1871 — Oct 8-9, Wildfires, both sides Bay of Green Bay, esp. Peshtigo; Birch Creek, MI–1,228-2,400

–1,228-2,400  Blanchard[1] estimated range.[2]

–1,500-2,500  Gess, Denise and William Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo. 2002, p. 211.[3]

—        <2,500  Knickelbine. The Great Peshtigo Fire…America’s Deadliest Firestorm. 2012, p. 9.[4]

–1,200-2,500  Peshtigofireinfo. The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871. Website accessed 8-21-2019.[5]

—        <2,500  Rosenfeld. “Top 10 Devastating Wildfires…The Peshtigo Fire, 1871.” Time, 6-8-2011.[6]

–1,700-2,500  Skiba. “The Fire That Took Williamsonville.” Door County Living, 9-2-2016.[7]

–1,200-2,400  Gibson. “Our 10 Greatest Natural Disasters.” American Heritage, 57/4, Aug 2006

–1,200-2,400  Havel. “Remembering The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871.” Fire Engineering, 10-8-2007.

–1,200-2,400  Hipke. The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871. Peshtigofireinfo accessed 8-21-2019.[8]

–1,200-2,400  Hipke, Deana C. The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871. 2008.

–1,200-2,400  Hultquist. “The Great Midwest Wildfires of 1871. Green Bay, WI WFO, NWS.[9]

–1,228-2,330  Blanchard tally from locality breakouts below.

—        <2,200  Frank, Douglas. “Hell on Earth: When Fire Ravaged…Peshtigo, IL…” 2003.

—        <2,200  Gess and Lutz, 2002 (inside cover).

—        >2,000  Hemphill. “Peshtigo: a tornado of fire revisited.” Minnesota Public Radio, 11-27-2002.

—        >2,000  Peshtigo Historical Society. Peshtigo Fire Museum (website). Accessed 8-21-2019.[10]

–1,500-2,000  van den Dool. “Weather and the Fires of 1871.” Chap. 8, p. 129 in Diverse Destinies.[11]

—        >1,700  Moran/Somerville. “Tornadoes of Fire at Williamsonville…” WI Academy of Sciences, p. 21.

—        >1,700  Telzrow. “The Peshtigo Fire: In 1871…” The New American V22/N5, 3-6-2006.

—          1,502  Biondich. Sarah. “The Great Peshtigo Fire.” Shepherd Express, 6-9-2010.[12]

—          1,500  Boise State University. Disasters: Firestorms of 1871. 2008.

–1,200-1,500  Country Beautiful. Great Fires of America. 1973, p. 69.

—          1,500  Dickmann and Leefers. The Forests of Michigan. 2003, p. 153. (Wisc. deaths.)

–1,200-1,500  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze Wiped out…Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.

—          1,500  Lewis. “America’s deadliest forest fire…” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7-19-2018.

—          1,500  Nash. “Peshtigo, Wisconsin,” p. 437 in Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 437.[13]

—          1,500  National Interagency Fire Ctr. Fire Information – Wildland Fire Statistics.  2007.

–1,200-1,500  Smalley, James C. (Ed.).  Protecting Life and Property from Wildfire, 2005, p. 21.

—        >1,500  Sodders, Betty. Michigan on Fire. Thunder Bay Press, 1997, p. 5.

—        ~1,500  Wisconsin Historical Society. Dictionary of Wisconsin History, “Peshtigo Fire.”

—          1,392  Gordon. “Forgotten Fury.” American Heritage, Vol. 54, Issue 2, Apr/May 2003.[14]

–1,200-1,300  Wells, Robert W. Fire at Peshtigo. 1968, p. 168.[15]

—          1,300  Haines and Sando. Climatic Conditions…Great Fires… 1969, cites Wells 1968.

—          1,200  Estep. “The Peshtigo Fire.” Green Bay Press-Gazette. No date; reprinted by NWS

—          1,200  History.com. This Day In History, Disaster, October 7, 1871

—          1,200  NFPA. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).

–1,152-1,200  Wisc. Magazine of History (Eds.). “Epilogue” to Pernin’s Great Peshtigo Fire.[16]

—          1,182  Glenallenweather.com. “The Great Fires of October 1981.” Accessed 8-21-2019.

—          1,152  National Fire Protection Association, Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.

—          1,152  Insurance Information Institute. “The Ten Most Catastrophic Multiple…” 2008.

—          1,150  Pingree. “Chicago and Peshtigo 1871.” NFPA Fire Journal, V. 65, N4, July 1971.

—          1,000  Simonds. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 86.

—           >600  James. “Fiery Hell at Peshtigo,” pp 47-50 in Kartman, Ben. Disaster! 2007.[17]

—             409  Green Bay Relief Committee. “Report of…” State of WI. Journal of…, Appendix, p. 167-172.[18]

 

Wisconsin, West Side of Green Bay (1,074-2,155)

 

Lincoln, Kewaunee County                                                 (     9-15)

–15  Identified dead. Green Bay Relief Committee. “Report of…” State of WI. Journal of…, Appendix, p. 171.

—  9  Peshtigo Historical Society. “List of the burned in Lincoln.” Peshtigo Fire Museum.

Little Suamico, Oconto County                                           (           0)

–0?  WI Historical Soc.. “October 8, 1871, the Night Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was Destroyed by Fire.”[19]

Marinette, Marinette County                                             (            0)

–0  Gess and Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo. 2002, p. 131. But 14 buildings lost.[20]

Menekaune/Menekaunee                                                     (            0)

–0  Gess and Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo, 2002, p. 135.[21]

Nasawanpee                                                                           (           >3)

–3  Identified dead. Green Bay Relief Committee. “Report of…” State of WI. Journal of…, Appendix, p. 172.

Oconto, Oconto County                                                       (             1)

–1  Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc County — 1871.” Manitowoc Co. Hist. Soc, 1986.[22]

–0?  Wisc. Historical Society. “October 8, 1871, the Night Peshtigo…was Destroyed by Fire.”[23]

Pensaukee, Oconto County.

–0?  Wisc. Historical Society. “October 8, 1871, the Night Peshtigo…was Destroyed by Fire.”[24]

Peshtigo                                                                                 (800-1,800)

–>1,800  Gess and Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo. 2002, p. 164.[25]

—  1,200  Gillis, Dan. “The Forgotten Fire.” DamnInteresting.com. 2007, updated July 2015.[26]

—  1,200  van den Dool. “Weather and the Fires of 1871.” Chap. 8, p. 129 in Diverse Destinies.

—  1,152  Nash. “Peshtigo, Wisconsin,” p. 437 in Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 439.

—  1,125  Gordon. “Forgotten Fury.” American Heritage, Vol. 54, Issue 2, April/May 2003.

—     800  Estep. “The Peshtigo Fire.” Green Bay Press-Gazette. (post by Green Bay WI NWS.)

—     800  Hultquist. “The Great Midwest Wildfires of 1871. Green Bay, WI WFO, NWS.

—   ~800  Peshtigo Historical Society. “List of dead in Peshtigo.” Peshtigo Fire Museum.

—   >700  Wisconsin Historical Society. “October 8, 1871…Peshtigo…Fire: Historical Essay.”[27]

—   >400  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 421.

—   <400  Woodward, Charles (manager of the Peshtigo House); estimate published Oct 14.[28]

—       79  Identified dead. Green Bay Relief Com. “Report of…” State of WI. Journal of…, Appendix, p. 167.[29]

Sturgeon Bay, Door County                                                (            0)

–0?  Wisc. Historical Society. “October 8, 1871, the Night Peshtigo…was Destroyed by Fire.”[30]

Sugar Bush/Sugar Bushes (Lower, Middle and Upper)[31] ( 241-316)

–316  Peshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo Historical Society. “Names of the dead: Sugar Bushes.”[32]

–267  Gordon. “Forgotten Fury.” American Heritage, Vol. 54, Issue 2, April/May 2003.

–241  Identified dead. Green Bay Relief Committee. “Report of…” State of WI. Journal of…, Appendix, 168-70.

Unnamed Locations                                                             (         20)

–20  Peshtigo Historical Society. “Names of the dead: Not affiliated with particular place.”

 

Wisconsin, East Side of Green Bay, Door, Brown and Kewaunee Counties (133-135)

 

Brown County       ( >3)

Door County (128-130)

Kewaunee County ( >2)

 

Brown County

 

Brown County                                                                                   (    >3)

Green Bay, Brown County                                                              (      ?)[33]

Humboldt, Brown County                                                               (      ?)[34]

New Franken, Brown County                                                          (    >3)

—>3?  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 blaze wiped out…Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.[35]

—    ?  Skiba. “The Fire That Took Williamsonville.” Door County Living, 9-2-2016.

—    ?  WI Historical Society. “October 8, 1871, the Night Peshtigo…was Destroyed by Fire.”[36]

Tobinsville, Brown County                                                              (      ?)

 

Door County, Wisconsin      (128-130)

Door County

–119-130  Blanchard tally from locality breakouts below.

—     >128  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 428.[37]

Breakout of Door County fatalities by locale:

Belgian Community just south of Williamsonville, Door Co.         (      >2)

—>2  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze Wiped out Community of Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.[38]

Brussels Township, Door County                                                    (42-52)  Blanchard range.

–52  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 428.

–50  Identified dead. Green Bay Relief Committee. “Report of…” State of WI. Journal…, Appendix, p. 171-72.[39]

–42  Peshtigo Historical Society. “List of burned in Brussels, Door County, Wisconsin.”[40]

–22  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze wiped out community of Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.[41]

Brussels area, Schoefield’s & Co. Mill, Section 15, Door County (12-13)

–13  Peshtigo Historical Society. “The following were burned at Schoefield’s & Co.’s Mill…”[42]

–12  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 428.[43]

Clay Banks, Door County                                                                (        0)

–0  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 428.[44]

Forestville, Door County                                                                  (        0)

–0  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 425.[45]

–?  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze wiped out Community of Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.[46]

–?  Skiba. “The Fire That Took Williamsonville.” Door County Living, 9-2-2016.

Gardner, Door County                                                                     (        0)

–0  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 426.[47]

–?  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze wiped out Community of Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.[48]

Little Sturgeon, Door County                                                          (        ?)

Nasewaupee, Door County                                                               (        3)

–3  Door County Advocate, Sturgeon Bay, WI. “A Terrible Visitation.” 10-12-1871, p. 3, c. 2.[49]

–3  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 424.

–?  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze wiped out Community of Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.[50]

Rosiere, Door County                                                                       (         ?)

–?  Johnson. Door County History: 1871 Blaze Wiped Out Community of Williamsonville. 6-15-2012.

Sevastopol, Door County                                                                 (        0)

–0  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 428.[51]

–?  The fire swept “the western part of Sevastopol and down the east shore of the Bay.”[52]

Sturgeon Bay, Door County (seat of)                                              (        0)

–0  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 428.[53]

Uniontown, Brussels Township, Door County                               (        0)[54]

–0  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 426.[55]

–?  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze wiped out community of Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.[56]

–?  Skiba. “The Fire That Took Williamsonville.” Door County Living, 9-2-2016.

Williamsonville, Door Co.                                                                (      60)

— 60  Johnson. Door County History: 1871 Blaze Wiped Out Community of Williamsonville. 6-15-2012.

— 60  Moran & Somerville. “Tornadoes of Fire at Williamsonville…” WI Academy of Sciences, p. 23-24.[57]

— 59  Gess and Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo, p. 215. (Out of a stated population of 76.)

— 57  Door County Advocate, Sturgeon Bay, WI. “A Terrible Visitation.” 10-12-1871, p. 3, c. 2.

— 51  Holand. History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. 1917, p. 424.

— 35  One group in potato patch. Moran & Somerville. “Tornadoes of Fire at Williamsonville…” p. 25.

 

Kewaunee County, Wisconsin                                                         (    >2)

—>2  Kewaunee County History (blogspot). Notes two indirect deaths afterwards.[58]

—  ?  Johnson. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze wiped out community of Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.[59]

—  ?  Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc County — 1871.” Manitowoc County Hist. Society, 1986.[60]

—  ?  Wisc. Historical Society. “October 8, 1871, the Night Peshtigo…was Destroyed by Fire.”[61]

—  ?  Carlton Twsp. Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc Co. — 1871.” Manitowoc Co. Hist. Soc, 1986.[62]

—  ?  Casco.[63]

—  0  Kewaunee village. Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc…1871.” Manitowoc Co. Hist. Soc, 1986.[64]

—  ?  Lincoln (villages of Rosiere and Messiere).[65]

—  ?  Red River.[66]

 

Wisconsin Fires, Southeast of Green Bay, Manitowoc County (0)[67]

 

–0  Cooperstown. Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc Co. — 1871.” Manitowoc Co. Hist. Soc, 1986.[68]

–0  Maple Grove. Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc Co. — 1871.” Manitowoc Co. Hist. Soc, 1986.[69]

–0  Mishicot Twsp. Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc Co. — 1871.” Manitowoc Co. Hist. Soc, 1986.[70]

–?  Two Creeks. Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc County — 1871.” Manitowoc Co. Hist. Soc, 1986.[71]

–0  Two Rivers. Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc County — 1871.” Manitowoc Co. Hist. Soc, 1986.[72]

 

Upper Michigan Peninsula (north of Peshtigo) (21-40)

 

Michigan (Upper)                                                                 (21-40)

–27-40  Birch Creek. Dickmann and Leefers. The Forests of Michigan. 2003, p. 153.

—     23  Peshtigo Historical Society. “List of persons burned at Birch Creek…”[73]

—     21  Birch Creek. State of WI. Journal of Proceedings (26^th An. Sess.) Appendix. 1873, p172.[74]

—       0  Menominee. Gess and Lutz, 2002, p. 134.[75]

 

Narrative Information

 

Dickmann and Leefers: “As the summer of 1871 wanted the smoke in Michigan was particularly dense. Fires were burning all over the state, but most were not on the rampage….To add to the danger, throughout the Lake States a major drought was in progress.[76] Lansing received 70 percent of its normal precipitation from June to September, while Thunder Bay recorded only 64 percent. It was even drier in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Humidity often was in the teens and twenties. Soil moisture was below the agricultural wilting stage for about two months. Temperatures were not unusually high for a Midwest summer but hot nonetheless. Everything in the woods and made of wood was as flammable as kindling. Streams dried up and wells gave out….” [p. 152]

 

“As the first week of October came to a close a rapidly developing weather system provided the final ingredient for a fiery blowup. A steep pressure gradient formed between a high pressure ridge centered in West Virginia and a low pressure trough in the Great Plains. A cold front formed and began to move northeastward. Ahead of the front, winds throughout the lake states shifted to the southwest and began to freshen like a giant bellows. Fires burning all over the landscape flared up. Then, quite literally, all hell broke loose.

 

“Chicago was first. On the evening of Saturday, October 7, the city burst into flame. The Great Chicago Fire, which went out of control on Sunday evening, eventually burned itself out on Tuesday…more than 200 people were killed….

 

“On Sunday, October 8, serious fires that had been burning in the forests of northeastern Wisconsin exploded. The 1871 Wisconsin wildfire, which burned 1,280,000 acres on the west and east sides of Green Bay, killed more people than any on record. Nearly 1,500 people died, with many more horribly maimed. The toll on wild and domestic animal life was incalculable. The ‘Peshtigo Horror,’ as it became known, is named after the small town sitting astride the Peshtigo River that was scorched off the face of the earth…This fire also burned in Michigan. Its western leg ran up into Menominee County, destroying the town of Birch Creek and killing between 27 and 40 of its residents…..” [p. 153]

 

“Firsthand accounts from the Peshtigo area tell of the unnatural darkness, the eerie silence, and the stifling air that preceded the onrush of the fire. The silence suddenly was broken by a…roar as the firestorm approached–some likened it to a huge locomotive…The Peshtigo storm’s tornado-like winds ripped trees out by their roots and spread burning embers miles ahead of the fire front, starting new blazes. The heat was so intense that glass and iron melted in seconds. Buildings exploded into flame as if they were magazines of gunpowder, and people who had sought refuge inside these buildings died instantly. Strange whirls of fire and exploding fireballs danced crazily through the choking smoke. The very air seemed to be on fire, as burning gases shot horizontally from the fire front. An island half mile out in Lake Michigan suddenly burst into flame….

 

“There were few ways to escape this firestorm. Some people tried total immersion in rivers, creeks, or Green Bay, but even that instinctual course of action was no guarantee. If a person rose out of the water their clothes or hair would catch fire in seconds; a deep breath of the superheated air could mean instant death. In their panic many people drowned [or they did not know how to swim and drowned (Blanchard)]. Adding to the danger, huge flaming timbers floated by and had to be warded off…Panicked livestock also sought out the water, and hapless folks caught in their path were trampled….” [p. 155]

 

(Dickmann and Leefers. The Forests of Michigan. 2003, p. 153.)

 

Estep: “On October 8, 1871, the most devastating forest fire in American history swept through northeast Wisconsin, claiming 1200 lives…. It scorched 1.2 million acres…it skipped over the waters of Green Bay to burn parts of Door and Kewaunee counties. The damage estimate was at $169 million, about the same as for the Chicago Fire…. The fire…burned 16…towns, but the damage in Peshtigo was the worst. The city was gone in an hour. In Peshtigo alone, 800 lives were lost….” (Estep, Kim. “The Peshtigo Fire.” Green Bay Press-Gazette. No date; reprinted by Green Bay, WI Weather Forecast Office, National Weather Service.)

 

Gess & Lutz: “On October 8, 1871, a tornado of fire[77] more than 1,000 feet high and 5 miles wide ripped through the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, destroying over 2,400 square miles of forest and killing more than 2,200 people. On the same day, 262 miles away to the south, 300 people died in the highly publicized Chicago fire.” (Gess & Lutz, 2002 (inside front book cover).)

 

“Although Marinette’s population was double the size of Peshtigo’s, Peshtigo’s two thousand residents were being joined by at least fifty to one hundred immigrants arriving by steamer each week…” [p. 13]

 

“In the logging camps of Peshtigo and Marinette the camp bosses had been forced to bank their logs in tall piles after the drive from the woods. Until there was a drenching rain, it would be impossible to float them downriver to the mills….” [p. 14]

 

“Sawdust was a given in Peshtigo and in every mill town, and people used every ingenious method possible to dispose of it. They shoveled sawdust over the village streets and roads, poured it under the sidewalk boards and the foundations of their houses and shops. They even stuffed bed-sized envelopes of course ticking fabric with it to make mattresses. Then, after those places were filled, they simply heaped it into mounds near the mills….” [Gess & Lutz, p. 32-33]

 

“During the first week of October, Marinette and Peshtigo were bathed in unearthly light: by day, a mottled yellow that bore no resemblance to sun or wheat or gold; by night a glaring red that deepened to brass, then tarnished to bloody mist.” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, p. 65.]

 

“The winds turned at 7:00 A.M. on Saturday, October 7. They were coming from the southwest and would continue flowing in from that direction, arrows simultaneously shot from a bow, sailing over the landscape, striking Chicago, New Franken, Williamsonville, the Sugar Bushes, Peshtigo, Marinette, and Menekaune….There is no record of the wind speed or direction in Milwaukee that morning, only a record of the falling barometer, but on the weather map the isobars were tightly packed and curved, which meant a gale was forming with a strengthening speed and rotation.” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, p. 99.]

 

“The Peshtigo fire was…a firestorm. Nothing compares to the extreme violence of a firestorm, and no other fire exhibits more unpredictable and outrageous behavior during which superheated flames of at least 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature of a crematorium) advance on winds of 110 miles per hour or stronger….” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, p. 101.]

 

“At four o’clock on Saturday afternoon [Oct 7] Captain Hawley’s steamer [Union] was making its regularly scheduled return trip from Green Bay. Hawley was carrying fifty on one hundred Scandinavian immigrants on board. Hawley docked at Peshtigo Harbor with difficulty because by late afternoon the winds were blowing more strongly and no one could see more than a rod, or just over sixteen feet, in front of them. The newcomers stepped off the steamer onto the tramway, struggling for breath. Their eyes smarted. All around them flakes of ashes sifted down through the scrim of smoke….On that Saturday afternoon in Peshtigo, no one could see his next-door neighbor’s face, let alone the landscape south and north of him. They saw embers dropping at a fantastic rate. Grit that looked like black snow. An Advocate correspondent would write: ‘If you suppose the worst snow storm you ever witnessed, and each snow-flake a coal or spark driven before a fierce wind you have some idea of the state of the atmosphere at the time the fire struck the town.’” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, pp. 102-103.]

 

“`The survivors would never forget the sound…’ Like a thousand locomotives rushing at full speed’…a ‘deafening, persistent roar that never stopped but kept growing louder…’.” [p. 108.]

 

“Inhalation was annihilation.” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, p. 112.]

 

“Around eight P.M. Sunday [Oct 8], as the storm closed in for its touchdown onto a superheated landscape, the isobars were tightening their curve, accelerating the rotation, a movement best compared to the ‘way figure skaters accelerate their spin when they pull their arms in close to the body.’ The wind, which had increased to a  speed of 60 miles per hour, classified as a strong gale….‘It was just as if the wind were a breath of fire.” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, pp. 113-114.]

 

“Faster than it takes to write these words is the phrase every survivor used…they used it to describe the speed with which one house was lifted from its foundation, then thrown through the air ‘a hundred feet’ before it detonated midflight and sent strips of flaming wood flying like shrapnel.” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, p. 115.]

 

“There was no refuge for miles.” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, p. 116.]

 

“The roads and settlements on the way into Peshtigo were nothing but swaths of flame and wind. All were trying to get to town and the river. But the Peshtigo River was a nightmare of struggling men, women, and children fighting for water and breath, floating among the frightened animals. Even in the water the fire relentlessly attacked, setting the floating logs on fire….Those trying to run to safety across the bridge from the west side of town crashed into those struggling to cross over into the east; under the weight of the load the bridge collapsed, tossing more helpless people into the water…” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, p. 119.]

 

“…the wind had increased to hurricane force, at least 100 miles per hour.” [Gess/Lutz 2002, 124]

 

“…the fire [at Peshtigo] had been like no other fire, so successfully had it wiped out every house, except for parts of one; leveled every building including the boardinghouse; devoured the company store, the mill, the churches…fire had split boulders in two, melted church bells and the wheels on railroad cars…wind had hurled train cars loaded with logs into the air and ravaged trees so thoroughly they were now twisted, torn from the ground by their roots…” [Gess & Lutz, 2002, p. 133.]

 

“With no telegraph line operating and all the roads blocked by fallen trees, dead horses, cattle, bodies, and debris, the only way out of the burned area was by water…The Union was in port…hundreds of people…had sought refuge on the steamer the night before….” [Gess and Lutz, p. 134.]

 

“Many of the burn victims died of renal failure before they could ever reach help in Marinette or Menominee. Because burns cause serious electrolyte imbalances in the body and many survivors had to wait three or four days without food or water to correct fluid depletion, they died before help arrived. Many died as the jolting wagons carried them miles to the Dunlap House. Then, even if they were taken to one of the makeshift hospitals, they would find only a few trained doctors and nurses and untrained volunteers. In the worst burn cases, secondary infections were common especially where the fire had eaten through all the layers of skin and muscle, leaving patches of exposed bone. These open wounds in unsterile surroundings led to gangrene and other septic infections, resistant to potions and ointments….Those without serious burns were often suffering from critical respiratory problems: collapsed lungs, scared lungs, bronchial swelling and smoke inhalation. And still others died of cardiac arrest resulting from dehydration and hypovolemic shock.” [pp. 161-162]

 

“Of Peshtigo’s 2,000 known residents, over 1,800 of them were now dead. And there were many more dead in the Sugar Bushes and outlying districts, and on the Door County Peninsula.” [p. 164]

 

“Two weeks later, a committee made up of reporters from Green Bay, businessmen, and Luther Noyes [newspaper publisher] embarked on the inspection of Peshtigo and the outlying areas. They tried to follow the path they believed the fire and tornado, or the ‘fire tornado,’ took in an effort both to determine the nature of the phenomenon….The trees seemed to have been blown down, rather than burned down–yanked viciously from the ground by their roots. In one spot, the hot sand had been spun into a glass sheet around a tree trunk. It takes temperatures of more than 1,800 degrees to transform sand into glass.” [p. 165]

 

“Little remained of the people who had sought safety in the three-story Peshtigo Company boardinghouse, so no one knew how many people had died in the building. Fay Dooley’s grandmother claimed there were two hundred people in the building when the fire struck it. Other reports put the number at no more than sixty. Among those who died in the building was the family of Donald Roy McDonald, superintendent of the woodenware factory. Since the building was on the east side of the Peshtigo River, McDonald thought his wife, Margaret, and their nine children would be safe since he did not believe the fire could cross the river….” [p. 169]

 

“Once the town [Peshtigo] had been cleared of bodies, the burial parties moved out into the Sugar Bushes….They did not have far to go. In a cornfield just outside town, they found huddled together the bodies of sixty-eight people who had sought refuge in the open field. On the roads they found the remains of the wagons of those who had tried to flee from the fire. Burial parties found the dead in root cellars, wells, the smoldering foundations of houses and farm buildings, plowed fields, culverts, and gulleys. Ben Phillips, who along with his family had found refuge in the mud of Place’s Brook, found fifteen men, women, and children lying in a row facedown in a furrow…” [p. 170]

 

“In her reminiscence, Josephine Sawyer wrote how ‘the fire burned so deeply into the peat bogs…that it was still smoking a year later. At times, during the first winter after, smoke came up through the snow.’ In addition, the fire had dried up all the wells. The only water available was in the creeks and rivers. Some survivors had to travel five miles to find water, and there would be no hope for a closer supply until spring.” [p. 186]

 

“There are many different numbers given for the death toll from the fire. Generally, reference works say that fifteen hundred people died in the Sugar Bushes, Peshtigo, and on the Door County Peninsula that night. Yet there is strong evidence that this number is closer to twenty-five hundred. Although an accurate  count is impossible, it is possible to get some sense of the magnitude of the loss.

 

“In his report to the governor,[78] Captain Langworthy says that the fire burned ‘not less than twenty-four-hundred square miles,’ in many instances sweeping away ‘whole neighborhoods’ without ‘leaving any trace or record to tell the tale.’ The sheer size of the destroyed area suggests a higher number of dead than is usually ascribed to the fire.[79] There was no systematic survey of the burned area, looking for and counting the dead. Instead, people simply looked for their friends and neighbors, in most instances going to their farms or homes to see whether anyone had survived. No one maintained any kind of master list or count of the dead.[80] The official list of the dead published in the appendix to the Wisconsin Assembly Journal, 1873 is simply a listing of the names of people who someone knew was dead. Even this list inexplicably omits the names of many people who were known to have died.

 

“The official attempts to count the dead encountered many problems, the most obvious being the phenomenon that there was nothing left of many people, not even their ashes….” [p. 211]

 

“Because no one knew just how many people were living in the Sugar Bushes, maw many loggers were in the forest, how many transient workers were in the area, or even how many recently arrived immigrants were in the town [Peshtigo], it is impossible to arrive at a reasonably accurate count of the dead. As Franklin Tilton points out, in Peshtigo ‘there were a large number of single men and persons continually going and coming. It is known that the village was unusually full of strangers on the night of the fire, and many are unaccounted for; and we had frequent inquiries from abroad for persons who were supposed to be in the vicinity.’” [p. 212]

 

“A newspaper reporter who toured the area in November was overwhelmed by the task of finding and counting the dead. ‘The half has not been told; the whole will never be known. The loss of life increases every hour. On Friday last, twenty-six dead bodies were found in the woods, and on Saturday, thirty-six. The woods and fields are literally full of dead bodies…’” [p. 212]

 

“For months and years after, people discovered the remains of someone who was killed in the fire.” [p. 213]

 

(Gess, Denise and William Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002.)

 

Green Bay Relief Committee: “Governor:–….The cause of the ‘great fire’ as it is generally called, which occurred on the 8^th and 9^th of October, 1871, and as is well understood, was the result of the unparalleled drouth with which the whole of northern Wisconsin was visited during the entire year previous.

 

“No rain of any consequence had fallen. Even the swamps of which the county is full, were void of water, and their soils being composed mainly of vegetable mould, readily burned to the depth of from one to four feet. For weeks before the final culmination, the people had been fighting fire, which was raging in the underbrush of the forests and the soils that would burn over an extent of the country, upon both sides of Green Bay, estimated at not less than twenty-four hundred square miles.

 

“There was scarcely a farm but had more or less fire upon it, in most cases set for the purpose of clearing it up, which overran its bounds, requiring eternal vigilance on the part of the people, and over which they lost all control when the furious gale occurred, bearing on its wings the flames of desolation, and hurrying to eternity hundreds of human beings, victims in [end p. 163] its terrible pathway. No human foresight could prevent, no human ingenuity could avert the sad spirit of havoc precipitated upon them without warning — and those who escaped the swift and terrible destruction, owe their safety more to the accident of situation, than to any other cause. The country upon both sides of Green Bay is full of swampy indentations, which are generally covered with water, but the period of which we write, for the first time that we have any knowledge or can gather any, these low lands were as dry as tinder, and being composed mainly of vegetable mould, the fire ran over them with great rapidity….

 

“This feature, new as it is in the history of conflagrations, is proved beyond cavil, by its course from the Sugar Bushes[81] to Peshtigo, thence to Marinette, where the body of the flame divided just in time to spare that beautiful town the fate of Peshtigo, one portion of it bearing to the right, wiping out effectually the little town of Menekaunee, while the main body passing to the left, barely escaping the town, crossing the Menomonee river above the dam, which is several hundred feet in width, and traveling in its course of destruction to the little town of Birch Creek, a distance of seven miles from the river, which shared a like fate with Peshtigo. On the peninsula on the east side of Green Bay, two localities show beyond doubt, through circumstances connected with th fire and the testimony of numerous witnesses, that the ‘traveling flames’ were the principal source of destruction. At Williamsonville, and in the towns of Brussels an Lincoln, these features were especially marked, causing fearful loss of life, the rapid flight of the fiery demon over these localities rendering escape utterly futile. The people saw the great ‘scroll of fire’ unwrapped over their heads, and were universally of the opinion over the entire burned district, the most severely visited, that the ‘last great day had come.’

 

“Many who escaped the fiery visitation through fortunate circumstance, were paralyzed with fear, from the effects of which they will probably never recover… It is now more than a year since the fire occurred, and there still remain very many people who are partially demented, and a few whose reason has entirely departed, as the effect of the fire.

 

“Upon the whole, the ‘relief’ afforded those who were burned out, may be considered a success, and but for the generous response in their behalf, thousands of people would have been thrown as paupers on the community, and fully nine-tenths of those who went back upon [end p. 164] their uninviting lands, could not have done so but for the assistance afforded….” [p. 165]

 

“….There have been (9,203) nine thousand two hundred and three persons assisted, whose losses by fire were more or less; and the aim of the committee has been to furnish each according to their necessities. This number includes all the districts….” [p. 166]

 

The Dead in the Burned District.

 

“Fully three months of hard and laborious work have been spent by Col. J. H. Leavenworth in making up a list of those burned; whole neighborhoods having been swept away without any warning, or leaving any trace or record to tell the tale. It [end p. 166] has been a difficult task to collect the number and names of families who have wholly or in part perished, although no pains have been spared to search out the survivors and make the records as nearly correct as possible. The list can be depended upon as far as it goes, but it is well known that great numbers of people were burned, particularly in the village of Peshtigo, whose names have never been ascertained, and probably never will be, as many of these were transient persons at work in the extensive manufactories, and all fled before the horrible tempest of fire, many of them caught in its terrible embrace with no record of their fate except their charred and blackened bones. The people of Peshtigo can all tell of acquaintances they had before the fire of whom they have lost all knowledge since, and that many perished in the company’s boarding house and the catholic and presbyterian churches, of whom not a vestige remains, there seems to be no reasonable doubt; for the very sands in the street were vitrified, and metals were melted in localities that seem impossible….” [p. 167]

 

List of dead recognized in Peshtigo. [p. 167 — we omit the list of 79 victims]

 

List of the Dead in the Sugar Bushes. [pp. 168-170 — we omit the list of 241 victims]

 

“This closes the list of those identified in Peshtigo, and the Sugar Bushes, while all who are familiar with the circumstances, assert that large numbers were found and buried, who could not be recognized. Different intelligent people vary so much in their estimates of the number who perished, that it would be mere conjecture to attempt to give any figures on the [end p. 170] subject….

 

“Immediately after the fire at Peshtigo and the Sugar Bushes, hundreds of badly maimed people were removed to Green Bay by boats, and to Marinette, where the Dunlap House and others were used as hospitals, until suitable buildings could be erected for that purpose….At Peshtigo and Marinette, barracks were erected, where the destitute were fed, clothed and housed, as a temporary matter, until more suitable places could be provided….

 

List of the burned in Lincoln. [we omit list of 15 victims]

 

List of burned in Brussels. [we omit list of 50 victims]

 

Nasawanpee [we omit listing of three victims]

 

List of persons burned at Birch Creek, in the town of Menomonee, Mich [we omit 21-victim list]

 

Statistics of Losses.

 

“No. of School Houses burned…..         27

Churches                do……          9

Dwelling Houses,  do…….     959

Barns and Stables, do……    1028

Horses,                   do……      116

Working Cattle      do……      157

Cows and Heifers, do……      266

Sheep,                    do……      201

Hogs,                      do……      306

 

“….Very respectfully submitted,

1. Langworthy,

Chairman Executive Committee of Relief.

Green Bay, Dec. 31^st, 1872.”

 

(“Report of the Green Bay Relief Committee, Having in Charge Matters Pertaining to Burnt District in Wisconsin (To the Hon C. C. Washburn, Governor of Wisconsin).” State of Wisconsin. Journal of Proceedings (26^th Annual Session) Appendix. 1873.)

 

Hemphill: “In 1871, Peshtigo was a small town nestled on the Peshtigo River, which flows into Green Bay. It was just like other mill towns across Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota…. “There were fires burning all summer and into the fall,” says Peter Leschak. He is the author of Ghosts of the Fireground, a reflection on the Peshtigo Fire and his own experiences of firefighting…..

 

“During the week before the fire, the air was so filled with smoke that harbormasters on Lake Michigan blew their foghorns constantly to keep ships from running aground…. “The big trees they were cutting were red pine and white pine. And when that stuff gets to be red slash — as it’s called when it dries out — it’s incredibly volatile.” Leschak says all the ingredients of a major disaster came together on Oct. 8, 1871.

 

“”A huge cyclonic low system — a cold front — came sweeping in from the western part of the country,” Leschak says. The difference in temperature on each side of the cold front was probably 40 degrees. That set up furious winds that fanned prairie fires all over the region. Fires were burning all over, from Chicago north to Michigan, and as far west as Minnesota….

 

“The blazes developed into a firestorm. The heat generated by the burning trees and buildings caused a column of hot air to rise over the town. Cold air rushing in to take its place fanned the flames. That caused more hot air to rise. The town was at the center of a tornado of flame. The fire was coming from all directions at once, and the winds were roaring at 100 mph. Some people in Peshtigo managed to struggle to the river. A Catholic priest arrived at the river and found people standing on the banks. He pushed one of them into the water, and the rest followed. They stood in the water for hours. Some of them survived….Leschak says the ambient air temperature was probably between 500 and 700 degrees….” (Hemphill. “Peshtigo: a tornado of fire revisited.” Minnesota Public Radio, 11-27-2002.)

 

Holand (on Door County fire): “There is one event in the history of Door County which in the memory of the people of the southern half of the county stands forth like the recollection of a horrible, indescribable nightmare. This is the great fire of Sunday, October 8, 1871, when in the darkness of the night a great torrent of fire descended upon them like the crash of judgment day, which burnt their farms to barrenness and destroyed their homes, forests and lives of their friends and relatives….

 

“On land forest fires raged throughout the fall, leveling cities, burning up scores of little settlements in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan and destroying thousands of lives. At Peshtigo more than four hundred men, women and children were burned to death within an hour. Most of these terrible events passed almost unnoticed because they were overshadowed by the greater tragedy of the destruction of Chicago which took place on October 9th.

 

“The summer of 1871 was excessively dry. Cultivated lands became parched and cracked and the swamps dried up. By the middle of September people became very alarmed. Forest fires were raging in many different parts all over the county which could not be put out. The swamps were on fire. Corduroy roads were burning and fences were reduced to ashes. Several mills and many homesteads were from time to time destroyed. No rain came but the fire serpent kept crawling underground, frequently blazing forth, destroying timber which had stood for centuries. The atmosphere all over the county was oppressive to inhale. At night the sight was disheartening. The whole heavens around the horizon were aglow, and the dark red, as seen through the smoky atmosphere, seemed to threaten a greater calamity soon to take place. The days dragged by and the settlers fought the fire as best they could. Each day the people sighed and prayed for rain but each day’s cloudless skies and restless winds only added its share to the unceasing drouth.

 

“Sunday (or “Sadday,” as it was afterward termed). October 8th, the morning dawned with no perceptible change. In the afternoon the wind was quite fresh but died down in the evening and an unnatural stillness followed. In a few minutes there came a fierce gust of wind, followed by a loud roaring. In the southwest dense clouds were noticeable. Then a flame shot up quickly followed by many leaping tongues of fire. Soon these flames were almost obliterated however by huge columns of smoke which now and then split apart showing a furnace of fire behind. The terrific roaring of the wind together with the crash of falling trees caused the stoutest hearts to flutter. The night was made more hideous by the startling cries of birds, flying frantically in every direction. Wild animals came bursting into the clearings, with whimpering voices seeking shelter among the bellowing cattle, People heard, saw and felt the terror of the lawless elements that had engulfed them, screamed with terror and fled in confusion along the highways and into their fields. Then suddenly a whirlwind of flame, in great clouds, from above the tops of the trees, fell upon them enveloping everything. It was an atmosphere of fire. People inhaled it and fell down dead. Almost all, both the victims and the survivors, had but one thought – “it is the destruction of the world!”

 

“This tornado of fire swept up from Brown County, overrunning the towns of Union, Brussels, Forestville, Gardner, Nasewaupee, Clay Banks and Sturgeon Bay. In Gardner and Nasewaupee a number of big swamps with a thick growth of timber had previously, in September, burned out, leaving large areas where this greater forest fire found but little to feed on. Because of this earlier destruction the fire was hindered and the Village of Sturgeon Bay and the northern towns were saved. The next day, October 9th, the long looked for rain finally came, drenching everything for hours and the fire ceased.

 

“The people of Sturgeon Bay had watched with great terror this approaching storm of fire and knew that down there in the smoke wrapped forest country of Brussels and Gardner a terrible calamity had taken place. On Monday supplies and provisions were collected and a relief expedition started out to give aid. The following account is from a member of the party telling what they found:

 

“We started for the tornado district with a mule team well loaded with supplies for the destitute ones. The road was filled with burnt and burning trees and at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon a distance of only four miles had been made toward Williamsonville. It was evident that to get the team to Williamsonville (six miles distant) would consume the time of at least another day; hence a portion of the crowd loaded themselves with what they could carry, and set out on foot, while the team retraced its steps. The journey was dreadful! The odor of wild birds and animals, together with that of hogs, cattle and horses that had been roasted alive, mingled with the dense smoke of burning timber, was almost stifling, Some portions of the road were blocked with trees nine deep – burning and smouldering, making the journey both slow and difficult.

 

“Williamsonville was finally reached – the sight was the most horrible imaginable! Dead bodies were strewn in all directions, and most all burned beyond recognition. Something like thirty five lay in one heap! Some had one or both legs burned off ; another was minus an arm while still another had the head or other parts burned to a crisp – men, women and children composing the pile. The fleshy portion that remained uncharred was cooked through and when moved would fall to pieces! Added to the most affecting sight was the almost unbearable odor that arose from the burned bodies that had been moistened by the drenching rain! Nearly ten years have elapsed since that terrible sight, yet it is as fresh in memory today as the date it was witnessed – the great black trees stand out now as visionary mourning statues as they stood in reality October 11, 1871.”[82]

 

“A few miles west of Williamson’s mill was a new shingle mill just erected by Scofield & Co. Fourteen men were here at work installing the machinery. When the avalanche of fire swept down upon them the fourteen men made a dash for a point where a small flume had been built in a creek. The water course had been dry for some time owing to the long continued drouth but there was a little water and mud left in a hollow. Ten of the men were struck down by the fire at the top of their speed and were all burned to death. Four of the men reached the mudhole and threw themselves face downward in the puddle. Even here two of the men were scorched to death.

 

“Williamsonville was a little settlement established by the Williamson brothers in the dense forest a few miles south of Little Sturgeon – the manufacture of shingles being the main pillar upon which rested the foundation for forming the settlement. A mill, store, boarding house, large barn, blacksmith shop, eight dwelling houses, and minor buildings made up the settlement – all of which were reduced to ashes. About eighty persons were in the settlement at the time of the fire and all perished except seventeen. Of the eleven members of the Williamson family but two escaped – Thomas Williamson and his mother. The village lay in a small clearing of six or seven acres. For a week or two they had been fighting the flames, setting back fires, and began to feel quite safe. In the evening of the fateful day a violent windstorm came up leveling trees in all directions. This was followed by a sheet of fire that rolled over the treetops. Then came a shower of sparks, large and thick as rain drops. In a moment the buildings were all on fire and a rush was made for a vacant part of the clearing used as a potato patch. Here thirty five persons huddled together, several hundred feet from the woods, hoping here to be safe from the fire. However, not one of them escaped. Ten feet from them sat old Mrs. Williamson with a wet blanket over her and she was saved. A woman partly covered by the same blanket was roasted to death. Thomas Williamson saved himself by wrapping himself in a wet blanket and rooting face downward into an old ash bed. Seven men jumped into a well but two of these were burned to death. Two men suffered such intense agony from their burns that they dashed out their brains by pounding their heads against a stump. Besides the three score human begins who were cremated in this spot, there were also burned to death 16 out of the 17 horses, 5 out of the 6 oxen and 40 swine.

 

“While Williamsonville lost more lives than any other settlement in Door County because of its comparatively large population, the awful scenes that were here enacted were repeated in scores of other places. Throughout almost the entire southern half of the county the fire raged like a hurricane and almost everywhere the humble but superstitious people believed that judgment day had come. Certainly no judgment day could come more swiftly, more unmercifully, more terribly. The ominous warning sound coming from the distance when the sky, so dark just before, burst into great clouds of fire, the beasts of the forest running for succor into the midst of the settlements, and the great, consuming, roaring hell of fire engulfing all was an experience never encountered by man or beast. The dreadful scene lacked nothing but the sounding of the last trumpet and, indeed, the approach of the awful roaring and the premonitions from the distance supplied even that to the appalled imagination of the people.

 

“Below is given a list from the Door County Advocate of October 26, 1871, of the loss of life and property in Door County on the night of October 8th:

 

The following is a list of the dead:

 

Brussels

 

1. Schwerger, father-in-law, wife and five children.
   ____ Schiller, wife and one child.
   Jos. Darti, mother, wife and five children.
   George Colbeck, wife and two children.
   Mich. Mellerey, wife and four children.
   Louis Weis, wife and one child; body of one child not found.
   Frank Moulton, wife and two children.
   One child of C. Powlect.
   Joseph Schwat and a daughter of Louis Weis.
   A German family of four persons, names unknown.
   John McNamee, John Doherty, Sarah Connors, Mary Disotel, John McWilliams, John Wood, John Crow, Paulette Legat.
   An adopted child of G. J. Gilson.

 

At Williamson’s Mill

 

Joseph Married, wife and three children.
Nelson Dimrow, wife and two children.
Michael Adams, wife and three children.
John Williamson, wife and one child.
Jos. Marcoix, wife and two children.
James Williamson and wife.
Mrs. Buckland and two children.
Unknown French woman and two children.
Thomas Crane, Thomas Whelan, John O’Conners, Dan Nicholson, Chas. Duncan,

Frank Borway, Emery Jervis, Jason Williamson, John Conlan, George Buckland, Unknown woman, J. Williamson, Sr., Henry Jervis, James Whelan, Maggie Williamson, James Donlan, Freddy Williamson, Mike Rogan, Maggie 0 ‘Neil, John Ahearn,

Patrick Ahearn, Frank Donlan, Charles Weinbeck, Louis Longley, Peter Bordway, Maggie Heaney, Joseph Verbonker.
Unknown woman.
Four unknown bodies found in the woods.

 

At Scofield & Co’s Mill

Twelve unknown

 

Nasewaaupee

Casper Lorch and two sons.

 

Wounded

 

“The following is a list of the wounded at the Williamson’s Mill fire:

 

Joseph Buckner, both legs burned off.
John Marshall, feet slightly burned.
Michael Whelan, feet badly burned.
Benjamin Wall Lorch eyes badly burned.
J. Collins, face and hands badly burned.
M. Carmody, feet and eyes burned. Owen Collins, hands slightly burned.
C. M. C. McCusker, face and feet burned.
John Mullan, eyes injured.
Boyd Merrill, face, Lands and feet badly burned.
Serlie Jervis, face and hands slightly injured.
J. Donlan, feet burned.
Capt. Richmond, hands ‘and face slightly burned and,

a Frenchman, whose name has not been ascertained, had his feet slightly burned.

 

The following is a list of those who had lost barns, crops, houses or other property:

 

Forestville

 

1. Buckholz, house, barn, grain and feed.
   Samuel Perry, house.
   John Stoneman, house, barn and fourteen head of sheep.
   And. Paul, house and wearing apparel.
   William Miller, barn and hay.
   Ernest Walski, house and contents.
   Anton Theiron, grain and hay.
   Anton Lindaucr, house and grain.
   John Combers, house and contents.
   John Wolf, barn and grain.
   John Merrill, barn and hay.

 

Nasewaupee

 

Fred Monk, house and contents, barn, farm crops, cattle and farming tools.
D. Greenwood, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
C. Feldmann, house, barn, crops and farming tools.
L. Schumacher, house and contents, barn, crops, cattle and farming tools. George Senft, house, barn, crops and farming tools.
Joseph Harris, Jr., house and barn on farm.
S. Malony, house and contents, two barns, crops and farming tools.
John Murray, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
John Bink, house and contents, barn, crops, cattle and farming tools.
John Lang, barn and crops.
C. H. Stephan, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
Caspar Lorch, house and contents, barn, crops, horses and farming tools.
Casper Lorch, house and contents, barn, crops, horses and farming tools.
Peter Lorch, house and contents, barn, crops, cattle and farming tools.
P. Delmbach, house and contents, barn, crops, cattle and farming tools.
Peter Leonhardt, house and contents, barns, crops and farming tools.
A. Goettelman, barn, crops and farming tools.
John Mullane, house and contents, crops and farming tools.
John Mann, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
Richard Kinney, house and contents, crops and farming tools.
William Davis, house and contents, crops and farming tools.
B. Kinney, house and contents.
Noel Langlois, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
M. Daley, barn and crops, six cattle and farming tools.
M. Curry, barn and crops.
M. Reardon, house and contents.
John Broderson, house and contents and barn.
Barney Cavanagh, house and contents, barn, crops, cattle and farming tools.
John Pfisterer, barn and crop.
Francis Donlan, barn and crop.
Barney Donlan, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
Mrs. Burdeau, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
John Rogan, barn and crops.

1. Gormley, barn and crops.
   D. O’Hearn, furniture and wearing apparel.
   J. Baumgarden, house and barn, premises leased by Thos. Davis, who lost crops on same
   and one cow.
   Wm. Mulverhill, house, barn and hay.
   Ed. O’Ream, house, barn and hay.
   John Gallach, house, barn and crops.
   Gotlieb Magler, and brothers, house and contents and crops.
   H. Buschmann, barn and part of crops and horse power of threshing machine.
   Three school houses.

 

Union

 

1. Fabrey, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
   J. Johnson, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
   Francois Delvaux, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
   William Laluzerne, house.
   Wm. Girondel, house and contents.
   Emil Befay, barn, crops and furniture.
   Gustav Pensis, house and contents.
   P. Geryais, barn, crops and furniture.
   Frank Evrard, barn, crops and farming tools.
   Martin Coullard, barn and crops.
   Francis Counard, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
   Gaspard Duvy, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
   Gullaine Lenais, household goods, barn, crops and farming tools.
   Charles Gulette, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
   Jean Dejean, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools and part of cattle.

 

Gardner

 

William Delsipee, barn and crops. D. Coffin, barn and crops.
S. D. Welden, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
I. Gigot, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
J. B. Tricot, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
A. Corbisier, house and contents, barn, crops, cattle and farming tools.
J. Colignon, house, barn, contents and farming tools.
J. Henquinet, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
J. Corbisier, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
P. Farley, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
J. Robin, house, farm and crops.
C. Lavalette, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
J. Lalune, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
H. Neuville, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
L. Laluzerne, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
J. Dalemont, barn and crops.
Wm. Claflin, house and crop.
J. Neuville, house and crops.
Williamson’s shingle mill and all buildings (12 to 15) connected with it.
Three school houses and two churches.

 

Brussels

 

Boarding house, mill and other buildings of Scofield and Leatham.
Toussant Dachelet, barn, crops and furniture and clothing.
Francis Denis, house and contents, barn and crops and stock.
Eugene Renquin, house and contents, barn and contents.
Oliver Dedecker, house and contents, barn, crops and stock.
Chas. Piette, house and contents, barn, crops and stock.
Alexander Meunier, house and contents, barn, crops and part of stock.
Eli Simons, house and contents, barn and crops.
Frank Legreve, house and contents, barn and crops.
Louis Coisman, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and part of cattle.
Theodore Labotte, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Louis Caspart, barn and crops.
Adrian Francois, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Joseph Francois, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Peter Francois, two barns, crops and farming tools.
M. B. Englebret, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Joseph Englebret, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Desire Englebret, house and contents, part of crops and farming tools.
J. F. Flemal, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Charles Mignon, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
N. Mignon, house and contents, barn, crops, farming utensils and cattle.
Antoine Mohemont, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Clement Bassine, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
J. B. Denamur, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Unknown, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
J. B. Dewitt, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Chas. Dewitt, barn, farming tools and part of crops.
Constant Flemal, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Leonard Leclou, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Eugene Delforge, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Francis Martin, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
J. J. Lemay, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
C. Massart, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Dr. Antoine, house, contents and pharmacy.

Chas. Rouer, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Jos. Rouer, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Louis Mignon, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Peopold Lefebvre, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
John B. Staubaus, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
P. J. Rinier, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Fillician Marcaux, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
Joseph Piette, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Francis Gaspart, house, barn and crops.
J. J. Bero, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
E. Vandengendertalen, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
A. Naniot, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Alex. Pierre, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Prosper Naze, house and contents, blacksmith tools, barn, crops and farming tools.
John Fauville, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Isidore Tremble, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
Chas. Tibone, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
Pascal Francois, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
J. G. Gilson, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Antoine Verlee, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
Francis Springlier, house and contents, barn, crops, farming tools and cattle.
Eloi Meunier, house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
A Bohemian family lost house and contents, barn, crops and farming tools.
One school house.
The nine families in this town, the members of which were all burned to death, also had everything burned.

 

Sturgeon Bay

 

Geo. Leaser, house and contents.
One school house.
Bradner, Charnley & Co., on timber and logs, $15,000.00.
C. L. Chase, on tan bark, $2,000.00.
Furniture and wearing apparel of H L. Oleson. Furniture and wearing apparel of Aug. Cocagne. O. Oleson, clothing and bedding.

 

Sevastopol

 

Luke Coyne, barn and crop.

 

Clay Banks

 

1. H. Horn, store and contents, saloon, boarding house and barn and contents.
   John Polinsky, clothing and bedding.
   Peter Stephane, clothing
   Wenzel Setwosky, clothing.
   Ed. Lawton, clothing.
   A. Blasier, clothing Levi Blasier, clothing
   William Busky, clothing.
   B. F. Murphy, clothing and bedding.
   ____ Burmeister, clothing and bedding.
   ____ Burmeister, clothing and bedding.
   Anton Stern, clothing and bedding.
   John Hunt, clothing and bedding.
   W. Heimbecher, clothing, provisions and shoemaker tools.
   A. Streich, clothing, bedding and provisions.
   James Fronsoe, clothing, bedding and provisions.
   Aug. Nemeyer, clothing, bedding and provisions.
   F. Lutman, clothing.

 

“The list gives 128 persons burned to death, and fourteen severely burned. Many others in the different settlements were burned of which record has been lost.

 

“One hundred and sixty seven families and single persons were rendered homeless, in most cases losing clothing, houses, barns, crops, furniture, farming tools and everything they had but the bare land and the clothes on their backs. In addition to these, nine families in Brussels and the families at Williamson’s mill also lost everything and their lives. A small proportion, probably a tenth, were partially burned.

 

“About two hundred other farms suffered by the destruction of their fences, timber and in some cases parts of their crops burned over while in the ground.

 

“The total loss in the county by the fire was about $700,000. The insurance did not exceed $40,000 in the whole county.

 

“Two mills, 2 boarding houses, 3 churches, 6 schoolhouses, 3 stores, 2 saloons, 148 dwelling houses and an equal number of barns were swept away.”

 

(Holand, Hjalmar R. “The Great Fire of 1871, Door County, Wisconsin,” Chapter XLVI in History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. Chicago: 1917, p. 421-428.)

 

Hultquist: “From Sunday, October 8 through Tuesday, October 10, 1871 wildfires claimed thousands of lives and destroyed millions of acres across the Upper Midwest…. Large wildfires…struck several areas in Michigan, with Holland, Port Huron, and Manistee seeing the most significant damage and loss of life.  Although the exact death toll from the Michigan fires is unknown, it likely claimed in excess of 500 lives.  However, the most costly fire in terms of loss of life occurred in and around Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and remains to this day as the deadliest fire in American History.

 

“Fire reached Peshtigo during the evening of Sunday, October 8, 1871.  By the time the fire ended, it had consumed 1.5 million acres, and an estimated 1,200-2,400 lives, including approximately 800 in Peshtigo.  Only one building in the town survived the fire….

 

“The fire in Peshtigo resulted from a number of factors, including prolonged drought, logging and clearing of land for agriculture, local industry, ignorance and indifference of the population, and ultimately a strong autumn storm system occurring in the presence of conditions supportive of a large, rapidly-spreading fire….” (Hultquist. “The Great Midwest Wildfires of 1871. Green Bay, WI WFO, NWS.)

 

Johnson on east side of Green Bay, Wisconsin fire: “….Today, it is difficult to accurately pinpoint the southernmost point where the firestorm began on Oct. 7, but there is no doubt that New Franken was caught up in it…. Residents would later describe a roaring sound, a rushing, as the fire monster carried by the strong wind consumed everything before it. Tree sap exploded within the trees, and the trees collapsed before the onrushing wind, exploding with a noise so loud that not even yelling allowed communication. As the fire swept over New Franken, the inhabitants rushed to escape the fire. Few things are more frightening than an onrushing firestorm and the threat of being burned alive. All reason and rational thought are lost in the one thought of escape. There was no time to save possessions. Those who stopped to load them up lost their lives. Escape was the only hope to survive. When survivors returned to New Franken later, they discovered that the fire had so thoroughly destroyed everything that it appeared the village had never existed. The ground was bare of homes and buildings that had been there just the day before.

 

“Up the Door [County]. The fire moved up into the peninsula, spreading out and widening until a swath 20 miles wide and 50 miles long was consumed. Casco was threatened by the fire but a crew of workmen at a mill owned by a man named Decker worked hard and succeeded in fighting off the rushing fiery monster.

 

“The fire, pushed forward by its very nature and feeding on itself, roared toward an unsuspecting populace. Telegraph lines burned and toppled, removing even the remote possibility of a warning. Trees, burned from the roots, fell across roads and bridges blocking escape….

 

“In the town of Brussels, 22 people were burned to death, eight at the mill of Scofield & Leathern and 14 others in other parts of the town. Fifty-six houses, barns and their contents were consumed.

 

“The fire continued on, sweeping through the towns of Union, Gardner, Nasewaupee and the west side of Forestville. One witness would later claim, ‘Great volumes of fire would rise up, 50 feet from the tops of the trees, leap 30 acres of clearing in an instant, and flame up in the forest beyond.’ The fire was moving faster than a human could run.

 

“Many victims were trapped and burned alive before they even realized what was upon them. Clothing was so dry, and the heat from the flames so hot, that the clothing on the people burst into flames before the fire could even touch it. Panic was complete….

 

“In Rosiere, storekeeper Charles Rubin threw bolts of cloth into a nearby stone lined well and ordered his six children into the pit. The wind was howling, and the heat from the onrushing fire was already upon them. As Rubin helped his children into the well, he had second thoughts and ordered them into a nearby clearing. Before he could get the last child out of the well, his shirt was already on fire, the heat blistering his skin. Ripping the burning clothing off, he followed the children into the cleared field and buried their faces into the dirt. The woods around them were on fire, the store was ablaze — the fury and sound almost unbearable for the small children. After what seemed an eternity, the fire moved on, leaving a smoke and fire blinded Rubin to be led by his children back to the burned-out store. All of the cloth in the well had burned. Had they stayed in the well, all of them would have been consumed by the fire.

 

“In unexplainable ways, some people who sought refuge in wells were trapped to be burned alive while others found the wells to be a perfect refuge. Some found open fields were zones of safety, while others in similar open fields were killed by the fires. No place was perfectly safe.

 

“In a Belgian community just south of Williamsonville, 15 families saw and heard the firestorm coming and took the time to bury their possessions, including sides of bacon, in a nearby open field. Their rough bone-dry wooden homes were quickly reduced to ashes in moments. Belgians died in the inferno, but it would later be remembered that the community had been able to save its bacon….

 

“The roads and settlements in Southern Door were engulfed in sheets of fire. As the out-of-control fire moved up through Door County, the small sawmill community of Williamsonville, nine miles south of Sturgeon Bay, was unaware of the onrushing danger.

 

“Williamsonville was a small village named after its founders, Tom and John Williamson. The brothers had moved into the area in the late 1860s and set up shop in an undeveloped area of the county. Taking title to 480 acres of timbered land, they wasted no time in building a barn, boarding house, store, blacksmith shop, family house and bunkhouse for their employees. By 1871, their thriving shingle business supported 76 people, including 15 women and 16 children.

 

“Early on that fateful day, the wind suddenly picked up with enough force to blow trees over. Thomas Williamson saw a wall of fire about a mile and a half away from the settlement. At the same time fire was closing in from other directions. Trees crashed to the ground, the fire roared and smoke blinded the panicked residents. Williamson leaped from his porch and ordered the sleeping work crews to be awakened. Sparks were falling everywhere, and the tinder-dry buildings were already smoldering. Hoses were dragged out and roofs were watered down but to

little avail. The wind whipped up the flames and soon the Williamsons’ parents’ home was threatened….Clearly no one could outrun the fire. Quickly they decided that the only safe place would be the two-acre clearing that had been a potato patch. There was little to burn in the field, and it afforded a place for the women and children to go….

 

“Like others in the county had done, seven people climbed down into a well seeking a safe haven

from the blaze. The last man to go into the well found the wood curbs of the well on fire. He pulled them off and threw them away before he descended into the well and covered himself with a wet blanket….Barn boss Thomas Bush was on top of the barn and watched the people running to the potato patch as the monster approached, devouring the land as it roared toward them. A perfect cloud of flame waved over the trees. When the fall of flames reached the mill, it descended upon the group huddled together looking for safety. Bush only escaped by jumping down, grabbing a terrorized pony and galloping away….

 

“Sometime before dawn on that October morning in 1871, the horror around Williamsonville was all over. Those who survived moved stiffly about in shock, little comprehending the horror around them. The heat of the fire had seared their lungs, and the smoke had all but blinded them. They were horribly thirsty and sought nonexistent water for their parched throats.

 

“In the potato patch, a small hollow only 15 feet square…the bodies of 35 people were found. In the well where seven people had taken shelter, five survived….Sixty people had died in the Williamsonville area, some to the actual flames but many to the hot noxious smoke that blanketed the ground. Among the dead were 16 children and 11 women….

 

“Further up the Peninsula people in Sawyer and Sturgeon Bay could see that an inferno was moving toward them. The sky glowed an evil red. Everyone who looked south could see that terrible things were happening….But, as it turned out, the towns were spared because of the layout of the county and the direction of the fickle wind. The wind was blowing north and slightly east, yet the two towns were situated just far enough east to escape. The fire moved north and stopped when it came to the waters of Green Bay….

 

“Residents from Sawyer, Sturgeon Bay and even towns to the south rushed into the area to seek out survivors, but fallen trees blocked the primitive roads. It took rescuers two days to get from Sturgeon Bay to Williamsonville, only nine miles away. Roads to Kewaunee, Two Rivers and smaller villages in the affected area were also buried under fallen trees….

 

“It is difficult to place an actual number on how many lost their lives that night. Estimates of the number who died in northeastern Wisconsin vary from 1,200 to 1,500 people, but that number includes Peshtigo. It is also estimated that more than a million acres of land were devastated.

 

“The Peninsula’s tragedy was quickly overshadowed by the fire in Peshtigo, which was almost completely destroyed. Then again, Peshtigo’s loss was also overshadowed by the Chicago fire because the fires occurred at the same time….” (Johnson, Bob, Door County Advocate. “Door County History: 1871 Blaze Wiped Out Community of Williamsonville.” 6-15-2012.)

 

Monahan account of Peshtigo Fire: “John Monahan, a laborer at Peshtigo, gives a thrilling account of the disasters there, to the Oshkosh Northwestern, from which we take the following:

 

Sunday night, the wind was blowing a heavy gale from the southwest, so hard that piles of lumber were upset and boards carried for ten or fifteen rods. Peshtigo was on a sandy hill, and the drifting sand was carried by the wind in drifts like snow. About eight o’clock in the evening, we could hear the fire in the direction of Oconto, roaring like the hum of a threshing machine. No rain had fallen for six weeks, and the fire carried along by the gale, struck the village about nine o’clock. In less time than it takes me to tell you, the houses on the west of the river were all on fire, and the air was filled with showers of burning cinders.

 

I was boarding on the west side of the river, and as soon as I saw the fire near us, my wife and I packed a bundle of our things, and started to cross the river to the company’s store, thinking we would be safe there. When we reached the road, the air was filled with fire, and we had not left the house before it took fire. We hurried as fast as we could to the river, and almost suffocated before we got there. Both sides of the river were in a blaze before we got to the dock. We had to stay in the river from a little before 10 o’clock until daylight next morning, and even then we were not safe. The heat was so great that we had to keep our faces wet to prevent them from blistering. Our heads took fire and blazed up. Saw logs in the river took fire, and the fire seemed to be all around us. There was no chance to get away in any direction, for the air was all a mass of blaze. The children and the women had a hard time of it. If the fright had not been so great, they must have died from exposure.

 

Toward daylight the fire cooled down a little, as it had burned everything before it. Then we began to look about us, and such sights as I saw were enough to freeze a person’s blood. Coming up from the river bank we stumbled over five dead bodies, burned so that you could not tell who they were. A little further along there were three more. One poor fellow was burned so that nothing but his bones were left, excepting one foot and a part of the leg. Bodies of children, men and women, all succumbed to the fire alike. The air was heated so, and so full of fire that their clothing would take fire, and they would fall down suffocated before they could reach the river. We found many of them within three or four feet of the water, where they fell down exhausted and were roasted alive within sight of the river.

 

Mr. Beebe, book-keeper in the Peshtigo Company’s factory, lived in a little house near the store. He was burned to death, together with his wife and three children. One little boy, about three years old, was the only one that escaped out of the whole family….The little boy in some way got out of the store and was picked up by some one passing and carried to the river.

 

When it was daylight we could see the awful work that had been done. The great factory where 350 men had been employed was all destroyed, and in that whole village not a house, or a fence or a single board remained. Everything was swept off so that it looked like a prairie. Even the railroad track was ruined, the ties being all burned up and the rails curled and crooked by the great heat. Here and there over this great field of ashes lay the blackened corpses of the dead and the carcasses of animals. The stench rising that morning was so powerful that we could not bear it. The smell of burned flesh was so sickening that many of the women, after escaping from the river fainted. As soon as we could, we got down to Peshtigo harbor, six miles off, where we took the steamer St. Joe, and after being delayed all day by the wind reached Green Bay Wednesday morning, and Oshkosh soon after. Here we got the first meal we had taken since Sunday night, except a few crackers on the boat.” [Account of John Monahan.]

 

(Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “The Northern Fires.” 10-16-1871, p. 1.)

 

Moran and Somerville, esp. on Williamsonville fire: “On the night of October 8, 1871, a wildfire swept through the tiny village of Williamsonville in Brussels township, southern Door County, Wisconsin [East side of bay of Green Bay]…All but seventeen of the settlement’s seventy-seven inhabitants perished. The Williamsonville tragedy was one of many that night when fires swept into lumber and shingle-mill towns located on both sides of the bay of Green Bay; in all, perhaps thirteen hundred lives were lost and seventy-five hundred people were left homeless. Most victims were either lumberjacks or homesteaders. In addition to the tragic loss of life and human suffering, wildfires so devastated the forests — more than a half million hectares were burned — that the historical course of the region’s economy changed significantly. In southern Door County, the fire that destroyed Williamsonville and other settlements was a singular event that marked the end of lumbering and shingle-making and spurred the region’s transition to agriculture….” [p. 21]

 

“Williamsonville, site of one of Door county’s largest shinglemills, occupied a clearing of about 4 hectares [about 10 acres][83]….The mill and a large storage barn were located well away from other buildings presumably as a fire safety measure. Roadside buildings consisted of a boarding house, store, blacksmith shop, and eight dwellings.[84]….” [p. 23]

 

“Although the Williamsonville fire is often considered part of the same conflagration that destroyed Peshtigo, Wisconsin, actually separate fires engulfed the two settlements. According to Wells (1968),[85] at least two major wildfires ravaged the west side of the bay of Green Bay — one spread from near the Green Bay city limits to just south of Oconto and another burned north of Oconto into Peshtigo and then on to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula… On the less populated east side of the Bay, another wildfire spread from south of New Franken northeastward to near Sturgeon Bay. By far, the greatest loss of life was in Peshtigo and neighboring settlements.

 

“The Peshtigo and Williamsonville fires occurred on the same night as the great Chicago fire, which claimed more than two hundred lives and destroyed 17,450 buildings.[86] Between October 8 and 10, 1871, other major wildfires burned over perhaps one million hectares of woodland in lower Michigan and may have claimed another two hundred lives.[87] In all, these were the most destructive wildfires in United States history….” [p. 24]

 

“In his review of wildland fire behavior, Albini (1984)[88] notes that wildfires are loosely classified on the basis of the type of fuel through which they burn. Ground fires slowly consume the subsurface organic materials that compose peat bogs and swamps; surface fires engulf forest litter, fallen trees, and other vegetation; and crown fires rapidly burn through tops of standing (usually coniferous) trees. Eyewitness accounts (e. g. Tilton 1871)[89] indicate that the northeastern Wisconsin wildfires were unusually intense and involved all three sources of fuel. For example, Williamsonville survivors described a ‘sheet of fire that rolled along over the tree tops,’ probably indicating a crown fire (C. I. Martin, 1881). Also, eyewitnesses noted that the fire was so intense that stumps were burned out and roots were gone (Holand 1931).[90]…” [p. 26]

 

“In some respects, wildfires that scorched northeastern Wisconsin in October 1871 may have resembled the huge fire storms that engulfed hundreds of city blocks during Allied bombing raids on cities in Germany and Japan during World War II. In those fore storms, violent updrafts formed over the fire center and strong cyclonic (counterclockwise) winds developed at the surface.” [p. 28]

 

“In many of the devastated settlements, including Peshtigo, survivors of the wildfires stoically tried to put their lives back together. Some saw and shingle mills destroyed by fire were rebuilt but not in southern Door County where the wildfires had permanently altered the landscape and the local economy. The think forests were gone, replaced by burned-over vegetation and tree stumps; the lumbering era had ended. Clearing trees and stumps had always been a slow and arduous task for settlers living independently on isolated plots of land and relying on their own muscle power and that of their sluggish oxen. Ironically, the devastating wildfires of 1871 helped farmers to clear the forest and open the land to crops….In effect, the fire was a catalyst that accelerated the transition to agriculture in southern Door County….” [p. 29]  (Moran and Somerville. “Tornadoes of Fire at Williamsonville…” Wisc. Academy of Sciences, 1990, pp. 21-31.)

 

Pernin: “….Among those who escaped from the awful scourge, many have since died, owing to the hardships then endured, whilst others are dropping off day by day. A physician belonging to Green Bay has predicted that before ten years all the unfortunate survivors of that terrible catastrophe will have paid the debt of nature, victims of the irreparable injury inflicted on their constitutions by smoke, air, water, and fire….” (Pernin, Reverend Peter. “The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account.” 1874 account reprinted in Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 54, pp. 246-272, Summer 1971.)

 

Pingree: “After the War between the States exploitation of the virgin timber in northern Wisconsin and Michigan began in Earnest. Peshtigo, in Marinette County, Wisconsin, near the Michigan line, was a company town of some 1,750 inhabitants on both banks of the Peshtigo River. The railroad to the town was being built. The village itself contained a number of sawmills and factories,[91] two churches, a number of stores, and establishments known as ‘boarding houses and saloons.’

 

“In 1871 the village was surrounded by woods and wood fires. During the summer two fires had started to invade the village, but the inhabitants had successfully fought them off. So long as the fires were confined to the woods. no one worried much about them, as they generally did not destroy the thick-barked mature timber on which the economy of the region rested. The fires and their accompanying smoke were more a nuisance than anything else.

 

“By 9:30 on October 8, most of the people of Peshtigo had started to go to bed. At that time, through the smoke to the south of the village, a dull red glare could be seen near the horizon. A breeze sprang up from the southwest and the air became very hot. Then a low, rumbling noise, like a train approaching from a dis­tance, was heard. That noise increased to a heavy roar, and the threat of fire’s invading the village caused mothers to take children from their beds and dress them, while the men prepared to fight the fire if it should come. At about 10 o’clock tongues of flame could be seen at the treetops near the village.

 

“A forest fire seldom spreads to treetops for long, because the foliage on the trees is too full of moisture to sustain combustion. However, during periods of ex­treme drought or when, during the autumn or after dry­ing out by previous ground fires, the leaves are ready to fall, a ground fire may spread to the foliage. When it does, a serious situation ensues, as the fire travels much faster, with greater thermal updrafts, carrying burning twigs or other brands before it. That was the situation on the borders of Peshtigo the evening of October 8….

 

“There was no use trying to flee before the fire — it was traveling too fast for that. Some of the people rushed into the largest and what seemed the safest houses, and were soon burned to death. Others took to the river, where many drowned, but a few lived it out. Three persons sought protection in the large water tank at a sawmill. During the fire the water became so hot that they were found dead the next morning. Others succeeded in reaching a low, marshy piece of ground on the east side of the river, where they survived com­paratively unharmed. The standing hay in the marsh had been burned over in one of the previous fires.

 

“In the morning the survivors returned to a village in which only one building remained standing amid ashes, pieces of iron and crockery, and the brick dry kilns of the woodenware factory. Some 800 people had perished in Peshtigo and 350 in surrounding communities. The fire as a whole covered a stretch some 60 miles north and south and up to 20 miles east and west. In only a small part of that area, however, did the fire travel for any extensive distance through the treetops….” (Pingree, Daniel (NFPA Statistician). “Chicago and Peshtigo 1871.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 65, No. 4, July 1971.)

 

Skiba: “The Peshtigo Fire, which proved to be the deadliest fire in United States history, approaches its 145th anniversary this fall. On the night of October 8, 1871, between 1,700 and 2,500 lives were estimated to be lost as a result of the forest fires that took place in and around the Peshtigo area, including regions of Brown County, Kewaunee County and Door County.

 

“The origins and pathway of the fire, based on the geography, has had some assume that the fire began in Peshtigo and spread south to the lower tip of the Bay of Green Bay and continued northward to Door County. However, the tragedy that struck northeast Wisconsin was not one continuous fire that traveled from Peshtigo into Door County. Nor did the fire cross the Bay of Green Bay into the Door Peninsula regions. Rather, it was at least three separate fires, two of which engulfed the western side of the bay and one that began just south of New Franken and continued northward to Sturgeon Bay.

 

“The series of fires, collectively known as the Peshtigo Fire, occurred on the same night as the well-known Great Chicago Fire that claimed nearly 300 lives….

 

“Additionally, both the Great Michigan Fire and the Port Huron Fire devastated the Midwest on the same fateful Sunday of October 8, 1871. Those fires claimed at least 200 human lives in Michigan….

 

“The wildfires that began south of New Franken spread north and passed through thousands of acres and several towns and settlements. The fire raged through the towns of Union, Brussels and Forestville. It threatened to continue north in the towns of Gardner and Nasewaupee, which would eventually lead into Sturgeon Bay.

 

“However, a smaller-scaled fire that occurred a month prior in the towns of Gardner and Nasewaupee proved to be a saving factor for Sturgeon Bay. Due to the previous blaze that cleared the natural area, the fires on the night of October 8th were slowed due to having little combustible vegetation to further fuel the blaze.

 

“In the fire’s northward path of destruction was the settlement of Williamsonville, just northeast of Brussels, that was essentially wiped off the map due to the devastation of the Peshtigo Fire. The village of Williamsonville, also known as Williamson’s Mill, had 77 residents and covered an area of less than 10 acres that ran alongside the highway’s route in 1871. The village was founded by two brothers, Fred and Tom Williamson, both of whom ran one of Door County’s largest shingle mill operations. Nearly all of the residents were members of the Williamson family or were employees of the mill….

 

“The forest fires that raged through the eastern side of the bay on October 8th consumed Williamsonville in its path. The greatest loss of life on the eastern side of the bay occurred there. Of the 77 Williamsonville residents, all but 17 perished in the fires. Despite initial attempts to save themselves and their possessions, the worst fears became a reality as their settlement soon lay in ruin.

 

“Sixty Williamsonville residents lost their lives in the Peshtigo Fire. Tales of desperate efforts to survive were true for all 77 souls affected. Seven men had sought refuge in a well to escape the inferno, where five of the men survived. The speed of the fire consumed several men who attempted to outrun the blazing firestorm. Some residents used wet blankets to cover themselves from the flames. Most did not survive. In a potato patch, 35 individuals perished, huddled together hoping the flames would pass by the cleared land. Two men, suffering from the intense agony of the fires, resorted to ending their own lives by beating their heads upon a stump.

 

“Those 17 that did survive did not do so unscathed. The majority suffered severe burns to their feet, hands and eyes. One individual lost both legs as a result of the fire. These saddening accounts were not exclusive to Williamsonville. Throughout all regions affected by the Peshtigo Fire, similar events and horrors unfolded. The settlement of Williamsonville was not rebuilt….”

(Skiba, Justin. “The Fire That Took Williamsonville.” Door County Living, 9-2-2016.

 

Smalley: “On October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire in northeast Wisconsin and upper Michigan burned 3.9 million acres and killed 1200 to 1500 people. This fire followed a long and severe drought that started in the early spring and lasted through the summer. Hot fall weather and strong winds kicked up many small settler and logging fires burning at the time. The Peshtigo Fire still holds the national record for the greatest number of lives lost to a wildfire…The same hot weather and strong winds that accompanied the Peshtigo Fire also aided the spread of the Great Chicago Fire, which had started on the same day. Unfortunately, the Great Chicago Fire received all of the national media attention, leaving the American public in the dark about the disastrous tragedy that occurred in upper Michigan.” (Smalley. Protecting…from Wildfire, 2005, p. 21.)

 

Tisdale (Peshtigo survivor) statement: “During the Sabbath (th 8^th inst.) the air was filled with smoke, which grew dense toward evening, and it was noticed that the air, which was quite chilly during the day, grew quite warm, and hot puffs were quite frequent in the evening. About half past eight o’clock at night we could see there was a heavy fire to the southwest of the town, and a dull roaring sound like that of heavy wind came from that quarter. At 9 o’clock the wind was blowing fresh, and by half past nine a perfect gale. The roar of the approaching tornado grew more terrible at ten.  When the fire struck the town it seemed to swallow up and literally drown everything. The fire came on swifter than a race horse, and within twenty minutes of the time it struck the outskirts of the town everything was in flames.

 

“What follows beggars all description. About the time the fire reached the Peshtigo House, I ran out at the east door, and, as I stepped on the platform, the wind caught me and hurled me some distance on to my head and shoulders and blew me on to my face several times in going to the river. Then came a fierce, devouring, pitiless rain of fire and sand, so hot as to ignite everything it touched. I ran into the water…[unclear word] myself, and put my face in the water, and threw water over my back and head. The heat was so intense that I could keep my head out of water but a few seconds at a time, for the space of nearly an hours. Saw logs in the river caught fire and burned. A cow came to me, and rubbed her neck against me and bawled piteously. I heard men, women and children crying for help, but was utterly powerless to help any one. What was my experience was the experience of others.

 

“Within three hours of the time the fire struck the town, the site of Peshtigo was literally a sand desert, dotted over with smoking ruins. Not a hen-coop, or even a dry goods box was left. Through the Sugar Bush the case seems to be even worst than in the town, as the chances of escape were much less than near the river.

 

“I estimate the loss of life to be at least 300, in the town and Sugar Bush. Great numbers were drowned in the river. Cattle and horses were burned in the stalls. The Peshtigo Company’s barn burned with over fifty horses in the stable. A great many women and children and men were burned in the streets, and in places so far from anything combustible that it would seem impossible they should burn; they were burned to a crisp. Whole families, heads of families, children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters were burned, and remnants of families were running higher and thither, wildly calling and looking for their relatives after the fire.” (Tisdale, G. J. “Statement in regard to the destruction of Peshtigo.” Green Bay Advocate; republished in Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4.)

 

van den Dool: “On the evening of 8 October and into the very early morning hours of 9 October 1871, the United States was hit by one of the worst natural disasters on record. The 1871 fire storms in the Great Lakes area are very high on the list of the worst natural disasters in the United States…For natural disasters involving the element of fire, the 1871 event was in fact the very worst. Four million acres burned, mainly in Wisconsin and Michigan, and 1,500 to 2,000 (or maybe 3,000) people died, which is extraordinary for the thinly populated upper Midwest at that time….the acres burned were primarily in Wisconsin (both sides of the Green Bay) and Michigan (many places). Chicago had about two hundred deaths…The largest loss of lives, however, was in the Wisconsin logging town of Peshtigo, where at least 1,200 people may have died.[92]” [p. 129]

 

“Whereas there had been many small fires for weeks, the bulk of the damage occurred in just one or two hours….the worst of the fires…happened around Holland, Michigan at mid-night, spanning two dates, the eighth and the ninth of October.” [p. 130]

 

“Healthy trees are usually not very good fuel, because they are hard, and contain a lot of water. In natural conditions trees in forests do not burn more often than once every few hundred years. Logging, however, changed everything in the pioneer days, and logging debris added manmade fuel. When a tree was cut, as much as one fourth of the tree (sawdust, smaller branches, twigs, stumps) was left behind, and loggers’ debris was excellent fuel….When small fire repeatedly affect a forest over a period of months, they do precondition a previously healthy forest for a devastating fire that will consume the whole trees. [end of p. 133]

 

“A fire also needs ignition. Unfortunately, ignition was rarely in short supply in the pioneering communities. Humans can set a fire (on purpose, or by negligence), or nature (lightning) can do the job. Old fires can live on in the ashes or in the soil for a very long time and be rekindled many days or even weeks later. It is worth noting that in the nineteenth century, fire was used on purpose everywhere as part of the pioneering process. The debris left by logging was set on fire to be destroyed and left to burn itself out after the loggers moved on to the next project. Fire was also used to open new land for farming and to build railroads and the like. Most of the time this practice caused no problem because rain would extinguish the fire or the fire would run its course by exhausting the available fuel. But in a year with plenty of fuel (natural as well as man made) in combination with many small manmade fires within the community, a huge problem could potentially exist….

 

“A fire needs fuel. A moving fire, to sustain itself, needs fuel in the direction it is moving. Under relatively benign conditions (low wind speeds, cool weather), humans have a chance of stopping a fire with shovels, water, and the clearing of areas by any means possible—even setting small controlled fires to rob the advancing bigger fire of its fuel. A fire storm can break out when conditions are not benign (high winds, dry air, plenty of fuel). In that case the fire moves at the speed of a human long distance runner, and all thoughts of fighting the fire should be given up, and instead, all thought must be given to saving lives (including the fire fighters themselves)….” [p. 134]

 

“The manual for fire weather nowadays states: “Low-level jets are of primary concern to fire weather because they can cause rapid fire spread if they drop to the surface.” Or to quote HK[93]: ‘The major question is: With relatively light winds reported in much of the fire area the evening of the 8th, what caused the rapid high-burning phenomena in most places?’ Although this is speculative, the author can think of no phenomenon other than the low-level jet as the cause of the firestorms which erupted at about the same local time in geographically distant places such as Chicago, Peshtigo, and others across Michigan.

 

“The low-level jet (or nocturnal jet) is usually a benign component of the diurnal [daily] cycle…. Near the surface the speed is always less, due to friction. During the day, heat causes warm thermals to rise from the surface, causing some mixing in the lowest several hundreds of meters. Therefore the (horizontal) winds are decelerated at a height of say five hundred meters, because the friction from the surface is felt, perhaps slowing winds down to seven m/s.[94] At sundown, or somewhat before, the heat of the day disappears, and the mixing disappears as well. Suddenly, the wind at five hundred meters height no longer feels the retarding force of friction at the surface. This creates an unbalanced wind of three m/s from the north at five hundred meters. Unbalanced winds slowly turn like a Foucault pendulum (because of the earth’s rotation), so some specific number of hours after sunset, the unbalanced wind in this example would turn to the point where it created a total wind of thirteen m/s from the south. This is the moment of maximum “jet” at low levels in the atmosphere. It is a layer of air, not far above our heads, moving faster than the pre-assumed ambient large-scale wind reaching a maximum speed a fixed number of hours after sunset. If wind-strength-change with height surpasses some critical level, turbulence can bring fresh winds back to the earth’s surface (where winds have died down since sundown).

 

“This is what may have happened on the evening of 8 October 1871. To the surprise of everybody, the small fires that were everywhere (and thought to be under control more or less) were suddenly whipped up by new winds appearing out of nowhere, and in certain places, the small fires consolidated into fires large enough to feed on their own as in a firestorm. A low level jet was not anticipated, nor was it understood or explained until the 1950s.” [pp. 138-139]

(van den Dool. “Weather and the Fires of 1871.” Chap. 8, p. 129 in Diverse Destinies.)

 

Vogl: “To aggravate already drastic conditions, winter came early. Mid-October days and nights must have been cold in temporary shelters….

 

“Disregarding the effects of the fire itself we must consider the effects of the drought with reduced harvests and low or dry wells. Potatoes, turnips and rutabagas and other root cvrops were important crops to feed family and derive income. These, if they were in the path of the fire, were lost. Hay was in extremely short supply….

 

After the fire “…neighbors and relatives often had to share a single dwelling such overcrowding led to disease loading down the poor settler with yet another problem and perhaps death of a child. Some farmers even had to share hastily built shelter with livestock….” (Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc County — 1871.” Manitowoc County Historical Society, 1986, p. 7-8 of 8.)

 

Wisconsin Historical Society, “Dictionary…”: “On the night of Oct. 8-9, 1871, this fire destroyed in two hours a swath of forest 10 miles wide and 40 miles long and obliterated the towns of Peshtigo and Brussels, killing about 1,500 people.

 

“In all, the fire burned more than 280,000 acres in Oconto, Marinette, Shawano, Brown, Kewaunee, Door, Manitowoc and Outagamie counties. The human toll was 1,152 known dead and another 350 believed dead. Another 1,500 were seriously injured and at least 3,000 made homeless. The property loss was estimated conservatively at $5,000,000 and this did not include 2,000,000 valuable trees and saplings and scores of animals.

 

“Worst hit was the town of Peshtigo and the surrounding territory. The area had been undergoing an unparalleled drought. The citizens of Peshtigo had become used to the smell of ashes and thought nothing amiss when they retired on the night of October 8, 1871. Suddenly “all hell rode into town on the back of a wind.” Many rushed toward the river, some took refuge in basements. 75 persons who remained in a boarding house perished. A considerable portion of the survivors were huddled in a low, marshy piece of ground on the east side of the river. The number of dead in the blaze in the town of Peshtigo has been variously estimated at from 500 to 800. Only two buildings still stood after the fire, and the newspapers of the day wondered how some persons came through the disaster while others were burned to ashes within ten feet of them, or how the heavy iron fire engine could be melted without scorching the paint on wood two feet away. The fire also threatened the towns of Menominee, Mich., and Marquette, Wis., and licked at the outskirts of Green Bay. In Door County, 128 lives were lost.” (Wisconsin Historical Society. Dictionary of Wisconsin History, “Peshtigo Fire.”)

 

Wisconsin Historical Society. “…Peshtigo…”: “….It had been dry in 1871, terribly dry, the summer drought extended well into fall. Grass, weeds, and trees became like tinder. Streams ceased to run and wells gave out. Swamps that ordinarily held two or three feet of water crackled under foot like twigs.

 

“The drought covered much of the United States. Fires raged from the Alleghenies to the Rockies and beyond. In Wisconsin, fires sprang up in many parts of the pine forests. In the northeastern part of the state, they burned from west of the Wolf River to Lake Michigan. This is an are 70 miles wide and 100 miles deep. Little Suamico, Pensaukee, Sturgeon Bay, and Oconto were saved from destruction only because everyone who was able helped to fight the flames.

 

“October came, but it brought no rain. Then, early on the night of October 8, fire driven by a high wind leaped from tree to tree and burned the little settlement of New Franken, a few miles east of Green Bay.

 

“News of this and other fires that brought death and destruction to farms and villages in Kewaunee, Door, Brown, and Manitowoc counties that night reached the city of Green Bay. Then word came over the telegraph wires – the great city of Chicago, Illinois, was also burning. Only later, did people hear about the fire at Peshtigo, Wisconsin.

 

“This village of about 2,000 people in Marinette County lay on both sides of the Peshtigo River, about seven miles from the mouth. The lumber mill at the harbor on the shores of Green Bay was one of the largest in that part of Wisconsin, turning out about 150,000 feet of lumber per day. In the village itself, there were mills that made window sashes, doors, and blinds. There were also machine shops, a large gristmill, boarding houses, and stores. The Peshtigo River was an important driving stream for lumberjacks. Limber from pine was important to this community; in fact, it was the reason for its being there.

 

“For weeks, the people of Peshtigo had lived with the danger of fire all around them. The dense smoke over the village kept eyes red and watery. The smoke on Sunday, October 8, seemed worse than usual. There were fires in every direction. One person is reported to have said, “I am afraid we shall all burn up tonight.” But many people went to church that Sunday evening with no thought of danger. The evening showed no signs of being different, really, from any other citizens of Peshtigo had experienced for several weeks.

 

“The wind that had been blowing steadily all day suddenly died to a calm about nightfall. Then a breeze picked up. Some people in the streets noticed something like snowflakes falling from the air. Through the smoke a dull red glare could be seen on the horizon. As people started home from church, they were startled by a terrible roar from the southwest. It sounded like the noise of a great storm. Some people thought it was more like a threshing machine. Others compared it to the sound of many freight trains. The wind grew stronger.

 

“As the noise increased, people became frightened. Some ran home to gather their belongings. Squads of men got out the fire-fighting equipment.

 

“Suddenly, the wind reached what seemed like gale force. A blinding light appeared overhead. Fire fell as if from the sky onto the people of Peshtigo. There was little chance to fight this fire. Every part of town burst into flames like a huge explosion. At once, the streets filled with people, cows, oxen, horses, and even animals from the forest. The noise of crashing trees and the roaring and whistling of the wind mingled with the screams of human beings faced with what seemed the end of the world.

 

“People who had gone to bed were awakened by the crackling of flames on the roof. Those who escaped did so with only their nightclothes on. A number of people sought refuge in a boarding house where all were burned to death. Some residents hesitated to think about saving their possessions and failed to reach safety.

 

“People rushed onto the bridge from both sides of the river. No one knew whether one side of the stream was safer than the other. The bridge burned and fell into the water. Many died there.

 

“As the fire spread, hundreds of people headed for the river. Women, children, and men plunged in and waded out up to their necks to escape the searing heat and hungry flames. Even there, they were not entirely safe. Falling sparks and burning wood endangered their heads, and only by throwing water over themselves and beating at the river with their hands did anyone remain alive. Some fortunate ones had blankets or pieces of cloth, which they kept soaked, and over their heads.

 

“One person, who spent several hours in the water, said, “When turning my gaze from the river I chanced to look either to the right or left, before me or upwards. I saw nothing but flames; houses, trees, and the air itself were on fire. Above my, as far as the eye could reach into space, alas! Too brilliantly lights, I saw nothing but immense volumes of flames covering the firmament, rolling one over the other with stormy violence as we see masses of clouds driven wildly hither and thither by the fierce power of the tempest.”…

 

“By early morning on October 9, the fire had moved away from Peshtigo. Those who still lived climbed from the water….Many human bodies had no signs of burns on them, yet coins and other pieces of metal in their pockets had been melted….” (Wisconsin Historical Society. “October 8, 1871, the Night Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was Destroyed by Fire: Historical Essay.”)

 

Newspapers at the time:

 

Oct 10: “Menomonee, Wis., Oct 10–P.M. Gov. Fairchild: A fearful calamity fell upon this section Sunday night and yesterday morning. Peshtigo (mills, factories, &c.,) and Sugar Bush settlement are entirely swept away, and from one to three hundred lives lost and badly burned. We need all the medical aid you can send at once to save the survivors. Pray send it at once. Whole families are all lying dead in the streets waiting for burial. Send all at once to save the people. Menekaune is also burned, and the people all suffering, but Peshtigo is the greatest calamity of all. Don’t delay a moment in sending all the medical aid you can, for God’s sake. [Signed] Isaac Stevenson.” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Fires in Northern Wisconsin.” 10-11-1871, p. 1.)

 

Oct 12: “The disasters that have befallen our farmers in different parts of the county up to last Sunday, terrible as they were, seem almost as nothing when compared with the damage and destruction of last Sunday night. To the immense destruction of property has been added the far more terrible loss of human life. Up to Sunday night the fires had been raging through the towns of Brussels, Union, Gardner, Forestville, Clay Banks, Nasewaupee, Sturgeon Bay, Sevastopol and in a few places north, spreading which ever way the wind happened to blow and keeping everybody in a constant warfare to save their houses, barns and crops. In many places the fires had run through, burning up the fences but leaving other property uninjured, the owners of which congratulated themselves that the worst was over. A short time was to dispel the illusion in a most heartrending manner.

 

“About 9 o’clock Sunday night a terrific tornado swept down from the southwest, rushing through the western side of the county, carrying death and destruction in its awful career. Beginning at the Belgian settlement in Brussels, it swept through the towns of Union, Gardner, the western part of Forestville, Nasewaupee, the western part of Sevastopol and down the east shore of the Bay. Almost every building in its path was burned.

 

“At Williamson’s shingle mill on the Central road everything was burned and a most awful destruction of human life ensued. Out of about eight persons who lived at the mill, fity-seven died either by burning or suffocation. The few survivors who escaped were badly burned and tell a most horrible tale of the scene at this tremendous holocaust. The fire completely surrounded the place, filling the cleared spot with flame and smoke in which seventy men, women and children were struggling with death in its most fearful form. And most of them struggled in vain as the fearful loss of life testifies….

 

“….Persons who were at some of the fires during the tornado described it as terrible beyond anything they had ever seen. The wind swept the flames in a perfect sheet down into the openings and literally rained fire upon the heads of the people, rendering any effort to save their property simply impossible, indeed many persons were severely scorched and barely escaped with their lives. In almost every locality visited it was a life or death struggle….” (Door County Advocate, Sturgeon Bay, WI. “A Terrible Visitation. An Avalanche of Fire. Over 80 Persons Burned and Suffocated.” 10-12-1871, p. 3, col. 2.)

 

Oct 12: “Upon the West shore of Green Bay Peshtigo has been entirely destroyed and about 300 persons burned to death. Menekaunee and some mills on the river were burned.” (Door County Advocate. “The West Shore.” 10-12-1871, p. 3.)

 

Oct 12: “Green Bay, Oct. 12. The northern steamer is just in. Three hundred and twenty-five bodies had been found and buried at Peshtigo up to last night. The river will be dragged, and it is thought 100 more will be found. Between 60 and 70 dead bodies were brought into Oconto last night. The loss of life on the east shore in Door and Kewaunee counties is appalling. Those left are homeless and almost naked. This is reliable. [signed] Smith, Manager N.W. Telegraph. Green Bay, Oct. 12…..

 

“–Col. R. M. Strong returned from Green Bay by Thursday night’s train. He fully confirms all reports heretofore published, and thinks full a thousand lives have been lost by these Northern fires….” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Wisconsin & Michigan Fires.” 10-13-1871, p. 1.)

 

Oct 13, WI Governor Fairchild Proclamation: “The Northern Fires. Green Bay, Oct. 13.

 

To the people of Wisconsin:

 

The accounts of the appalling calamity which has fallen upon the east and west shores of Green Bay, have not been exaggerated. The burned district comprises the counties of Oconto, Brown, Door and Kewaunee, and parts of Manitowoc and Outagamie. The great loss of life and property has resulted from the whirlwind of fire which swept over the country, making the roads and avenues of escape impassible with fallen timber and burned bridges. The long drouth had prepared every thing for the flames.

 

The loss of life has been very great. The first estimates were entirely inadequate and even now it is feared that it is much greater than present accounts place it. It is known that at least one thousand persons have been either burned, drowned or smothered. Of these deaths 600 or more were at Peshtigo and adjacent places, and the others in Door, Kewaunee and Brown counties. Men are penetrating that almost inaccessible region for the purpose of affording relief, an I fear that their report will increase this estimate.

 

From the most reliable sources of information, I learn that not less than 3,000 men, women and children have been rendered entirely destitute. Mothers are left with fatherless children. Children are left homeless orphans. Distress and intense suffering are on every hand, where but a few days ago were comfort and happiness. Scores of men, women and little children now lie helplessly burned and maimed, in temporary hospitals, cared for by their more fortunate neighbors.

 

These suffering people must be supplied with food, bedding, clothing, feed for their cattle, and the means of providing shelter during the winter. The response by the good people of Wisconsin has already been prompt and generous in meeting the immediate need, and is being faithfully and energetically distributed through the relief organizations at Green Bay, but provision must be made for many months in the future.

 

There are wanted flour, salt and cured meats, not cooked, blankets, bedding, stoves, baled hy, building materials, lights, salt farming implements and tools, boots, shoes and clothing for men, women and children, log chains, axes with handles, nails, glass, and house trimmings, and indeed everything needed by a farming community which has lost everything.

 

To expedite the transfers at Green Bay all boxes should have cards attached to them, stating their contents. All supplies should be sent to Relief Committee of Green Bay. Money contributed should not be converted into supplies, but should be forwarded to the Committee.

 

Depots have been established at Green Bay, under the management of a committee of public spirited men, who have the confidence of all for the receiving and dispatching of supplies. They have organized a system of sub-depots contiguous to the burned regions, and steamboats and wagons are being sent out with supplies. Let us uphold their hands in the good work, and see that their depots be kept filled to overflowing. It is fortunate that we live in a wealthy and prosperous State, blessed with prosperity in business and overflowing harvests, and that thus we are by a wise Providence endowed with means to help our less fortunate neighbors.

 

I am urged by public-spirited citizens of the State to call an immediate extra session of the Legislature, to provide for this calamity. I have given serious attention to this suggestion, and have concluded not to do so, for the reason that the expense of such a session would be likely to equal the amount which the State would be asked to contribute. Believing, therefore, that the people and the Legislature will endorse my action in this emergency, I have, in conjunction with the State Treasurer, decided to advance such a moderate sum of money as seems to be appropriate, in addition to that contributed.

 

Lucius Fairchild,

Governor of State of Wisconsin.

Green Bay, Oct. 13.

 

(Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “Proclamation by Governor, Calling for More Aid.” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 5.)

 

Oct 14: “….Charles Woodward, who kept the Peshtigo House, estimates the loss of life at nearly 400. The loss in the ‘Sugar Bush’ was much worse than in the village. They had no means of escape, while at the village the people save themselves in the river. The Sugar Bush was a thrifty farming settlement seven or eight miles long by four or five miles wide, and contained about 300 families. It was estimated by competent judges on Tuesday, that eight tenths of its inhabitants were dead. But about eight buildings were left.” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4.)

 

Sources

 

Biondich. Sarah. “The Great Peshtigo Fire.” Shepherd Express, 6-9-2010. Accessed 8-14-2019 at: https://shepherdexpress.com/news/happening-now/great-peshtigo-fire/#/questions

 

Boise State University. Disasters: Firestorms of 1871. Accessed 9-15-2008 at:  http://www.boisestate.edu/history/ncasner/hy210/peshtigo.htm

 

Country Beautiful Editors. Great Fires of America. Waukesha, WI: Country Beautiful, 1973.

 

Dickmann, Donald I. and Larry A. Leefers. The Forests of Michigan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. Google preview accessed 8-17-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=DZrOpfZSA3IC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

Door County Advocate, Sturgeon Bay, WI. “A Terrible Visitation. An Avalanche of Fire. Over 80 Persons Burned and Suffocated.” 10-12-1871, p. 3, col. 2. Accessed 8-23-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/sturgeon-bay-door-county-advocate-oct-12-1871-p-3/

 

Door County Advocate. “The West Shore.” 10-12-1871, p. 3, col. 1. Accessed 8-23-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/sturgeon-bay-door-county-advocate-oct-12-1871-p-3/

 

Estep, Kim. “The Peshtigo Fire.” Green Bay Press-Gazette. No date; reprinted by Green Bay, WI Weather Forecast Office, National Weather Service. Accessed 8-15-2019 at: https://www.weather.gov/grb/peshtigofire

 

Frank, Douglas. “Hell on Earth: When Fire Ravaged the Town of Peshtigo, IL, Killing 2,200.”  Rutgers Focus, Jan. 27, 2003. At: http://ur.rutgers.edu/focus/article/Hell%20on%20earth/1037/

 

Gess, Denise and William Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002.

 

Gibson, Christine. “Our 10 Greatest Natural Disasters.” American Heritage, Vol. 57, Issue 4, August/September 2006. Accessed 8-14-2019 at: https://www.americanheritage.com/our-10-greatest-natural-disasters

 

Gillis, Dan. “The Forgotten Fire.” DamnInteresting.com. 2007, updated July 2015. Accessed 8-22-2019 at: https://www.damninteresting.com/the-forgotten-fire/

 

Glenallenweather.com. “The Great Fires of October 1981.” Accessed 8-21-2019 at: http://www.glenallenweather.com/historylinks/1871/ChicagoFire.pdf

 

Gordon, John Steele. “Forgotten Fury.” American Heritage, Vol. 54, Issue 2, April/May 2003. Accessed 8-14-2019 at: https://www.americanheritage.com/forgotten-fury

 

Haines, Donald A. and Rodney W. Sando. Climatic Conditions Preceding Historically Great Fires in the North Central Region (USDA Forest Service Research Paper NC-34). St. Paul MN:  North Central Forest Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1969, 23 pages. Accessed at: http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/rp/rp_nc034.pdf

 

Havel, Gregory. “Remembering The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871.” Fire Engineering, 10-8-2007. Accessed 8-22-2019 at: https://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2007/10/remembering-the-great-peshtigo-fire-of-1871.html#gref

 

Hemphill, Stephanie. “Peshtigo: a tornado of fire revisited.” Minnesota Public Radio, 11-27-2002. Accessed 8-14-2019 at: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200211/27_hemphills_peshtigofire/

 

Hipke, Deana C. The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871. Accessed 9-15-2008 at:  http://www.peshtigofire.info/

 

History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, October 7, 1871. “Massive Fire Burns in Wisconsin.” Accessed at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=10/07&categoryId=disaster

 

Holand, Hjalmar R. “The Great Fire of 1871, Door County, Wisconsin,” Chapter XLVI in History of Door County, Wisconsin — The County Beautiful. Chicago: S. J. Clark Publishing Co., 1917. Accessed 8-24-2019 at: http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wch/id/33982  Google preview accessed 8-24-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=zFo0AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=zFo0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA421&lpg=PA421&dq=The+year+1871+is+unique+in+our+annals+for+the+havoc+that+was+wrought+both+on+sea+and+land.&source=bl&ots=ZPbi59t6z9&sig=ACfU3U1D9WQm8hvmdE-D4G_hfD1GSQjb0w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDksH335zkAhVnnuAKHT16AGcQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Hultquist, Tom (Science & Operations Officer, NWS Twin Cities, MN). “The Great Midwest Wildfires of 1871. Green Bay, WI Weather Forecast Office, National Weather Service. Accessed 8-15-2019 at: https://www.weather.gov/grb/peshtigofire2

 

Insurance Information Institute. “The Ten Most Catastrophic Multiple-Death Fires in U.S. History.” Cites National Fire Protection Association. Accessed 9-28-2008 at:  http://www.iii.org/media/facts/statsbyissue/fire/?table_sort_735794=5

 

James, Pence. “Fiery Hell at Peshtigo,” pp 47-50 in Kartman, Ben. Disaster! 2007. Partially Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=lynBIKvEDBQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

Johnson, Bob, Door County Advocate. Door County History: 1871 Blaze Wiped Out Community of Williamsonville. 6-15-2012. Accessed 8-20-2019 at: https://archive.org/stream/DoorCountyHistoryFireOf1871/Door-County-History-Fire-Of-1871_djvu.txt

 

Kartman, Ben. Disaster! Read Books, 2007. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=lynBIKvEDBQC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

 

Kewaunee County History (blogspot). “October 8, 1871: The Devastation of Northeast Wisconsin.” 10-11-2016. Accessed 8-24-2019 at: https://kewauneecountyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/10/october-8-1871-devastation-of-northeast.html

 

Knickelbine, Scott. The Great Peshtigo Fire: Stories and Science from America’s Deadliest Firestorm. Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012. Google preview accessed 8-14-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=AGbGoxHOlBMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

Lewis, Chelsey. “America’s deadliest forest fire isn’t the only overlooked piece of history near Peshtigo.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7-19-2018. Accessed 8-22-2019 at: https://www.jsonline.com/story/travel/wisconsin/2018/07/19/peshtigo-fire-deadliest-u-s-forest-fire-overlooked-history/789805002/

 

Moran, Joseph M. and E. Lee Somerville. “Tornadoes of Fire at Williamsonville, Wisconsin, October 8, 1871.” Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Vol. 78, 1990, pp. 21-31. Accessed 8-18-2019 at: http://images.library.wisc.edu/WI/EFacs/transactions/WT1990/reference/wi.wt1990.jmmoran.pdf

 

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

 

National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003). (Email attachment to B. W. Blanchard from Jacob Ratliff, NFPA Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian, 7-8-2013.)

 

National Interagency Fire Center. Fire Information – Wildland Fire Statistics. Boise, ID, NIFC, 2007. Accessed at: http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/historical_stats.htm

 

Pernin, Reverend Peter. “The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account.” 1874 account reprinted in Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 54, pp. 246-272, Summer 1971. Accessed 1-14-2015 at: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WIReader/WER2002-0.html

 

Peshtigo Fire Museum (website), Peshtigo Historical Society. Accessed 8-21-2019 at: http://peshtigofiremuseum.com/

 

Peshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo Historical Society. “Names of the dead: Sugar Bushes.” Accessed 8-22-2019 at: http://peshtigofiremuseum.com/names-of-the-dead/

 

Peshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo Historical Society. “List of dead in Peshtigo.” Accessed 8-22- 2019 at: http://peshtigofiremuseum.com/list-of-dead-in-peshtigo/

 

Peshtigo Fire Museum (website), Peshtigo Historical Society. “List of persons burned at Birch Creek in the town of Menominee, Michigan.” Accessed 8-21-2019 at: http://peshtigofiremuseum.com/list-of-persons-burned-at-birch-creek-in-the-town-of-menominee-michigan/

 

Peshtigo Fire Museum (website), Peshtigo Historical Society. “List of the burned in Lincoln.” Accessed 8-21-2019 at: http://peshtigofiremuseum.com/list-of-the-burned-in-lincoln/

 

Peshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo Historical Society. “Names of the dead: Not affiliated with particular place.” Accessed 8-22-2019 at: http://peshtigofiremuseum.com/names-of-the-dead-not-affiliated-with-particular-place/

 

Peshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo Historical Society. “The following were burned at Schoefield’s & Co.’s Mill, section 15, Brussels, Door County, Wisconsin.” Accessed 8-21-2019 at: http://peshtigofiremuseum.com/list-of-burned-in-brussels-door-county-wisconsin/

 

Peshtigofireinfo. The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871. Website accessed 8-21-2019 at: http://www.peshtigofire.info/

 

Pingree, Daniel (NFPA Statistician). “Chicago and Peshtigo 1871.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 65, No. 4, July 1971, 6 pages.

 

Rosenfeld, Everett. “Top 10 Devastating Wildfires…The Peshtigo Fire, 1871.” Time, 6-8-2011. Accessed 8-15-2019 at: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2076476_2076484_2076503,00.html

 

Simonds, W. E. (ed.). The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC

 

Skiba, Justin. “The Fire That Took Williamsonville.” Door County Living, 9-2-2016. Accessed 8-20-2019 at: https://doorcountypulse.com/fire-took-williamsonville/

 

Smalley, James C. (Ed.). Protecting Life and Property from Wildfire. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association, 2005. Partially digitized by Google at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=2913l73SEAUC&dq=Wildfire+1910&source=gbs_navlinks_s

 

Sodders, Betty. Michigan on Fire. Thunder Bay Press, 1997.

 

State of Wisconsin. Journal of Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Session. Madison, WI: Atwood & Culver, Printers and Stereotypers, 1873. Google preview accessed 8-15-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=e9Y2AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Telzrow, Michael E. “The Peshtigo Fire: In 1871, a Firestorm Struck Northeastern Wisconsin, Killing More Than 1,700 People.” The New American Vol. 22, No. 5, 3-6-2006. Accessed 8-22-2019 at: https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-143163072/the-peshtigo-fire-in-1871-a-firestorm-struck-northeastern

 

Tisdale, G. J. “Statement in regard to the destruction of Peshtigo.” Green Bay Advocate. Republished in Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, within “The Holocaust of Fire” column, 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4. Accessed 8-26-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-oct-14-1871-p-1/

 

van den Dool, Huug. “Weather and the Fires of 1871.” Chapter Eight in Diverse Destinies: Dutch Kolonies in Wisconsin and the East (Edited by Nella Kennedy, Mary Risseeuw, and Robert P. Swierenga). Van Raalte Press, 2012. Accessed 8-17-2019 at: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/people/wd51hd/vddoolpubs/other/other_1871Fires_VandenDool.pdf

 

Vogl, Walter. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc County — 1871.” Manitowoc County Historical Society (Occupational Monograph 58), 1986. Accessed 8-24-2019 at: http://images.library.wisc.edu/WI/EFacs/MTWCImages/OccSeries/Monograph58/reference/wi.monograph58.i0001.pdf

 

Wells, Robert W. Fire at Peshtigo. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Digital version can be accessed at: https://archive.org/stream/FireAtPeshtigo/Fire-At-Peshtigo_djvu.txt

 

Wisconsin Historical Society. Dictionary of Wisconsin History, “Peshtigo Fire.” Accessed at: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=451&search_term=peshtigo+fire

 

Wisconsin Historical Society. “October 8, 1871, the Night Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was Destroyed by Fire (Historical Essay).” Accessed 8-20-2019 at: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS2911

 

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Fires in Northern Wisconsin.” 10-11-1871, p. 1. Accessed 8-23-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-oct-11-1871-p-1/

 

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “Proclamation by Governor, Calling for More Aid.” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 5. Accessed 8-26-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-oct-14-1871-p-1/

 

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4. Accessed 8-26-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-oct-14-1871-p-1/

 

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “The Northern Fires.” 10-16-1871, p. 1. Accessed 8-26-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-oct-16-1871-p-1/

 

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Wisconsin & Michigan Fires.” 10-13-1871, p. 1. Accessed 8-24-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-oct-13-1871-p-1/

 

 

Additional Reading

 

Noyes, Judge. “From Judge Noyes of Marinette. Phenomenon of the Peshtigo Fire.” Pp. 222-224 in Appendix to Wisconsin Legislature. In Assembly. Journal of Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Session of the Wisconsin Legislature Madison, WI: 1873. Google digitized at: https://books.google.com/books?id=pH8lAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Schafer, Joseph. “Great Fires of Seventy-One.” Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 11, pp. 96-106, September, 1927.

 

Steuber, William F. Fr. “The Problem at Peshtigo.” Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 43, pp. 13-15, Autumn, 1958.

 

Tilton, Frank. Sketch of the Great Fires in Wisconsin at Peshtigo, the Sugar Bush, Menekaunee, Williamsonville, and Generally on the Shores of the Green Bay. Robinson & Kustermann, 1871. [Some of this is summarized by Thomas Williams as “The Burning of Williamsonville,” pp. 225-231 in Appendix to Wisconsin Legislature. In Assembly. Journal of Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Session of the Wisconsin Legislature Madison, WI: 1873. Google digitized at: https://books.google.com/books?id=pH8lAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[1] Compiled by B. Wayne Blanchard in starting in September 2008, with minor modification in January 2015 and substantial additions in August 2019 for incorporation into: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com

[2] Our “guestimate.” When we review the wide range of fatality estimates below as well as the accounts of the fire, we are essentially left more uncertain as to the most appropriate range, given that a “true” number is unknowable, than by reading just one account. Many sources do not provide a citation for the number of fatalities they show, nor how the number or range was determined. For all we know, one or more authors could be combining deaths from three separate fire events (which we treat in separate documents) during this general time frame: (1) the large area represented by the designation “Peshtigo,” in upper northeast Wisconsin and lower southeast upper Michigan, (2) the Great Chicago Fire in Illinois, and (3) a separate wildfire east across Lake Michigan and the Michigan peninsula near the southern end of Lake Huron. For the low-end of our range for this event (1,228), we use the low-end of the tally we compile for localities (and note the is very close to the 1,200 number used as the low end of a fatality range used by a number of sources. For the high-end (2,400) we choose to except the high end used by Gibson, Hipke, Hultquist and Peshtigofireinfo.com. If we understand Gess and Lutz correctly, it appears that the number they show (2,500) includes the separate Chicago fire fatality estimate of 300 deaths. Our own compilation of fatalities by locality noted below, shows a range of 1,227-2,329.

[3] “There are many different numbers given for the death toll from the fire. Generally, reference works say that fifteen hundred people died in the Sugar Bushes, Peshtigo, and on the Door County Peninsula that night. Yet there is strong evidence that this number is closer to twenty-five hundred….an accurate count is impossible.” The inside dust cover, states that the fire killed “more than 2,200 people” [Blanchard note: While the authors make a strong case that there were more than 1,500 deaths, they do not show how their estimate of 2,500 deaths was derived — the impression we have from our reading of the book is that the number was guessed at.]

[4] “By the time the sun came up [Oct 10], a huge part of northeastern Wisconsin and northern Michigan was in ashes. Peshtigo and 11 other towns were wiped out. As many as 2,500 people were dead. So many died that even today, we don’t know all their names.” [Blanchard note: There is no attempt to explain how 2,500 number was derived.]

[5] Another estimate of “over 2,000” deaths is noted at the beginning of the website. The number 2,500 appears to be a guestimate.

[6] “With as many as 2,500 dead and 1.2 million acres of land burned, the Peshtigo fire should have seared a permanent memory into America’s consciousness.” [Blanchard note: uses same phrasing as others noted herein to the effect that “as many as 2,500 dead…” Our own attempt to compile reported locality fatalities results in a number below, but closer to, 2,400.

[7] “On the night of October 8, 1871, between 1,700 and 2,500 lives were estimated to be lost as a result of the forest fires that took place in and around the Peshtigo area, including regions of Brown County, Kewaunee County and Door County.” Skiba goes on to note that in a separate fire in Chicago “nearly 300” lives were lost, and “Additionally, both the Great Michigan Fire and the Port Huron Fire devastated the Midwest on the same fateful Sunday of October 8, 1871. Those fires claimed at least 200 human lives in Michigan.”

[8] “On the evening of October 8, 1871 the worst recorded forest fire in North American history raged through Northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan…taking between 1,200 and 2,400 lives.” [Blanchard note: it would thus appear that these numbers apply only to the area described and do not include (as neither do we) the Lower Michigan wildfire or the Great Chicago Fire.]

[9] Notes elsewhere: “Although the exact death toll from the Michigan fires is unknown, it likely claimed in excess of 500 lives. However, the most costly fire in terms of loss of life occurred in and around Peshtigo, Wisconsin…” [Blanchard note: we speculate that the 500 number includes the separate Lower Michigan fire, which we treat in a separate document for which we show a range of 160-200 lives lost. We capture references to only a few dozen deaths in Michigan from the “Peshtigo fire,” and thus are somewhat skeptical of the 500 number.]

[10] This number is one of two found on the website. The website begins with: “On October 8, 1871, a firestorm roared through Peshtigo and surrounding areas. It…killed over 2,000 people…” Further down, under “Fire statistics at a glance” it is written: “Death toll: 1,200-2,500 (exact number unknown).”

[11] “…1,500 to 2,000 (or maybe 3,000) people died…extraordinary for thinly populated upper Midwest at that time.”

[12] Our range based on statements that 1,152 people were found dead, with another 350 believed dead.

[13] Notes on page 439 that 1,152 of the deaths were from Peshtigo.

[14] Our number based on statements that “about 1,125 lives were lost [in Peshtigo]” and that in separate fire “in the Sugar Bush area on the east side of Green Bay alone, every member of 20 families died, and 267 bodies were found.” Notes, additionally, that “Many people who had climbed down their wells to escape the flames were suffocated when the fire sucked up all the oxygen.”

[15] “It is probable…that the total number of dead in the Peshtigo fire, including those killed on both sides of the bay, was between 1200 and 1300 and that another 100 or 200 were killed the same day in the similar forest fires in Michigan.” [Blanchard note: the latter, most probably refer to the wildfire on the east side of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, not the Peshtigo fire-caused deaths just over the Wisconsin border in Upper Peninsula of Michigan.]

[16] The editors write: “Some sources have estimated the number of dead as 1,200. The Encyclopedia Britannica gives a total of 1,152, evidently using the figure arrived at by Stewart Holbrook in his Burning An Empire. However, the true total will never be known, since whole farmsteads were erased, leaving no trace, and no one knows how many itinerant workers died in Peshtigo’s company boarding house or in its two churches to which many fled in panic, or in isolated logging camps deem in the surrounding woods. People simply became piles of ashes or calcinated bones, identifiable only if a buckle, a ring, a shawl pin or some other familiar object survived the incredible heat. A painstaking, three-month investigation by Colonel J. H. Leavenworth, as printed in the Assembly Journal for 1873, lists the names of only 383 identified dead: 77 in Peshtigo, 12 in Lincoln, 50 in Brussels, 3 in Nasawanpee, and 22 in Birch Creek, Michigan. The heaviest losses were in the Sugar Bushes, where no convenient river furnished a refuge from the flames. Here a total of 241 identified bodies were found, of whom 123 were those of children. How many died subsequently or were maimed for life is not known. At any rate, according to Leavenworth’s report, a year after the event many survivors remained partially or permanently demented as a result of their ordeal.”

[17] Not used as low estimate in that it is out of keeping with the range of most other sources.

[18] Our total based on adding numbers reported for six communities. Report notes their listing of deaths is merely a listing of deaths of identified remains — many victims were not identifiable and many were buried before identified. Thus the committee wrote: “Different intelligent people vary so much in their estimates of the number who perished, that it would be mere conjecture to attempt to give any figures on the subject….” (pp. 170-171.)

[19] “Little Suamico, Pensaukee, Sturgeon Bay, an Oconto were saved from destruction only because everyone who was able helped to fight the flames.”

[20] Gess & Lutz note pp. 144-145, lost buildings included mills, houses, a church and presbytery, a new schoolhouse.

[21] “Menekaune…had not been as lucky as Menominee. Except for a few scattered buildings on the outskirts of the town, the new Spaulding, Houghtaling & Johnson sawmill, and two other sawmills, thirty-five houses, two hotels, a flour mill, three stores, a dock, shipyard, warehouse, and almost 1 million feet of lumber had been incinerated. Miraculously, not one life had been lost.

[22] “A team of horses and an Indian were burned to death at Oconto on Monday.”

[23] “Little Suamico, Pensaukee, Sturgeon Bay, an Oconto were saved from destruction only because everyone who was able helped to fight the flames.”

[24] “Little Suamico, Pensaukee, Sturgeon Bay, an Oconto were saved from destruction only because everyone who was able helped to fight the flames.”

[25] “Of Peshtigo’s 2,000 known residents, over 1,800 of them were now dead. And there were many more dead in the Sugar Bushes and outlying districts and on the Door County Peninsula.”

[26] “More than 1,200 souls had perished in the Peshtigo Fire, although the true total will never be known due to the town records being destroyed in the blaze.” Gillis notes that “More than 2,000 people were in the town on the morning of the fire.” The number “1,200” refers to the town of Peshtigo only.

[27] “…more than 700 died within minutes.”

[28] Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4.

[29] As Gess and Lutz (and many others) note, there were many burned buildings, such as churches, mills and factories, with many unidentifiable victims found inside. There were many unknown people in the town, working in the wood-working  mills and factories. (See p. 144 in Gess and Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo. 2002.)

[30] “Little Suamico, Pensaukee, Sturgeon Bay, an Oconto were saved from destruction only because everyone who was able helped to fight the flames.”

[31] “…The Outlying Settlements of Peshtigo represented autonomy. Known as the Sugar Bush, the settlements were named for the stands of sugar maples that defined the geography. The Bush was divided into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Bushes and were fed by large creeks that emptied into the Peshtigo River….Many eagerly took jobs working at the Peshtigo sawmill in town….” Gess and Lutz, 2002, pp. 9-10.)

[32] The number is ours based on counting the names and designations (such as “one infant child” of a named person) within the list. The Museum notes “This content was found in a binder in the Fire Museum.”

[33] “The towns of Humboldt, Green Bay, Casco, Red River and Brussels were scathed with a whirlwind of flame, devouring the woods, leaping across clearings and lapping up everything inflammable in its track….In the town of Green Bay, the fire entered at the southeast corner, and swept through to the northeast. Nothing could be done to arrest its forward progress, but the people labored with some effort to prevent it from spreading laterally.” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4.)

[34] “The towns of Humboldt, Green Bay, Casco, Red River and Brussels were scathed with a whirlwind of flame, devouring the woods, leaping across clearings and lapping up everything inflammable in its track.” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4.)

[35] Our stand-in number, not having an estimate, based on statement: “There was no time to save possessions. Those who stopped to load them up lost their lives. Escape was the only hope to survive. When survivors returned to New Franken later, they discovered that the fire had so thoroughly destroyed everything that it appeared the village had never existed. The ground was bare of homes and buildings that had been there just the day before.” In order to attempt a contribution of a tally we convert statement that people who tried to load-up possessions lost their lives into a guestimate of at least three people.

[36] “…early on the night of October 8, fire driven by a high wind leaped from tree to tree and burned the little settlement of New Franken, a few miles east of Green Bay.”

[37] “The list gives 128 persons burned to death, and fourteen severely burned [the listing is by locality, and we count and show the total for each community, while omitting the names]. Many others in the different settlements were burned of which record has been lost.”

[38] “In a Belgian community just south of Williamsonville, 15 families saw and heard the firestorm coming and took the time to bury their possessions, including sides of bacon, in a nearby open field. Their rough bone-dry wooden homes were quickly reduced to ashes in moments. Belgians died in the inferno, but it would later be remembered that the community had been able to save its bacon.” [Blanchard note: for the purpose of contributing to a tally, we make assumption that if “Belgians died in the inferno,” there must have been at least two deaths.

[39] We suspect that this number actually concerns the deaths which took place in Williamsonville, in Brussels township, southern Door County. See Moran and Somerville below on their account and number of 60 deaths.

[40] There is a list of 42 people along with a note that “This information was found in a binder in the Fire Museum.” We presume that the “List of burned…” refers to fatalities.

[41] Given the list of names from both Brussels and the Schoefield Mill near Brussels, found on the Peshtigo Historical Society website, which total 55, as well as the Green Bay Relief Committee listing of 50 deaths, we choose not to use 22 as the low end of the range of estimated deaths for Brussels used by Johnson.

[42] The number represents our counting of named victims within the listing.

[43] A few miles west of Williamson’s mill was a new shingle mill just erected by Scofield & Co. Fourteen men were here at work installing the machinery. When the avalanche of fire swept down upon them the fourteen men made a dash for a point where a small flume had been built in a creek. The water course had been dry for some time owing to the long continued drouth but there was a little water and mud left in a hollow. Ten of the men were struck down by the fire at the top of their speed and were all burned to death. Four of the men reached the mudhole and threw themselves face downward in the puddle. Even here two of the men were scorched to death.”

[44] Notes losses experienced by eighteen people (mostly clothing and bedding), but does not note a loss of life. A store and contents, saloon, boarding house and barn and contents were lost.

[45] Notes property losses of eleven people, including houses, barns, grain, livestock and feed.

[46] “The fire continued on [after moving through Brussels] sweeping through the towns of Union, Gardner, Nasewaupee and the west side of Forestville.”

[47] Notes property losses of eighteen people, including houses barns, crops and farming tools, and cattle, as well as a shingle mill, three school houses and two churches.

[48] “The fire continued on [after moving through Brussels] sweeping through the towns of Union, Gardner, Nasewaupee and the west side of Forestville.”

[49] “At the Lorch settlement in Nasewaupee, Casper Lorch and two children of Mrs. P. Lorch were burned to death; their bodies were recovered Tuesday and were burned in a fearful manner.”

[50] “The fire continued on [after moving through Brussels] sweeping through the towns of Union, Gardner, Nasewaupee and the west side of Forestville.”

[51] Notes that Luke Coyne lost a barn and his crop.

[52] Door County Advocate, Sturgeon Bay, WI. “A Terrible Visitation. An Avalanche of Fire. Over 80 Persons Burned and Suffocated.” 10-12-1871, p. 3, col. 2.

[53] Notes property losses of five people, as well as a school house and a timber company’s logs.

[54] “Uniontown was a small village in the town of Brussels, on the eastern shore of the bay. It was entirely destroyed Sunday night.” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4.)

[55] Notes property losses of fifteen people, including houses, household goods, barns, crops, farming tools, cattle.

[56] “The fire continued on [after moving through Brussels] sweeping through the towns of Union, Gardner, Nasewaupee and the west side of Forestville.”

[57] Notes sixty deaths on page 23 and on page 23 shows J. M. Moran photograph of a memorial marker which reads: “Here was the village of Williamsonville with a population of 77 persons on October 8, 1871, this village was blotted out by a tornado of fire. 60 persons sought refuge in an open field surrounding this spot and were burned to death.”

[58] “…there were no fire deaths in Ahnapee. Not right then. Within a few days there were deaths, not because people died in the fire but because of it. Faggs [family] went into their well to escape the fire. They came out alive but within days 9 year old Anna had pneumonia and died. Mr. McCosky…had…[a] breathing or lung ailment. It wasn’t long before he died too. For some years there were deaths of many who survived the fire only to died with ailments related to it.”

[59] Notes that Kewaunee was “in the affected area” and that it took rescuers two days to get in due to felled trees.

[60] “A final tally of destruction for Kewaunee County listed in the Kewaunee Enterprise: ‘damages of $800,000, two mills, one church, three stores, 150 dwellings, six schools, two saloons, 148 barns….’”

[61] “News of this [New Franken fire] and other fires that brought death and destruction to farms and villages in Kewaunee, Door, Brown, and Manitowoc counties that night [Oct 8] reached the city of Green Bay…”

[62] Notes “…the fires were especially bad in the Kewaunee County Township of Carlton…”

[63] “The towns of Humboldt, Green Bay, Casco, Red River and Brussels were scathed with a whirlwind of flame, devouring the woods, leaping across clearings and lapping up everything inflammable in its track.” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4.)

[64] “Village of Kewaunee almost burned. Two hours of rain did not extinguish the blaze but slowed it down.”

[65] “The villages of Rosiere and Messiere form the town of Lincoln, Both are burned. At last accounts 21 persons were missing. There were 180 houses in Rosiere, of which but 5 are left.”

[66] “The towns of Humboldt, Green Bay, Casco, Red River and Brussels were scathed with a whirlwind of flame, devouring the woods, leaping across clearings and lapping up everything inflammable in its track….Over three miles in length in the south part of the town of Red River is burned.” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, in “The Holocaust of Fire,” 10-14-1871, p. 1, col. 4.)

[67] “Manitowoc County people had emerged with their lives and families in tact.” (Vogl. “Forest Fires in Manitowoc County — 1871.” Manitowoc County Hist. Soc, 1986.)

[68] “In Cooperstown…several dwellings and barns and many stacks of wheat, hay and oats were consumed. Added to this is the loss of timber, cordwood, fences, hemlock bark and other products of the forest.”

[69] “…farmsteads had burned in Cooperstown and Maple Grove…” No deaths noted.

[70] “As the fires burned in townships of Two Creeks, Mishicot, Two Rivers, Gibson and Cooperstown, damage was done to more than forest and fence, crops and buildings.” Goes on to note other types of damage but not life loss.

[71] “From Kewaunee south to Two Creeks the fire has swept away everything and should a high wind set in the latter place (Two Creeks) will suffer almost total destruction….From Two Creeks to Two rivers the woods are burning but I [Henry Marshall, trying to escape the fires] passed over the road during night so I couldn’t tell of the devastation.” Further down it is written: “It is not recorded how many buildings were lost in Township of Two Creeks, but they must have been numerous, recognizing how much devastation was done just across the county line.” No loss of life noted.

[72] “As the fires burned in townships of Two Creeks, Mishicot, Two Rivers, Gibson and Cooperstown, damage was done to more than forest and fence, crops and buildings.” Goes on to note other types of damage but not life loss.

[73] Shows the names of 21 people and then notes “Two travelers, strangers; names unknown.”

[74] From “Report of the Green Bay Relief Committee, Having in Charge Matters Pertaining to Burnt District in Wisconsin. (To the Hon C. C. Washburn, Governor of Wisconsin)” starting on page 163.

[75] “Even though Menominee was separated from Marinette [WI] by the one-thousand-foot-wide Menominee River, the fire had easily leaped this expanse. One branch of the flames had attacked the Spafford & Gilmore mill reducing it and all the buildings and houses around it to ashes in a few minutes. Then instead of turning to devour the rest of Menominee, the flames swept out into the waters of the bay where they threatened the ships and those on them who thought themselves safe from the inferno on the mainland.”

[76] Cites: Donald A. Haines and Earl L. Kuehnast. When the Midwest Burned (1970); Donald A. Haines and Rodney W. Sando. Climatic Conditions Preceding Historically Great Fires in the North Central Region (Research Paper NC-34, North Central Forest Experimental Station,  Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1969); and Schwartz 1990.

[77] Moran and Somerville, at p. 28, write: “Tornadoes of fire were actually fire vortices, which are frequently spawned by large wildfires (Graham 1955; Haines and Updike 1971; Albini 1984). Development of fire vortices was probably the principal reason for both the rapid pace and destructiveness of the wildfires. Fire vortices are of two general types: fire whirlwinds and horizontal roll vortices. The Wisconsin wildfires likely generated both types of vortices. Fire whirlwinds are the more common vortices. They are vertically oriented and vary in diameter (1 to more than 100 meters) and height (1 to more than 1000 meters) and range in intensity from weak dust-devil-like whirls to severe tornado-like disturbances.” The references cited are: (1) H. E. Graham. “Fire Whirlwinds. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 36, 1955, pp. 99-103; (2) D. A. Haines and G. H. Updike. “Fire Whirlwind Formation Over Flat Terrain (Research Paper NC-71). U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, 1971; and F. A. Albini. “Wildland Fires.” American Scientist, Vol. 72, 1984, pp. 590-597.

[78] See our excerpts from the Green Bay Relief Committee report below.

[79] Blanchard note: Not necessarily. Much of the 2,400 square miles noted, did not experience the same sort of firestorm that occurred in and around Peshtigo. Indeed, one needs only to read from the literature excerpted from herein to see that no lives were lost in a number of communities and towns which were within “the fire district.”

[80] However, see from the Green Bay Relief Committee report the following: “Fully three months of hard and laborious work have been spent by Col. J. H. Leavenworth in making up a list of those burned…” (p. 166) The Committee note that there were undoubtedly many more deaths than the names collected. Our point is that there was a considerable effort to determine the death toll.

[81] Perhaps a reference to Sugar Bush, WI, which is about 35 miles west of Green Bay and southwest of Peshtigo.

[82] Cites C. H. Martin account in Martin’s History of Door County, pp. 103-104.

[83] One hectare equals 2.471 acres.

[84] Cites: C. I. Martin. History of Door County, Wisconsin. Sturgeon Bay, WI: Expositor Job Print, 1881.

[85] R. W. Wells. Fire at Peshtigo. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.

[86] We treat as a separate event. To access the file go to our “Spreadsheet” and scroll down chronologically or follow directions in “How to Guide.” Spreadsheet is at: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/spreadsheet/

[87] We treat as a separate event as well — was well over 400 miles to the southeast, clear across Lake Michigan and lower Michigan state on the Lake Huron side. We show 169-200 deaths, especially in Port Huron, St. Clair County and Manistee County.

[88] F. A. Albini. “Wildland Fires.” American Scientist, vol. 72, 1984, pp. 590-597.

[89] F. Tilton. The Great Fires in Wisconsin. Green Bay, WI: Robinson and Kustermann, Publishers, 1871. Reprinted in the Green Bay Historical Bulletin, Vol. 7, 1931, pp. 1-99.

[90] H. R. Holand. “The Great Forest Fire of 1871.” Peninsula Historical Review, Vol. 5, pp. 41-46, 1931.

[91] According to Gess and Lutz. Firestorm at Peshtigo, unnumbered page in photograph section, “…the Peshtigo Woodenware Factory was the largest of its kind in the world.”

[92] van den Dool footnote no. 2: “There were too few survivors to identify the dead or report the missing.”

[93] Haines and Kuehnast 1970.

[94] Meters per second.