ELVINS IS FIRE SWEPT
The Thriving Little City Visited by a $200,000
Conflagration Early Monday Morning.
Published by the Bonne Terre Register, Friday, April 9, 1909

Monday morning, at 2 o'clock, Elvins was visited by a $200,000 fire, originating in the Miller Block, which after the second origin, consumed the principal business district of the little city, including the Miller Hotel and the M.R. & B.T. Depot. 

After the city had finished from a day of Sunday rest and while the citizens were peacefully slumbering, at 2 o'clock a.m. a fire alarm was sounded which brought out the volunteer fire fighters in force.  The fire was found to have started in the meat market and grocery of Hague's Butcher Shop.  It was only a question of a short battle and the conflagration was quelled.  The citizens went back to their couches with a feeling of pleasant security and with a faith in their volunteer force regardless of the fierce gale from the north.

Elvins Main Street abt. 1909 (prior to fire)

Only a short hour of uninterrupted sleep until again the alarm was sounded.    This time the fire was so well advanced that no human agency could prevent its rapid work of destruction.  The second fire originated in the entrance to the Miller Hotel on the second floor and which was in the same building as the Butcher Shop.   By the time the brave local "fire laddies" could bring their water to play, the fight was against fearful odds and the most optimistic only hoped to stay the work of the greedy flames as they rapidly devoured the handsome $40,000 hostelry and its magnificently appointed store rooms.  The occupants of the hotel were called from their couches to precipitately flee for their lives and many escaped with only an arm load of clothing and a suit of pajamas.  Nothing in the building was saved except a few trunks of traveling salesmen.

Rapidly, under the influence of the terrible gale, the fire spread north and lapping across main street the Evans & Howell building was fired and after it every other north main street store from the river east to the M.R. & B.T.R.R. was in flames.   The fight, although a losing one and made by untrained though brave men, was finally abandoned with the one hope of saving the Labor Herald Building and the Smith Hotel on the south.  By tearing away a building occupied as an annex to the Hotel Dixon, at the suggestion of the Editors Camron & Ranes [or Rames], the newspaper office was saved.

The east walls of the Hotel Miller still remain standing and possibly alone to this fact is attributable the saving of Hampton's Saloon, which is the sole business now being conducted in the fire district on Main Street.

Losses aggregating over $150,000 have been computed and more careful invoice may place the total destruction at $200,000.

The known losses are as follows on the north side of main street:

Evans & Howell, store building and stock of general merchandise.  Loss, $25,000; insurance, $12,000.

Vacant store building owned by Dr. Reece.  Loss, $2,000; no insurance.

Callahan & Downard, butcher shop, equipment and stock, $500; no insurance.

Elvins Mercantile Co., stock of merchandise, $4,000; insurance, $600.

I. Miller, stock of merchandise, $12,000; insurance $2,000.

John Niehaus, two buildings, $700; no insurance.

M.R. & B.T. depot, $1,000; fully insured.

On the south side of the street, where the fire originated, the losses were as follows:  

Miller Hotel and furnishings and stock of hotel and saloon, $40,000; insurance, $20,000.

Hague Butcher Co., stock of meats and groceries, $2,000; insurance not known.

J. N. Richards, stock of dry goods, clothing, etc., $12,000; insurance not known.

Dr. W. C. Reece, stock of drugs and sundries, $4,000; insurance $2,500.

Thurmand Barber Shop, $375; no insurance.

J. C. Weston, stock of groceries and harness, loss unknown; insurance, $1,000.

Crescent Hotel Building, occupied by George Smith, loss unknown but no insurance.

Cook's Barber Shop, equipment and supplies, $300; no insurance.

J. L. Grough, saloon stock, $1,000; no insurance.

Mrs. Dixon, boardinghouse furnishings and stock of millinery, $600; no insurance.

The railroad company had on the depot site Monday a box car, No. 2034, which is serving as a temporary depot and ticket office and from which all of the business of the company is being conducted.

The telephone system is temporarily out of commission but the company has a large force of men erecting cables and poles and are doing a hampered business.  As soon as the insurance is adjusted, all of the burned district will be rebuilt and, probably, with substantial fire proof structures.

INCENDIARISM SUSPECTED.

Rumors of incendiarism are persistent on account of the fire first being discovered in the butcher shop and then an hour later breaking out under the stairway in the entrance to the hotel.  This taken in connection with the three former attempts to burn the hotel building within the past two years is urged as strong grounds for the opinion that the fire was the work of incendiaries.

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Note:  If I find any follow-up articles concerning this fire or any arrests made in connection with same, I'll supplement this page. Thus far, I haven't uncovered any articles.

 
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