Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/585

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTS 505 furniture. J. Kulm. occupying the baseraenl < > t" the opera house as ;i residence and restaurant, saved bu1 ;i small portion of Ins goods. Dr. Gr. Allen lived in a brick house on Broadway, which was burned with the barn, and the contents of both were nearly all destroyed, the family barely escaping. Another brick house, occupied by A. Steinerson and family, was also destroyed, with most of the furniture; lives saved. Among the buildings eon sumed on Main si reet at this 1 hue were : An omnibus stable, Ray- mond & Wright; the express office of S. W. Roberts: 1 he second- hand store of J. J. Quale; and Mr. Bragg's meat market. On Third street, besides the opera house and livery block, the tailor shops of H. Nelson and .John Norquist and the hardware store of John Delano were consumed and the blacksmith shop next to the hardware store damaged materially. During the time of this fire the wind blew from the east a perfect gale. The air for a considerable distance was filled with Hying cinders. Watchers were apprehensive of a more extensive conflagration. There had been a heavy rainstorm the night before and the roofs of buildings were so thoroughly wet that the holocaust was prevented. In 1882. June P>. a tire broke out about 1 o'clock a. m. in the drug store in the brick block on the same corner of Bush and Main streets, where the old Tepee-tonka had formerly stood. The drug store was kept by J. L. Kellogg. When first seen the fire was in the rear end of tin 1 building, but in a few minutes the in- side of the salesroom was a seething mass of flames, which soon burst out both in front and rear with great fury. In the second story, just over the drug store. Dr. W. W. Sweney had an office, which was considerably damaged. Adjoining the block was C. E. Sheldon's jewelry store, fronting Bush street, whose stock, con- sisting chiefly of fine crockery, was taken out with such haste as to be damaged to the amount of $800. On the Main street side, adjoining, was the large dry goods store of C. Belanger. His stock was also injured by removal and the water so as to occasion a loss of $500. Goods were removed from several other stores and offices before the progress of the fire was arrested, and the total loss by this fire was estimated at $12,000; mostly covered by insurance. The same year a series of fires occurred on September 18. At about 7 p. m. a room in the second story of the Scandinavian hotel, on Potter street, was discovered on fire, which was soon extinguished by a few buckets of water. The fire was on a bed which stood near an open window. It was supposed that some one threw fiery missiles from the street in at the window. About an hour later another alarm was sounded, and the Lyon's house stable Avas found burning on the corner of Third and Plum streets. All efforts to save this building were unavailing, but while it was