586 



MICHIGAN FIRES. 



MICHIGAN FIRES. On the 5th day of 

 September, and several following days, de- 

 structive fires swept through the forests and 

 fields of Huron and Sanilac Counties, in Mich- 

 ig in, burning dwellings, barns, churches, saw- 

 mill-;, fences, orchards, farm-crops, etc. So 

 rapidly did the flames spread that live-stock 

 could find no place of refuge, and the loss of 

 human life was great. A number of small vil- 

 lages were completely wiped out. In several 

 townships houses enough were not left stand- 

 ing to give temporary shelter to the homeless, 

 and the suffering of men, women, and children 

 was great before temporary relief could reach 

 them. The smoke was so dense that day was 

 turned into night, even at a distance from the 

 burning forests, while at other times the whole 

 heavens seemed in flames. Eye-witnesses de- 

 scribed great sheets of fire rolling over their 

 heads, jumping from forest to forest, leaving 

 here and there a house or barn as a landmark 

 and a wonder. In some sections high winds 

 prevailed, and acres of forest had every tree 

 turned up by the roots, while other acres, near 

 by, showed the blackened trunks erect. Men 

 and women fought desperately to save their 

 homes, and in some instances succeeded for 

 the second and third time, to be baffled at last. 

 In the town of Paris, Huron County, settled 

 largely by Poles, the one which suffered the 

 heaviest, both in life and buildings, reporting 

 twenty-three lives lost and one hundred and 

 seventy-two families burned out, it was said 

 that the inhabitants, impresssd with the con- 

 viction that the last day had come, gave up in 

 despair, and made little effort to save their 

 homes. The fire broke out simultaneously in 

 many places, and everywhere from the same 



* Organized in 1875, from part of Honghton. 

 t Organized in 1879; previously attached to Kalkaska. 

 J Organized in 1>75; previously attached to Midland. 

 } Formed and organized in 1875, from part of Keweenaw. 

 I Organized in 1S75; previously attached to Antrim. 

 1 Organized In 1871 ; previously attached to Marquette. 



cause, the setting fire to brush and logheaps, the 

 settler's mode of clearing up his farm, and ran 

 through twenty-two townships in Huron Coun- 

 ty and twenty-six townships in Sanilac, work- 

 ing greater or lesser devastation, according to 

 the material it found to feed upon. The adjoin- 

 ing counties of Lapeer, St. Clair, and Tuscola, 

 suffered from similar fires, but with no loss of 

 life, and, in comparison, a limited loss of prop- 

 erty. 



Nearly eighteen hundred square miles of ter- 

 ritory, or full one million acres, were burned 

 over, being principally included in a belt sixty 

 miles in length north and south, and from ten 

 to thirty miles in width ; the fires in Lapeer 

 and Tuscola Counties lying west of that belt. 



When the first relief agents penetrated the 

 burned region the thousands of homeless peo- 

 ple were found massed in the unburned school- 

 houses, dwellings, or barns ; at Bad Axe, the 

 county-seat of Huron County, in the court- 

 house; in improvised buildings, constructed of 

 the planks from half-burned bridges, logs, or 

 rails, thatched with cornstalks, and in some 

 instances in dug-outs, or without any shelter. 

 With the living were found the charred re- 

 mains of the unburied dead, with men, wom- 

 en, and children so badly burned, though yet 

 alive, that they could scarcely be recognized. 

 A general refief committee was organized at 

 Detroit, and another at Port Huron, with in- 

 dependent or sub-committees in almost every 

 city and town in the State, and but a few days 

 passed before the wants of the suffering were 

 temporarily relieved, the dead buried, the 

 burned and sick provided for in hospitals, and 

 the work of permanent relief systematically en- 

 tered upon. The citizens of other States also 

 entered generously and earnestly upon the 

 work, and poured money, goods, clothing, and 

 provisions into the store-houses and treasury of 

 the local committees with an unsparing hand. 

 The Southern States vied with the Eastern, and 



