(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday - The Peshtigo River

The Peshtigo River - Where many ran to on the night of the fire in hopes their lives would be spared.

Memorial stone at the Peshtigo River bridge

"This bridge crosses the river that has been the heart of the community since the founding of Peshtigo.

This river provides power for our commerce and daily lives.  This river also protected some of our citizens who sought refuge in these waters during the great fire of Oct. 8th, 1871

The citizens of Peshtigo dedicate the bridge over the River In honor of those who have served and defended our country And those who protected, defended and rebuilt our community

From the embers of ruined hope, may the germs of virtuous industry spring, while nature in tears, weeping over the blackened funeral pile, shall plant, as the seasons come and go, fresh roses of Spring o'er the ashes of the dead.

The Marinette and Peshtigo Eagle
Saturday, October 14, 1871

Dedicated october 8, 2012"

Tombstone Tuesday - Mass Grave at Peshtigo

I was actually halfway through with another Tuesday post when it dawned on me to share the memorial for the mass grave from the Peshtigo Fire.  I know that my posts were "technically" done for this year on Peshtigo, but as I was scrolling through my iPhoto I saw the photos I had taken at the Peshtigo Museum and graveyard this summer.  It would have been wrong to ignore them and not share.

At the foot of the mass grave a sign to explain the necessity of a mass grave.

A transcription of the mass grave marker only because of the glare.  I think most can read it, but just in case:

"Mass Grave

This mass grave contains the ashes, bones, and bodies of some three hundred and fifty people who perished in the Peshtigo Fire.  Approximately seventy-five of these lost their lives in the Peshtigo Company's boarding house on the east side of the river.  They were so completely consumed by the fire that one could not tell man from woman or child from adult.  All, however, in the mass grave were not ashes.  Many of the dead were found bearing no trace of burns and those unidentified bodies are also buried here."

Many had no trace of burns but died anyway.  It seems incredible, but for some the fire spared them, only to have the smoke do what the fire did not.

The mass grave from a distance.  A peaceful sitting area for reflection.

Peshtigo - A Miracle From the Ashes

The statue of Mary inside the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help

This was originally posted on October 13, 2011.  As before I feel that it is a fitting tribute to end this week of remembrance on a positive note.

As promised I'm ending my posts on this historic tragedy on a miraculous note.  I'm not speaking figuratively.  I'm not saying "It's a miracle my husband's ancestors survived".  I'm grateful that they survived, and it could be viewed as miraculous, but I'm talking church acknowledged miracle! This miracle didn't happen in the town of Peshtigo.  It was across the bay in a town called Robinsonville that was also under attack by the series of fires collectively known as the "Great Peshtigo Fire"....and it's the sort of story that makes you believe in miracles if you didn't already.  A little history...

Adele Brise (also spelled Brice) was a young Belgian immigrant who came to America with her family and settled in Wisconsin.  She had originally wanted to stay behind in her native Belgium and join a convent with some other girls, but after talking with her priest, he advised her to do what any good priest would...to follow her parents wishes and go to America with them.  He told her that if she was meant for a religious order that she would no doubt find one in the United States.  So instead of a convent Adele found herself in a heavily wooded area of Wisconsin.

Mary as Adele described

Adele was very religious.  She would walk to church every week...ELEVEN MILES to church every week!  In October of 1859 Adele experienced not one, but 3 Marian Apparitions.  The first was as Adele was walking to a grist mill 4 miles from Robinsonville with a sack of wheat on her head.  She saw a lady in white standing in her path on the trail she was walking.  She stopped, frightened and remained still until the lady disappeared before her eyes a few minutes later.

The second time was that Sunday as she walked to church.  Her sister walked with her and in the exact same place, Adele saw the lady before her in the distance.  She stopped, again afraid.  Her sister could not see the woman.  Eventually she disappeared and they continued to church.  After Mass Adele spoke with her priest about what she saw.  The priest told her that the spirit would not hurt her, but to ask in God's name what she wanted.

On the way home from mass that day, Sunday, October 9th, 1859, Adele again saw the apparition before her.  The people with her stopped as she knelt and asked the apparition , "In God's name, who are you, and what do you want of me?"  The response that Adele got was that the apparition was the "Queen of Heaven" and she commanded that Adele teach the children their catechism, how to make the sign of the Cross, and how to receive the Sacraments.

On that spot Adele's father (Lambert Brice) built a ten by twelve foot structure to mark the spot of the visions.  Not everyone believed in what Adele saw, but that did not deter her.  Over the years, as people began to make pilgrimages to the spot and as Adele began to fulfill the promise she made to teach the children, the structure grew and the land that held the school and chapel was consecrated.  The Chapel became known as "Our Lady of Good Help."

Twelve years later, almost to the day Adele spoke to the apparition of Mary, the fires erupted.  This is the account of what happened that night as printed in the book "The Chapel:  Our Lady of Good Help" (Sister M. Dominica, O.S.F, 1955):

Stained glass windows in the Shrine

"We do not propose to pass judgment on the reasons for this catastrophe, but we know that twelve years later almost to the day, October 8, 1871, the great calamity fell.  The Belgian colony which embraced a large part of the peninsula,  was visited by the same whirlwind of fire and wind that overwhelmed Peshtigo.  Here, as across the Bay, the forest fires had crept on for weeks and months, and on the same Sunday night came whirling over the Lake and Bay counties.  The Wisconsin peninsula, too, was the scene of an awesome drama.  A terrible, ten-fold wind sprang up from the southeast and fanned the smoldering fires into a mighty wave, submerging the whole peninsula into a raging sea of fire and smoke.

After weeks of fear and suspense, the hour struck and the great forest rocked and tossed simultaneously.  In one awful instant, before expectation could give way to horror, the black-curtained sky burst forth into great clouds of fire.  The day had been prophetically [sic] still; smoke and gases filled the air.  An ominous dread gripped the minds and hearts of every living creature, even the wild beasts of the forests mingled with men as both fled in terror before a great consuming roaring fire circling all within its fiery grasp.  At first the roaring blaze thundered like great cataracts among the tree-tops, but as it gained momentum, it sounded like the distant roar of the sea giving place to thunderous fury mingled with a tornado of fire.

A survivor wrote that if one could imagine the worst snow storm he ever witnessed, and each flake a coal or spark of fire driven before a terrifying wind, he would have an idea of the atmosphere at the time the fire struck.  Hundreds of families were driven from their homes, many being overtaken by the rain of fire.

Adele Brise's photo at the Shrine

'This is judgment; this is the end of the world,' was uttered by a frenzied mob dashing wildly for means of escape made impassable by fallen timber and burning bridges.  Land and sky in flames, wild confusion of the elements, while men looking on, stupefied [sic] with horror, were withering with fear.  It was indeed a terrifying spectacle.

The wide spreading track of ruin covered the greater part of the peninsula from Green Bay to Lake Michigan, and from the neighborhood of Green Bay on the south to 'Death's Door' on the north.  In the town of Green Bay, the fire entered at the southeast corner and swept on the wings of the wind to the north east.  It extended into parts of Outagamie, Kewaunee, Door, and Brown counties.  The towns of Humboldt, Green Bay, New Franken, Casco, Brussels, Rosiere, Lincoln, Robinsonville and many others were scathed with a whirlwind of flame which devoured the woods, leaped across clearings, and lopped everything inflammable in its path.  The area burned was not less than fifty miles in length and twenty average miles wide.  The burning belt widened as it advance.  Nothing could be done to stop its forward march, and the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help lay in its path.

The crucial hour had come, the hurricane of fire broke in all its fury.  Adele and her companions were faced with a momentous decision.  They were determined not to abandon Mary's shrine, and their faith in Mary's protection never faltered.  The children, the Sisters, and the farmers with their families, drove their livestock before them and raced in the direction of Mary's sanctuary.  They were now encircled by a raging inferno with no means of escape.  Looking back, they saw their buildings literally swallowed by the fiery monster.  By this time the surrounding territory was one vast sea of fire.  Awe-stricken, they thronged the Chapel grounds.  Already the Chapel was filled with terror-stricken people beseeching the Mother of God to spare them, many wailing aloud in their fright.  Filled with confidence, they entered the Chapel, reverently raised the statue of Mary, and kneeling bore it in procession around their beloved sanctuary.  When wind and fire exposed them to suffocation, they turned in another direction, and continued to hope and pray, saying the rosary.

Statues of children kneeling on the grounds of the Shrine

'Thus passed for them the long hours of that terrible night.  I know not if, supported only by nature, they would have been able to live through that awful ordeal, ' so wrote Father Pernin, hero of the 'Peshtigo Fire.'

After hours of horror and suspense, the heavens sent relief in the form of a downpour.  The fervent prayers to the Mother of God were heard.  The fire was extinguished, but dawn revealed the ravages wrought by the conflagration.  Everything about them was destroyed;  miles of desolation everywhere.  But the Convent, school, Chapel, and the five acres of land consecrated to the Virgin Mary shone like an emerald isle in a sea of ashes.  The raging fire licked the outside palings and left charred scars as mementos.  Tongues of fire had reached the Chapel fence, and threatened destruction to all within its confines - the fire had not entered the Chapel grounds."

A fire so fierce that it destroyed most everything in its path did not destroy Our Lady of Good Help.  It was 151 years after the apparition of Mary to Adele, 139 years after the miracle at Our Lady of Good Help occurred that the Roman Catholic Church finally acknowledged the visions of Adele Brise.  On December 8th, 2010 Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay announced, "I declare with moral certainty and in accord with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions and locutions given to Adele Brise in October 1859 do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful."

Candles lit by visitors inside the Shrine

That declaration made Our Lady of Good Help the first and only approved Marian apparition/shrine in the United States.  You can read more about the Churches declaration and the Shrine, by going to the Diocese's website here.

Within 2 weeks of the announcement my family and I were back in Green Bay visiting for the Holidays.  It is hard to convey the feeling of knowing that this happened so close to where my in-laws were.  The first Marian Shrine in our backyard.  I took my boys and my mother-in-law and we visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.  I didn't know what to expect.  The grounds were pretty, but looked like any other church.  The crypt where the statue of Mary is located, and the site of the original vision, is in the basement.  The Church built on top of it.  It is small, but I thought it beautiful.  I lit a candle to my father-in-law who had passed away earlier in the year, and to my cousin who was killed by her husband earlier in the year.  I finally lit a candle in honor of all my family's ancestors and prayed for awhile.

Crutches left behind

When I was done, and without disturbing the few others that were in the Shrine, I took out my camera and took some flashless photography to remember this place.  I took pictures of the crutches that people left behind.  Those that since 1859 came to the Shrine using crutches and left them behind as they walked away.

Our Lady of Good Help was being visited by newspapermen from the New York Times the day that we visited.  They asked my mother-in-law if she believed.  Without hesitating, she replied that she did.  A bit ridiculous if you thought about it.  Why would you visit if you didn't?  We weren't offended though.  We were glad that it was being reported on.  Glad to see that after so many years and so many people thinking Adele Brise was lying or demented that the Church acknowledged what she always knew to be true.

With everything that happened during the Great Peshtigo Fire, how could I or anyone not view what happened on that spot as anything other than miraculous!

The cemetery at the Shrine

Another Tale from the Fire

Peshtigo Times, 06OCT1971, Sec D, Pg 8

Another story retold in the 1971 Peshtigo Times.  This family was lucky...they lost everything except each other.

"Hale One Of Fires Heaviest Losers

The largest loss of property during the fire, with the exception of the Peshtigo Company, was sustained by Levi Hale, who lost the Peshtigo House and part of its furniture, several dwellings and contents, hay, wagons, carriages, horses and cattle totalling [sic] an estimated $30,000.

Hale was a builder who rented several home in Peshtigo to other families and had built the Peshtigo House in 1859 and ran it for seven years.

After having lost all this property, he became a farmer and stock raiser on the property later known as the John Bell farm or Reber's property.  It is now owned by Ray Pavelin.  The Hale road was named after the land's original farmer -- Levi Hale.

Hale, born in Jefferson Co., N.Y. and grew up in St. Lawrence Co., came to the Menominee River during the fall of 1841.  he spent the next year prospecting in the copper mines of Lake Superior.  In 1846, his traveling brought him to Peshtigo where he followed lumbering and various kinds of work until he built the hotel.

Hannah Windross became his bride in 1856 and they had two daughters, Martha and Katherine.  She was an immigrant from England and her brother, Dr. William Windross started a medical practice in Peshtigo in 1877.

The youngest girl, called Kittie by her family, was twelve years old when the fire struck and her daughter, Mrs. Cecil Engels, of Marinette recorded the story of that family's flight from the flames.

According to that account, the quiet of the Sunday supper table was interrupted Oct. 8, 1871, when Hall suddenly excused himself and went unstairs [sic] to peer at the fire from the west window.

Peshtigo Times (Peshtigo Fire Centennial Ed) 06OCT1971, Sec D, Pg 8

'You better pack the valuables because I suspect trouble before morning.' he announced to his wife upon returning to the table.  He then went out the door to inspect the barns.

Hannah immediately began packing the dresses she had made for an anticipated trip back to her homeland.  She also grabbed a pail of over a thousand buttons which she had saved as a little girl.

But her preparations were interrupted by sudden shouts from Hale.

'Get to the creek or be burned!'

The mother and the children ran to the creek carrying what they could only to drop it when crossing the creek.

Fire was everywhere and the creek outlining the barn was their only escape.

They sat that night in the creek with large pans from the kitchen over their heads for protection from cinders.  Occasionally they lifted them to catch a breath of air.

At last morning came, and they emerged from their all-night bath, wet, cold and hungry.  They went to the stone basement of what had been their home.  Hale built a bonfire from the remains of the back fence to dry their wet clothes.

Meanwhile he went to the village to discover all his buildings were destroyed.  His consolation was that, while many of his friends had lost members of their family, he had lost none.

Descendents [sic] of Levi and Hannah Hale now living in the area include Mrs. Cecil LeBlond Engels, Marinette, Mrs. William J. Smith, Menominee, Mich., a great granddaughter, and Franklin Hodgins, Marinette, a great grandson."

Peshtigo Schoolhouse Photo

Printed in centennial edition of the Peshtigo Times, 06OCT1971, pg 6

"SCHOOL HOUSE -- This photo of the Peshtigo House of Learning was taken in 1870 -- just one year before the school and all the other occupied buildings in Peshtigo burned in the Great Fire."

It was amazing to see this picture.  And sad.  And chilling.  I sit here and wonder how many of these people survived the fire.  No names with the photo.  I can only imagine that if there were names they would have appeared with the photo.

Peshtigo - Recording the Survivors' Tales

The following is a transcription from a special centennial edition of the Peshtigo Times newspaper commemorating the Great Peshtigo Fire.  It was published in 1971 and passed on to me by my husband's family.

"Survivors Tell Of The Horrors During Dreadful Fire

Peshtigo Times Interviews Tell Of Survivors Narrow Brushes With Death

(Editor's Note:  The PESHTIGO TIMES has spent many years compiling a list of survivors, recording their experience during the fire and its effect on their later lives.  The story below is a compilation of many accounts the survivors told TIMES reporters.  Some of these people lived their entire lives in the Peshtigo area, others who moved have relatives in the area.

The largest complied [sic] list of survivors was available in 1951 just prior to the dedication of the historical marker.  At that time 44 survivors, (most in their 80s) had been located and several of them came to the ceremony.  As time passed, fewer new survivors were discovered and known survivors died.  Now, 100 years after the catastrophe, one survivor remains. Mrs. Augusta Bruce, of Stevens Point, Wis., not only lived through one of the worst disasters in the nation, but lived to reach 102 on August 4, 1971.  Several of the stories of known survivors which were published in the TIMES throughout the years are compiled and retold here.)

Memories of the crimson night of Oct. 8, 1871 did not fade despite the many years and events which passed between that night and the survivors retirement years.

The survivors, whose accounts are recorded below, were only children at the time of the fire and their memories are dependent largely on stories told to them by their parents.  For many families it was a turning point in their lives -- all property destroyed, sickness, poverty were the rewards for withstanding the night of horror.  Some could not bear to return to the area but others built new homes on the site of their first home.  Many were members of immigrant families who had come to America to homestead, seeking milk and honey.  They were pioneers and thus used to hardships so when this one came they faced it.

'Wake up!  The end of the world is coming!' the late Mrs. Amelia 'Stoney' Desrochers recalled her mother shouting.  The fire reached their home about 9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, 1871.  She was five at the time of the fire.

'There had been fires all along.  The men had been fighting them.  One night a terrible wind storm came, the sky got very red.' she continued.  Then recalling her mother's prediction of the end of the world she said, 'A lot of people perished because they thought it was the end of the world.  They got tired of fighting the fire and gave up.'

But not her family.

'Mother got us up.  I put my shoes on but forgot my stockings.  When we went out the wind was blowing the sand so hard that it punched my limbs.  people told us to go to the river.  A man at the bridge ordered us to get aboard a flat-bottomed barge on the river.'

'On the way down the river, the boat caught fire on top and many jumped out and drowned.  Looking out the boat's window, I remember telling mother 'Look It's snowing fire three miles out in the bay.'

'On our way back after the fire died down we passed a place where there were many dead people laid out on blankets by the river bank.  Beside them was a little baby crying.  I'll never forget that.'

The late Mrs. Desrochers lived her entire life in the Peshtigo area.  She and another survivor Wesley Duket spent their last years int he Eklund Convalescent Home and occassionally [sic] met to reminisce.

WESLEY DUKET

He lived in the Sugar Bush five miles from Harmony Corners 'When balls of fire started coming down from the sky.' he said.

'My mother and father took us to the spring and wrapped us in wet quilts.  My sister saved the sewing machine by wrapping it up, too.  We had a team of oxen; one of them stayed at the spring with us and the other strayed away and burned.  We had a shed of colts and you could hear them thrashing as they burned.  My brother wanted to open the shed door but my sister was afraid he'd burn to death, too.'

'I'll never forget the next morning.  My mother and father were (temporarily) blind.  I went to see Mrs. Reinhart, our neighbor and I found her dead.  I liked her a lot and that really hurt me.  Her shawl had not completely burned and I took the corner that was left and kept it with me for many years.' said Duket.

MRS. ANNA IVERSON

She was only nine days old the day of the fire.  She was born in Peshtigo on Sept. 29, 1871, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lars Korstad.

Her father came from Norway in 1864 and worked to save money for his wife's passage.  She joined him three years later and they moved to Peshtigo.

Anna, the couples first child, was born at night while Lars was at work.  Their home was a one room shanty with a sawdust floor.  Sawdust was also the foundation for bedding.  Her father was a millwright for Odgen & Gardner lumber camps and mills.

The were fortunate enough to reach the river when the fire struck.

'We sat on a raft covered with a feather bed, my mother holding me and my father spilling water over the three of us as fast as he could so our clothing would not catch fire.  But mothers clothing burned nearly off her back.

'Help came from the south and even from Europe.  Each family was given $50 and free passage to any point in the U.S.  Father thought of going to California, but he chose LaCrosse.'

MRS. CARRIE HOPPE

She was four months old at the time of the fire.  She lived with her parents and 18 month old brother on a farm six miles from Peshtigo.  Ezra Jackson, her father, was bed ridden with scarlet fever and her uncle was on the farm to help out.

'When the fire came my father was too sick to run for it and he stayed in bed until the house caught on fire and he had to run.' she recalled.

'My uncle took my brother and hurried out of the house.  My mother wrapped me in a baby blanket and told my dad to come with us.  He said we should go out onto the plowed field and hope that the fire would not reach us.'

'My uncle carried my brother with him, somewhere we didn't know. But my mother took my father's advice and hurried into the field.'

'Mother and I were saved although mother told me that my blanket caught on fire about 45 times and that she beat it out with her hands.'

'After the farm house caught on fire my father left his bed and hurried to the field to join us.'

'We were saved but my uncle and brother were lost.  My father found one of my brother's shoes and some ashes.  Most of the ashes had been blown away, but we know they were dead.' she said.

Though their farmhouse and cattle were destroyed her father rebuilt at the same site.  She lived there until she was married and moved to Green Bay.

CHARLES E. 'DADRITE' WRIGHT

'Dadrite' was eleven at the time of the fire, and lived in a fishing settlement, Thomaston, along the Oconto Bay Shore.  He did Nov. 17, 1957 in Dunbar at the age of 97.

'I used to come up to Peshtigo every day for the mail,' he recalled.  'I'd sail our boat to the Harbor and take the morning train up to Peshtigo, then get back home before dark.'

'It was dry, oh it was dry.  We could see the flames of Peshtigo rising above the glow of other fires that night.  It was a terrible sight.  The flames came mighty close to our home, by [sic] didn't set it afire.  My uncle lost all his buildings and the loss drove him out of his mind.'

'It was two or three days before we could get into Peshtigo after the fire -- and what a sight I remember seeing that one home standing on the east side where Bill Dolan lives now, and nothing else.  It was just being built, and only the studdings were there.'

Dadrite told of the harrowing incidents in the Harmony area, which he learned of shortly after the fire.

'Sam Woodward's experience was a tragic one.  They could see the fire coming and told their two little children to sit right by the yard fence, then ran to the road with some keepsakes.  The next morning they found the little ones still sitting there.  They must have suffocated in the terrible heat.'

Another incident Dadrite remembered illustrates the pains taken to identify the burned remains.

'A skeleton was found out near Jerral Boom, and a silver watch lay near it.  It was marked by T. A. Hay, a jeweler.  They traced Hay until he was found, and checked his watch repair records to finally identify the skeleton,' he said.

Each person experienced a slightly different series of events during the fire but for all it was a time of horror.

Grocery prices have really skyrocked [sic] since 1871.  Prices recorded in Peshtigo on July 7 of that year showed that butter was 15 cents a pound, ham, 14 cents per pound, and beans $2 per bushel."

I found it very interesting that at the end of the article they threw in information about the cost of food.  It just seemed completely out of place, but still a good reference.

The stories from this horrible night can be grim as well as inspiring.  I wish more had been published in this commemorative edition of the Peshtigo Times, but you can be sure that when I get back to Wisconsin I'll be looking through old editions trying to find other stories.  They should be passed on!

The Peshtigo Fire - A Miracle from the Ashes

The statue of Mary inside the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help

This was originally posted on October 13, 2011.  As before I feel that it is a fitting tribute to end this week of remembrance on a positive note.

As promised I'm ending my posts on this historic tragedy on a miraculous note.  I'm not speaking figuratively.  I'm not saying "It's a miracle my husband's ancestors survived".  I'm grateful that they survived, and it could be viewed as miraculous, but I'm talking church acknowledged miracle! This miracle didn't happen in the town of Peshtigo.  It was across the bay in a town called Robinsonville that was also under attack by the series of fires collectively known as the "Great Peshtigo Fire"....and it's the sort of story that makes you believe in miracles if you didn't already.  A little history...

Adele Brise (also spelled Brice) was a young Belgian immigrant who came to America with her family and settled in Wisconsin.  She had originally wanted to stay behind in her native Belgium and join a convent with some other girls, but after talking with her priest, he advised her to do what any good priest would...to follow her parents wishes and go to America with them.  He told her that if she was meant for a religious order that she would no doubt find one in the United States.  So instead of a convent Adele found herself in a heavily wooded area of Wisconsin.

Mary as Adele described

Adele was very religious.  She would walk to church every week...ELEVEN MILES to church every week!  In October of 1859 Adele experienced not one, but 3 Marian Apparitions.  The first was as Adele was walking to a grist mill 4 miles from Robinsonville with a sack of wheat on her head.  She saw a lady in white standing in her path on the trail she was walking.  She stopped, frightened and remained still until the lady disappeared before her eyes a few minutes later.

The second time was that Sunday as she walked to church.  Her sister walked with her and in the exact same place, Adele saw the lady before her in the distance.  She stopped, again afraid.  Her sister could not see the woman.  Eventually she disappeared and they continued to church.  After Mass Adele spoke with her priest about what she saw.  The priest told her that the spirit would not hurt her, but to ask in God's name what she wanted.

On the way home from mass that day, Sunday, October 9th, 1859, Adele again saw the apparition before her.  The people with her stopped as she knelt and asked the apparition , "In God's name, who are you, and what do you want of me?"  The response that Adele got was that the apparition was the "Queen of Heaven" and she commanded that Adele teach the children their catechism, how to make the sign of the Cross, and how to receive the Sacraments.

On that spot Adele's father (Lambert Brice) built a ten by twelve foot structure to mark the spot of the visions.  Not everyone believed in what Adele saw, but that did not deter her.  Over the years, as people began to make pilgrimages to the spot and as Adele began to fulfill the promise she made to teach the children, the structure grew and the land that held the school and chapel was consecrated.  The Chapel became known as "Our Lady of Good Help."

Twelve years later, almost to the day Adele spoke to the apparition of Mary, the fires erupted.  This is the account of what happened that night as printed in the book "The Chapel:  Our Lady of Good Help" (Sister M. Dominica, O.S.F, 1955):

Stained glass windows in the Shrine

"We do not propose to pass judgment on the reasons for this catastrophe, but we know that twelve years later almost to the day, October 8, 1871, the great calamity fell.  The Belgian colony which embraced a large part of the peninsula,  was visited by the same whirlwind of fire and wind that overwhelmed Peshtigo.  Here, as across the Bay, the forest fires had crept on for weeks and months, and on the same Sunday night came whirling over the Lake and Bay counties.  The Wisconsin peninsula, too, was the scene of an awesome drama.  A terrible, ten-fold wind sprang up from the southeast and fanned the smoldering fires into a mighty wave, submerging the whole peninsula into a raging sea of fire and smoke.

After weeks of fear and suspense, the hour struck and the great forest rocked and tossed simultaneously.  In one awful instant, before expectation could give way to horror, the black-curtained sky burst forth into great clouds of fire.  The day had been prophetically [sic] still; smoke and gases filled the air.  An ominous dread gripped the minds and hearts of every living creature, even the wild beasts of the forests mingled with men as both fled in terror before a great consuming roaring fire circling all within its fiery grasp.  At first the roaring blaze thundered like great cataracts among the tree-tops, but as it gained momentum, it sounded like the distant roar of the sea giving place to thunderous fury mingled with a tornado of fire.

A survivor wrote that if one could imagine the worst snow storm he ever witnessed, and each flake a coal or spark of fire driven before a terrifying wind, he would have an idea of the atmosphere at the time the fire struck.  Hundreds of families were driven from their homes, many being overtaken by the rain of fire.

Adele Brise's photo at the Shrine

'This is judgment; this is the end of the world,' was uttered by a frenzied mob dashing wildly for means of escape made impassable by fallen timber and burning bridges.  Land and sky in flames, wild confusion of the elements, while men looking on, stupefied [sic] with horror, were withering with fear.  It was indeed a terrifying spectacle.

The wide spreading track of ruin covered the greater part of the peninsula from Green Bay to Lake Michigan, and from the neighborhood of Green Bay on the south to 'Death's Door' on the north.  In the town of Green Bay, the fire entered at the southeast corner and swept on the wings of the wind to the north east.  It extended into parts of Outagamie, Kewaunee, Door, and Brown counties.  The towns of Humboldt, Green Bay, New Franken, Casco, Brussels, Rosiere, Lincoln, Robinsonville and many others were scathed with a whirlwind of flame which devoured the woods, leaped across clearings, and lopped everything inflammable in its path.  The area burned was not less than fifty miles in length and twenty average miles wide.  The burning belt widened as it advance.  Nothing could be done to stop its forward march, and the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help lay in its path.

The crucial hour had come, the hurricane of fire broke in all its fury.  Adele and her companions were faced with a momentous decision.  They were determined not to abandon Mary's shrine, and their faith in Mary's protection never faltered.  The children, the Sisters, and the farmers with their families, drove their livestock before them and raced in the direction of Mary's sanctuary.  They were now encircled by a raging inferno with no means of escape.  Looking back, they saw their buildings literally swallowed by the fiery monster.  By this time the surrounding territory was one vast sea of fire.  Awe-stricken, they thronged the Chapel grounds.  Already the Chapel was filled with terror-stricken people beseeching the Mother of God to spare them, many wailing aloud in their fright.  Filled with confidence, they entered the Chapel, reverently raised the statue of Mary, and kneeling bore it in procession around their beloved sanctuary.  When wind and fire exposed them to suffocation, they turned in another direction, and continued to hope and pray, saying the rosary.

Statues of children kneeling on the grounds of the Shrine

'Thus passed for them the long hours of that terrible night.  I know not if, supported only by nature, they would have been able to live through that awful ordeal, ' so wrote Father Pernin, hero of the 'Peshtigo Fire.'

After hours of horror and suspense, the heavens sent relief in the form of a downpour.  The fervent prayers to the Mother of God were heard.  The fire was extinguished, but dawn revealed the ravages wrought by the conflagration.  Everything about them was destroyed;  miles of desolation everywhere.  But the Convent, school, Chapel, and the five acres of land consecrated to the Virgin Mary shone like an emerald isle in a sea of ashes.  The raging fire licked the outside palings and left charred scars as mementos.  Tongues of fire had reached the Chapel fence, and threatened destruction to all within its confines - the fire had not entered the Chapel grounds."

A fire so fierce that it destroyed most everything in its path did not destroy Our Lady of Good Help.  It was 151 years after the apparition of Mary to Adele, 139 years after the miracle at Our Lady of Good Help occurred that the Roman Catholic Church finally acknowledged the visions of Adele Brise.  On December 8th, 2010 Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay announced, "I declare with moral certainty and in accord with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions and locutions given to Adele Brise in October 1859 do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful."

Candles lit by visitors inside the Shrine

That declaration made Our Lady of Good Help the first and only approved Marian apparition/shrine in the United States.  You can read more about the Churches declaration and the Shrine, by going to the Diocese's website here.

Within 2 weeks of the announcement my family and I were back in Green Bay visiting for the Holidays.  It is hard to convey the feeling of knowing that this happened so close to where my in-laws were.  The first Marian Shrine in our backyard.  I took my boys and my mother-in-law and we visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.  I didn't know what to expect.  The grounds were pretty, but looked like any other church.  The crypt where the statue of Mary is located, and the site of the original vision, is in the basement.  The Church built on top of it.  It is small, but I thought it beautiful.  I lit a candle to my father-in-law who had passed away earlier in the year, and to my cousin who was killed by her husband earlier in the year.  I finally lit a candle in honor of all my family's ancestors and prayed for awhile.

Crutches left behind

When I was done, and without disturbing the few others that were in the Shrine, I took out my camera and took some flashless photography to remember this place.  I took pictures of the crutches that people left behind.  Those that since 1859 came to the Shrine using crutches and left them behind as they walked away.

Our Lady of Good Help was being visited by newspapermen from the New York Times the day that we visited.  They asked my mother-in-law if she believed.  Without hesitating, she replied that she did.  A bit ridiculous if you thought about it.  Why would you visit if you didn't?  We weren't offended though.  We were glad that it was being reported on.  Glad to see that after so many years and so many people thinking Adele Brise was lying or demented that the Church acknowledged what she always knew to be true.

With everything that happened during the Great Peshtigo Fire, how could I or anyone not view what happened on that spot as anything other than miraculous!

The cemetery at the Shrine

Peshtigo Fire - The List of the Dead

From the Peshtigo Times centennial edition October 1971

So many people died in the Great Peshtigo Fire.  The number will most likely never be fully known.  Some of the workers were transient which makes what happened to them even harder to track.  Perhaps they came as temporary labor to clear the woods and lay track for the railroad that was being built at the time of the fire. Perhaps some got work at the lumber mill.  Our ancestors were just passing through.  Had they perished with so many others, I most likely would not have figured out what had happened to them.

This post is to remember those that we know perished in the Great Fire.  The list covers those that died in Peshtigo and the Sugar Bush area, but please remember that the Great Peshtigo Fire covered a large area of Northwestern Wisconsin.  In yesterday's post there was a map attached to the newspaper clipping that shows the burned area.  Not everyone that died is listed.  For whatever reason the State Assembly chose to only mention those in the hardest hit area.  If you have a family member that perished or survived the Peshtigo Fire, feel free to write their story in a comment so that they too can be remembered.

"Official List of Dead Given In State Assembly Journal of 1873

(Editor's Note:  The following is the official list of dead in Peshtigo and the Sugar Bushes as recorded in the State Assembly Journal of 1873.  This is not a complete list but a list of the dead who were recognizable.)

ASSEMBLY JOURNAL

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 (sic), 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 acquaintences (sic) 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.

Alvord, John, wife and one child.
Beebe, J.E., and wife Frances, and three children.
Bruette, Mrs. Anton.
Bruette, Mrs. Charles, and one child.
Barton, Roger, died from effects of the fire at Peshtigo harbor.
Cramer, Mrs. Michael, and two sons; husband saved, and one son.
Clement, Joseph G., just married; wife saved.
England, Mrs. William, and two children, fled to the village and were burned; husband and eight
  children remained in the sugar bush and were saved.
Jacobs, Frank, infant son of T. Jacobs, was taken to the river by his aunt, Charlotte Seymour; both
  drowned.
Kerr, James.
Keenan, James.
Kuncner, Ernst, found in river.
Lawrence, Charles, wife and four children; fled from lower sugar bush to village, and were all burned
  near the river.
Monaghan, Patrick.
Mellen, James, son and daughter of.
McGregor, Daniel, wife and sister Jenny.
McDonald, Mrs. Leroy, and five children.
Marsh, Nellie, daughter of P. J. Marsh.
McMinn, Mrs. Silas.
McGregor, Mrs. James, and child
Olestrom, Charles, wife and two children, and a lady visiting, name unknown.
Olson, Hans, wife and two children.
Olson, Anson.
Plush, Charles.
Potter, J. T., child of.
Stitt, Mrs. Wilson, died at Marinette.
Scott, Joseph, child of, died at Harbor.
Slaughter, Mrs. Robert and child.
Seymour, Miss Charlotta, drowned in river.
Tanner, Mrs. J. J. and two children.
Thompson, William, and wife.
Timmer, John, two sons and a daughter of.
Tackman, Mrs. Christina.
Westfall, Charles, wife and his father.
Winters, Neils.
Van Byniger, John.

From the Peshtigo Times centennial edition October 1971

LIST OF THE DEAD IN THE SUGAR BUSHES

Alschwager, Mrs. John and one child.  Husband and five children saved.
Auest, Fred; wife saved.
Aldis, William, wife and two children, were from Connecticut, visiting the family of N. May, also
  burned.
Mrs. Nepthallon May, was the sister of Mrs. Aldis.
Bruce, Mrs. August, and three children; husband and two children saved.
Bell, Mrs. William; husband and child saved.
Birney, Caroline; lived with Chas. Chapman and family; burned.
Bush, Charles, wife and six children.
Bosworth, Mrs. Olive, with two children of John Taylor's.
Bush, John.
Brackett, Augusta.
Bartels, Miss Augusta; was visiting her grandmother; daughter of Capt. Fred. J. Bartels, of Peshtigo
  village.
Bohemaster, Henry, wife and child.
Curtis, William, and daughter.  Mrs. Eliza Curtis, his wife, was badly crippled by fire, and remains so.
Church, John, wife and one child -- Warren Church cut his throat rather than be burned, but was saved.
Chapman, Charles, wife and son and hired man and girl.
Cook, Jacob E., wife and three children, burned in root house.
Diedrich, Joseph (alias Bailey), wife and three children.  Enlisted in the 5th Wisconsin infantry under
  the name of Bailey, and drew a pension for wounds until he was burned.  His wife was found dead,
  standing upright, leaning against the roots of a large tree.
Doyle, Patrick, wife and seven children, known to have been upon their farm at the time of the fire.
  Nothing has been heard or seen of their remains since.  Mrs. Doyle was a daughter of John Derryman,
  of Mill Point, Michigan.  Three of the children were by her first husband, Ferguson.
Davis, Norman, wife and three children.  This family were burned in a well.  James Hays, a hired man,
  and hired girl, name not known, also burned.
Duckett, Benjamin, wife and one child.
Eamer, Mrs. Mary Ann.  Husband died just before the fire; two sons saved.
Fletcher, Mary and Halsey, children of Lucius.
Fagan, Mrs. Martin, and two children; husband saved.
Glass, Flora, Belle and William, children of James.
Gregor, John and wife.
Hayes, Israel; wife saved.
Helms, Charles, wife and son.  Mr. Helms traveled a long distance in the fire.  The calves of his legs
  burned loose; dragging on the ground, held by the cords.  Was taken to the hospital at Marinette, but
  soon died.
Hill, L. H., and wife.
Hoyt, Charles, E., wife and one child.
Hoyt, Enoch, wife and one child.  One saved.  Three other sons were badly burned.  One in trying to
  save the life of his mother, Mrs. Maria Hoyt, who begged to be left to her fate, which he refused to do,
  and is badly crippled by fire in consequence.
Hayes, Henry Sr., wife and one son.
Hayes, Rebecca, wife of Henry Hayes, Jr., and one child.
Jackson, Harry, child of E.A. Jackson.
Jackson, John, left with the child named above.
Jackson, Asa, reported burned, remains not identified.
King, John, wife and four children.  A daughter and son away from home were saved.
King, Robert, wife and three children.  A daughter absent from home, saved.
Kiefer, Peter, wife and two children; one saved.
Kappus, Catharine, wife of Chris., and two children; husband and three children saved.
Kelly, Terence, and one child; wife and three children saved.
Karrow, Michael, and wife; two children saved.
Loncks, Lindsey, and wife.
Loyal, John.
Lafay, Joseph and wife.
Lembk, Charles, had his wife and five children on a wagon, fleeing for safety, when one of his horses,
  falling, he got out to help him up, and finally succeeded in doing so, and upon returning to the wagon
  found his family all dead.  He finally reached a small brook near by, in which he lay until morning,
  when returning, he found the remains of his family and wagon entirely consumed.
Leasuae, Mrs. Joseph, Jr., and four children, husband saved.
Leach, Ann, wife of Peter Leach.
Leach, Lot, wife and infant child.
Law, James.
May, Nepthallon, wife and child.
Moore, Mrs. Hiram, and five children.  Mr. Moore could not induce them to leave the house after it was
  enveloped in flames, and barely escaped himself.
Myers, George, wife and four children.
Newton, Ralph and Lizzie, children of Samuel and Helen Newton.
Newberry, Henry, Sr.; wife saved; absent from home.
Newberry, Charles O., and two children; wife saved.
Newberry, Edward S., wife and child.
Newberry, Walter, wife and three children.  The three later named were sons of Henry Newberry, Sr.
Olson, Mrs. Nelson and two children, husband and two saved.
Pratt, A. A., wife and two children; two saved.
Penree, Charles Sr., wife and three children; two saved.
Penree, Mrs. William and two children; husband saved.
Papp, William, Jr.
Prestine, Mrs. Joaquin, husband badly crippled.
Phillips, Cornelia E., daughter of R.E.P.; died from effects of the fire.
Perault, Nelson, wife and eight children, and a Frenchman with them, name could not be ascertained.
Race, Martin, wife and two children.
Seymour, Fred., son of Isaac J. and Charlotte; reported in Peshtigo list.
Soper, William.
Sheponto, Peter.
Smith, John Fritz, wife and two children.
Spear, Lemuel H., wife and two children.
Segar, Lyman, wife and child.
Tousley, Mrs. C. R.; Mr. Tousley cut the throats of his two children and his own; all found dead.
Taylor, John and two children; wife and one child saved.
Utter, Mrs. John, and two children; husband saved.
Vanderhoven, John
Winehart, Philip, wife and five children; four saved.
Wenzel, John Sr., and wife.
Warneck, John.

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 subject.  The large amount of swamp lands in and about the sugar bushes and in the localities on the peninsula, where it is claimed the 'flames traveled in the air' confirm, in addition to the testimony of hundreds of living witnesses, the theory before advanced, that they were caused by immense amounts of inflammable gases, arising from the burning low lands, composed mainly of vegetable matter.

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.  The hospital under the charge of Dr. B. T. Phillips, did most excellent service.  At Green Bay, the Turners' Hall was used for like purposes, and under the good management of Dr. H. O. Crane and a host of good samaritans, was speedily cleared.  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.  I promised you a list of names of those who have been most conspicuous in the good work performed in behalf of the sufferers, but upon reflection, as their name is legion, conclude it is better not to mention any.  Good actions are their own reward."

NOTE: the newspaper clippings shown here were published in a centennial edition of the Peshtigo Times in October 1971.  They were not newly written articles from 1971, but from the time of the fire and articles that had been published in the aftermath and as some of the survivors aged and told their stories.  This was one of many, many articles in the centennial edition that was passed on to me by my Green Bay family.

We're Burning Up, Send Us Help Quick

From the Peshtigo Times October 1971 (see not below)

As the fires were burning throughout Wisconsin, some telegraphs did go out before the lines were cut by fire.  The response was immediate and long lasting and came not only from people in Wisconsin, but throughout the United States and even from abroad.  The worst fire in American history (that you've probably never even heard of unless you were educated in Wisconsin or read my blog) was responded to by so many and began with the governor's wife.  While he was in Chicago helping them, the Peshtigo fire erupted and the telegram that arrived at the governor's mansion could only be place in the hands of the governor's 24 year old wife....

"Governor's Wife Starts Big Relief Effort Rolling

'We are burning up; send us help quick.'

So read the telegram sent to Gov. Lucius Fairchild Monday, Oct. 9, 1871.  Similar telegrams were sent to the mayors of Green Bay, Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago.

The result -- a tidal wave of food, clothing, lumber, medicine, and cash sent from throughout the nation and Europe.

All cities which received telegrams, with the exception of Chicago which was also the victim of fire Oct. 8, 1871 responded immediately to the plea for help.

Fairchild was in Chicago aiding that city with its relief efforts when the message of disaster in his own state arrived at the capitol.

An elderly clerk received the telegram and not knowing what to do ran to the governor's house and gave the message to Mrs. Fairchild.

Though she was less than 24 years old she did not lack initiative.  Immediately after reading the message she was on her way to the capitol.

'Once there she took charge of everything and everybody, and they all obeyed her.' recalled her daughter, Mrs. Charles M. Morris several years later.

A relief train scheduled for Chicago was redirected north to Peshtigo after she had stuffed the already bulging car with blankets.

The young lady's one day in command as governor ended when her telegram to Chicago brought the governor and his state officers back to Madison.

The attention of the whole nation was on Chicago at that time but Fairchild's appeal opened people's eyes to the fact that though Chicago was suffering the situation in Peshtigo was infinitly (sic) worse.

Relief committees were immediately organized in Green Bay, Marinette, Menominee, and Oconto.  Green Bay functioned as the central depot and two stores were used for sorting and repacking supplies. It was soon apparent that one central committee was not sufficient and another was established at Milwaukee.  The burned region was partitioned off with Manitowoc county, towns of Kewaunee, Ahnepee, Monteplier, Pierce, Lincoln in Kewaunee county, Forestville, Clay Banks, Sturgeon Bay in Door County and Menominee, Mich. supplied by Milwaukee.  The other areas, including Peshtigo, were supplied from Green Bay.

Subcommittees were established in almost every village in the area for distributing the goods.  In Peshtigo the depot was headed by F. J. Bartels.

The Milwaukee Relief committee served 377 destitute families, consisting of 1,509 persons as of Feb. 1, 1872.  Green Bay handled the heaviest amount of losses, supplying 1,157 families or 5, 678 persons with supplies necessary for survival.

'The nature of the losses may be described in a few words.  Besides the losses of life of human beings and animals, in that portion of the district where the fire was most severe, houses, barns and fences were all swept away, together with the crops, the grass roots were burned out, the timber entirely destroyed, and not a vestige of anything left upon which men or animals could subsist.  So utter was the destruction, that the earth must remain for years a barren desert waste, unless seeded anew with grass.  Much of the riches soil was alluvial deposit, and this, particularly in swampy places, was destroyed, the earth burning in some instances to the depth of two or three feet, leaving nothing but sand and ashes where the best land had been.  Under these circumstances, it will be seen that the aid extended will have to be continued during an entire year from the date of the calamity, or until another harvest is secured.  In the spring and summer, seeds, agricultural implements, cattle, horses and wagons must be provided, in order to put the people who go back upon their farms -- as most of the survivors have -- in a condition to help themselves.  Then the bridges and culverts on the roads must be rebuilt, and it is plain that in a town in which every surviving inhabitant lost every dollar he possessed, it is impossible for the town to do this work unaided,' wrote Tilton.

And aided they were.

'Perhaps a calamity so terrible may be partly, or even more than compensated for by the outburst of generosity and the unsealing of the fountains of humanity which had so long been stored up and grown over in the greed of wealth and its attendant selfishness.  Men, who had spent their lives in the pursuit of money turned short in their career and opened their hearts and their purses to their suffering brethren.' wrote C. D. Robinson in the legislative Manual of Wisconsin shortly after the fire.

From the Peshtigo Times centennial edition 1971 (see note below)

The destitute were generously aided by cash contribution, tools, lumber, seeds and general supplies.  They were encouraged to rebuild in the same locality by being given contributions in lumber, cash, and tools to do so.  Only 2 per cent of the survivors burned out in the fire never returned according to the report of the Green Bay Relief Committee made Dec. 31, 1872 by A. Langworthy, chairman executive committee of relief.

Cash contributions as well as material goods were received throughout the year following the fire.  According to the report of the Green Bay Relief Committee to the state assembly it received $229,623.48 from Oct. 12, 1871 to Oct. 2, 1872.  Tilton reported that the total disbursements at Milwaukee up to Feb. 5, 1872 wee $144,000.00.

The largest cash contribution from any organization other then the relief committees themselves received at Green Bay was $2,449.05 from the town of Norwich, Conn..  The Presbyterian Church, 5th Avenue, New York gave $2,174.57.  The largest contribution by a single person totaled $1,000 and was received from William B. Astor, New York on Oct. 26, 1871.

The smaller contributions, many anonymously sent illustrate the degree of empathy aroused throughout the country.  The smallest contribution recorded in Green Bay was for 20 (cents) from 'boy in Rockford, Ill.'  A poor woman, from Madison sent $2.50 and a poor man, of Black River Falls contributed $1.10.

Contributions of all sizes came from all over the world and from almost every type of social organization.  Citizens of various communities particularly in Wisconsin periodically sent in cash contributions.  Citizens of Watertown, sent $150 on Oct. 12, 1871, citizens of Viroqua, sent $210.88 Oct. 17, 1871.  Other Wisconsin cities to contribute were Brandon, Middleton, Chilton, Mineral Point Oak Grove, Shawano, and Sheboygan.  But this list is only part of those contributions within the state.  The German Musical Society Watertown sent $82.70 on Oct. 18, 1871.  On the same day the State Normal School, Platteville gave $105.

New York, Washington, D.C. and Massachusettes (sic) seemed to be the largest contributors outside of the midwest.  The Baptist Church, Washington D.C. sent $43. on Oct. 19.  Some other contributions from that city include $100 from 'a friend' $218.05 from the citizens, and $202.50 from W.S. Huntington.

W. C. Masey, New Bedford, Mass. sent $50 on Nov. 4, 1871 Church of the Unity, Springfield Mass. gave $150.54 on Dec 18 of that year and the citizens of Southborough, Mass. contributed $162.68 on Jan. 3, 1872.

Contributions even came from such far away places as Evangelical Church, Zurich, Switzerland.  They sent $3 to the Green Bay Relief Committee on Jan. 10, 1872.

People sending goods rather than money first sent cooked food, remembering that there were no stoves or cooking utensils in the burned area.  Later, flour, meal, potatoes, butter, honey and pastries came.  One day 15 carloads of clothing arrived in Green Bay which had to be sorted and repackaged.  Some had to be mended and others contained extra buttons, needles and thread stuffed in the pockets.

Some contributions were so elegant and unfitting the destitution of the victims, they were almost humorous.

'One box, from the ladies of the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, contained dainty kid gloves, toilet boxes, kid slippers, embroidered underclothing, laces and ribbons.  A brocade silk gown was sent from Philadelphia, Pa., which was estimated to have cost hundreds of dollars.  The frilliest baby apparel, little crocheted stockings, and the most expensive shoes were common.  One lady sent the entire outfit of her dead baby which she had packed away until it was needed again.

Staple goods came from manufacturers of almost every kind.  Clothing, boots, shoes, bedding, mattresses, axes, helves, hay forks, sah  and doors, bags and wooden ware were sent in abundance.

General Sheridan in Chicago, was given orders by the national government to issue supplies from his stores for the destitute.  He first sent 4,000 heavy woven army blankets, valued at $1 a piece, 1,500 army pants ($3 a piece) 1,500 army overcoats ($6 a piece).  Later came 100 army wagons $50 a piece) and an equal number of harnesses, ($30 apiece (sic)).  They also sent 200,000 rations at 30 (cents) a piece.  The army contribution totaled $83,000.

The amount of losses paid by Wisconsin insurance companies as of May 1, 1872 totaled $124,351.36. Among the companies paying claims were Dodge County Mutual, Madison Mutual, Milwaukee Mechanics Mutual and Northwestern National..  These losses coupled with the losses during the Chicago fire totaled 76.97 per cent of all losses paid by the insurance companies during 1871.  The total cost in insurance was $573,059.70.

The final report of the Green Bay Relief committee termed the efforts a general success.

'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 their uninviting lands, could not have done so but for the assistance afforded."

NOTE: the newspaper clippings shown here were published in a centennial edition of the Peshtigo Times in October 1971.  They were not newly written articles from 1971, but from the time of the fire and articles that had been published in the aftermath and as some of the survivors aged and told their stories.  This was one of many, many articles in the centennial edition that was passed on to me by my Green Bay family.

The Worst Fire in American History is Not What You're Thinking

Peshtigo Fire by Mel Kishner

"Peshtigo Fire" and "Aftermath" were used with kind permission from the Wisconsin Historical Society.  Thank you!


(This is a repost from March 2011 about the Peshtigo Fire to commemorate it's 141st anniversary and to remember all those that was killed, injured and displaced by the fire)

Now those history buffs out there may be a bit surprised or even incredulous at what I'm about to say, but the worst fire in US history, which occurred the evening of October 8th, 1871 was not the Great Chicago Fire.  There was another fire that occurred on that date...and while everyone was out to rescue Chicago, Wisconsin burned.

The Peshtigo Fire has often been described as a tornado or cyclone of fire.  There was no out-running it and when it struck it did so with little warning.  That year was dry and there had been numerous fires that were man and nature made...so what made October 8th so devastating?  We hear on the news and/or the Weather Channel (I'm a weather geek at heart) about California fires and how devastating it would be if the infamous "Santa Ana Winds" were to strike at a time when fires burned there.  Well, Wisconsin was hit by tremendous winds the night of October 8th, 1871 due to a low pressure system moving into the area, not quite the duration of Santa Ana winds, but the comparison is apt and this was exactly what was needed to ignite this terrible disaster.

Each one of us have seen storms move in.  It's hot outside and then the winds pick up as the frontal system moves through with colder weather, and usually thunderstorms and rain.  The winds can be severe depending on the rest of the weather conditions.  But what happens when you blow on a pile of smoldering ash?  Fire.  Fire needs oxygen to grow, spread, feed.  The winds took those smoldering piles left throughout the region and blew hard.  The fire that sprang from the ashes whirled around in the air like a tornado and fed on the dry, brittle trees all around.  The fires spread with such intense heat and rapidity that there were times that buildings burst into flames as did clothing on many people as they ran through the streets toward the one possible avenue of salvation...the Peshtigo River.

If you turned your back for a moment, if you paused for a moment, if you went back for one little thing, all could be lost.  This scenario was a reality for my husband's ancestors that night.

The Martin Joseph Villers family was struck by the fire in the small city of Rosiere, WI.  Martin, his wife, Octavia, his baby girl, Florence, and a boy that was living with them by the name of Joseph LaCrosse, prepared to flee.  Florence was in a basket and her parents turned to retrieve something from the house.  That brief moment was all it took for the fire to separate them and their little girl.

Aftermath of the Peshtigo Fire 1871

The 14 year old orphan that was living with them, Joseph, was near Florence when the fire separated them from the Villers.  He grabbed the baby and climbed into a well.  He held her that night as the flames raged above them.  I can only imagine the prayers he must have offered up to heaven during those terrifying hours.  The next morning, he clambered out of that well with little Florence and saw that almost nothing remained of the city of Peshtigo.  As he wandered in search of Mr. and Mrs. Villers and other survivors legend has it that he came across a cow that was partially burned, but survived the fire (most likely the cow had been in a river or somehow sheltered from the flames at some point).  He drew milk into his hand and fed Florence.

Family lore had told of Florence and Joseph hiding in the well for 3 days, but as I've come to research the Peshtigo Fire (and all areas affected by it) it became clear to me that this could not have been the case as the fire raged for hours...not days.  Perhaps the "three days" that people referred to was the time Joseph and Florence were separated from Martin Joseph and Octavia Villers.  It's the best theory I have so far.  The Villers and Joseph LaCrosse survived it all.  How badly everyone was burned from the fire is unknown...but they survived.

Their prayers were undoubtedly answered...everyone that made it to rivers and various shelters did not necessarily survive.  In cities that had rivers it only meant that they now had to fight the currents and had to continue to submerse themselves in the water or throw it on themselves as the fire jumped the water only to continue scorching the other side and well beyond.  Jumping into a well was no guarantee of survival either.  There were stories of people that sought safety in wells only to be baked alive.  This family was watched over that night and every person's survival was a miracle.

The fire became known as the Great Peshtigo Fire.  There are varying accounts among scholars as to the total acres scorched by this monstrous fire.  Regardless of how they quantify the destruction of land, the fire was named after the town of Peshtigo (a boomtown at the time due to logging) because it was the hardest hit.  It was not the only city/area hit, in fact it is only a small portion of what burned that night, but the city was decimated. In all 1,152 people are known to have died in the fire and an additional 350 were believed dead, but not confirmed.

The fire is listed on several lists as one of the greatest American natural disasters/fires.  One item of interest to me was that on many of the "lists" I found, the Chicago fire was not even mentioned.  The Great Chicago Fire is talked about in history classes throughout the United States, while almost nothing is mentioned about the Great Peshtigo Fire that started at almost the same time and took many more lives and burn much more land.

Memorial Brick at Lambeau Field

To honor the young boy that saved Florence Cayemberg nee Villers' life, her descendants paid for a memorial stone to be placed in the walkway outside Lambeau Field.  Due to the courage of Joseph LaCrosse there are now over 500 descendants of Florence and her husband Eli Cayemberg!  Without the courage of Joseph LaCrosse, my life would be completely different.

There are several excellent books out on the Peshtigo Fire:

Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History by Denise Gess and William Lutz

Peshtigo by Bill Bergstrom (a historical fiction that gave me chills and made me cry more than once!)

The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account (Wisconsin) by Reverend Peter Pernin (a survivor of the fire that gave his account of the tragedy)

Ghosts of the Fireground : Echoes of the Great Peshtigo Fire and the Calling of a Wildland Firefighter by Peter Leschak (I just ordered this one and look forward to reading it)