Mr. Russell afterwards heard him shouting at intervals, some distance ahead of himself, and there is every probability that the unfortunate man was burried down the Lachine rapids.

Image from L’Île Dorval – Dorval Island

Mr. Russell lay on the stage, where it grounded, exposed to the dreadful inclemency of the weather, for eight hours, from half past one in the morning to half past nine, at which hour he was rescued. When Mr. Ogden escaped, he made his way to the nearest house for assistance for his companions. He procured men and ropes, and returned to the scene of the accident, but discover no trace of the stage; hearing voices, as he thought, in the direction of the Isle Dorval, he made the best of his way to Lachine, and roused the inmates of La flamme’s hotel.

A number of men and canoes were immediately put in requisition, and the party proceeded in a direction in which they thought they hear some one shouting; but owing to the dense fog they wandered up and down for five hours, and finally did not discover Mr. Russell until within thirty feet of the spot where he lay frozen to the stage. — When found his situation was distressing in the extreme; from the continuous beating of the surf over him as he lay, he had become completely encased in ice, to such an extent that it was found necessary to clear it from his with axes, before he could be detached from the stage.

He was perfectly sensible when found, but in a most exhausted state; both hands and the left knee were frozen. Mr. Russell still lies in a most precarious state; and we fear there are but faint hopes of his recovery. The body of Mudge has not been found. The mail bags were recovered, but up to Saturday, the cold was so intense that the state had not been removed from the spot where it grounded.

Alton Telegraph And Democratic Review (Alton, Illinois) Mar 17, 1848

Burning Desire to Know

WANTED TO KNOW HOW SANTA ARRIVED

Four Year Old Boy in Peering Up Chimney Had Clothes Set Afire

Philadelphia. Dec. 23. — Albert DiPhillippi was four years old — and he did not understand that old Santa Claus descends only those chimneys that do not contain fire.

For three weeks his little mind had been troubled over the problem of how the fat jolly St. Nick could come down such a small aperture as that connected with the kitchen stove in his home.

Albert thought it wouldn’t do any harm to take just one peek this afternoon. His mother on the second floor heard screams of agony and found Albert  a human torch writhing on the floor. He had stepped too close to the fire. The blazing garments she ripped off, but it was too late.

A white coated doctor at the hospital told the mother Albert would pass into a place where it is always Christmas before long.

Dunkirk Evening Observer (Dunkirk, New York) Dec 23, 1916