The Valentines Day Fire. 1885.
February 14, 1885
The largest and most destructive fire in Caledonia's history happened on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1885. Starting at 3am at the rear of the Philip Doebereiner photo gallery on Caithness and Argyle. It completely consumed his building, then spread down Argyle burning every building and the home stables behind them; until it reached the building before the toll house. The only means the town had to fight the fire that night was for volunteers to quickly organize a bucket brigade. Which was one man on a hand pump, furiously filling buckets of water from a well. Then a line of men passing buckets of water to throw at the fire, and another line passing the empty buckets back. It was as futile as it sounds. They had to tear a building down to stop the fire from reaching the bridge. It was because of that fire, the first Hook and Ladder company, aka The Caledonia Fire Department was officially formed one year later in 1886. There are no surviving copies of The Grand River Sachem from the year 1885, but the fire was reported in the Hamilton Spectator, on February 15, 1885.
FIRE AT CALEDONIA.
Many Buildings in the Centre of the Town Destroyed.
There was a big conflagration in Caledonia Saturday morning. It originated-or is supposed to have originated-in an unoccupied building on Caithness street owned by P. Doebereiner (sic) and formerly used as a stable. Before discovered it had communicated to Old's livery stable adjoining. Both of these buildings, which were of frame, were destroyed. A barber shop occupied by Mr. Cochrane was also burned and from it the fire spread to the large building on the corner of Caithness and Argyle streets owned and occupied by Mr. Doebereiner, photographer. This building was of rougheast and together with its contents was almost destroyed., Turnbull's livery stable was then discovered to be on fire and was soon destroyed. The sparks from Turnbull's stable ignited the roof of Miss Wigg's millinery establishment, which was also burned. Brown's dry goods and clothing store, one of the largest business places in the town, was ignited and the fire continued its way along Argyle street towards the river. In rear of the buildings named were a lot of small frame buildings, most of which, with what they contained, were destroyed. The fire started at about 3:30 o'clock, and at daylight was still burning. The men of the town turned out and worked with all their will ; but not having any suitable appliances, they were not able to meet the flames with any degree of success. The fire was caused by hot ashes being dumped, by a member of Doebereiner's family, too near the frame work in his stable. His large building, stable and sheds, and his stock were totally destroyed. His loss is several thousand dollars, with no insurance. Mr. Kennedy, who left a tailoring and dry goods establishment in Mr. Deobereiner's (sic) building had his stock almost destroyed. Brown's large brick building and his were saved stock by the prompt action of the people in pulling down a small frame building occupied by Smith, a tailor, adjoining. A vacant brick building owned by Mr. Booth, was also saved, Old's residence, tin shop and stable were destroyed, loss about $1,500. The only buildings between Caithness street and the bridge that were saved were Brown's dry goods store, Booth's vacant building, a toll gate and small frame building. Just twenty years ago Saturday the same block was burned to the ground. A dispatch from Caledonia says: The fire broke out in a woodshed belonging to P. Doebereiner, from a box of ashes, about 3 o'clock this morning. It spread eastward through a wareroom of James. Old, sr., and occupied by Mr. McConnell, agent for J. O. Wisner, Son & Co., of Brantford, and through a livery stable of James Old, sr., and occupied by James Gardiner, V. S., to Josiah Corcoran's barbershop and residence. From the wareroom southward through a stable occupied by Avery & Son, carriage makers, as a stable and wareroom, and then through the shed of Wm. Old to his brick tin shop. Westward it spread to a large building owned and partly occupied by P. Doebereiner as a photograph gallery and occupied by D. Kennedy as a clothing house, and then to a brick store owned and partly occupied by Miss M. A. Wigg as a millinery and fancy store and partly by D. M. Turnbull as a jewelry store. Everything was saved except some lumber and a horse and colt belonging to Avery & Son, and some machines of M. McConnell and J. O. Wisner, Son & Co. The losses are as follows : Miss Wigg, building, $1,500, insurance in the Western, $1,000 ; P. Doebereiner, building,$2,500, no insurance ; Jas. Old, sen., building, $1,200 insurance in the Western, $1,000; Josiah Corcoran, building, $1,800, insurance in the Phonix of London, $900 ; M. McConnell, machines, $100, no insurance; Avery & Son, on horses and lumber, $1,000, no insurance; Wm. Old, building, $800, insurance in the City of London, $500 ; G. H/Gorroch, building, $200. The building was pulled down to stop the fire.
The dispatch from Caledonia referred to in the Spectator, was written by Charlie Webber. A young emigrant from England who in 1883 answered an ad in the Grand River Sachem for an apprentice type setter and occasional reporter. Long since retired and living in Toronto, he would write weekly to the Sachem in 1936 for a local history column called Memories. In his Jan 1936 article he gives an incredible first hand account of fighting the Valentines day fire. It was 50 years later and he was still mad about it. Charlie, a former serviceman in England, had participated in fighting fires in London; but according to him, this was his first Big fire. Its important to remember, that back then, everyone was expected to help fight a fire. Charlie even recounts local unemployed bystanders operating the pump of the fire engine as they fought fires in England. The same was expected of everyone here. So when the Scotts foundry bell started ringing at 3am and the sounds of men yelling FIRE! filled the night air. Charlie woke up and ran out of the house towards the fire.
His account is as follows:
I was awaken that February morning by the ringing of the foundry bell and the shouts of FIRE! from those citizens already roused. Hastily dressing and rushing out but half clad into the more than frosty atmosphere, I was advised to return for cap, gloves and overcoat. Fortunately for my own well being, I accepted the advice as far as the cap and gloves were concerned, otherwise I am afraid there would have been badly frozen ears and some "nipped" fingers. I am quite confident that were the Ontario weather statistics to be consulted, the morning of the "big fire" would still take its place as a record breaker among the most frigid days of the past. Of the actual day and its date I am not certain. but would venture to guess that the day was Saturday, because many farmers' wagons loaded with farm produce passed through the village, while the blaze was in progress, on their way to the Hamilton market, their owners tramping beside the horses and buffeting themselves with their mittened hands to keep the blood in circulation and themselves from freezing. Oh, yes, it was cold alright; fur coats were a smother of hoar frost, and whiskers (in style then) were miniature skating rinks. The site of the fire and its commencement point proved to be a shed or outhouse adjacent to the building that stood at the southeast corner of Argyle and Caithness streets, where now stands the up-to-date hardware store of our old friend, Bruce French, whose continued popularity is shown by the splendid vote he secured in the recent municipal elections. The cause of the fire was the placing of ashes containing hot embers in a wooden receptacle, the danger of which had been pointed out more than once to the person who did it. The flames, having secured some headway before discovered, made their quickest progress eastward, first destroying a barn facing on Caithness street and then attacking a frame building occupied by the late Josiah Cochrane as a dwelling place and barber shop. A determined effort was made to save the Cochrane home by means of a quickly organized bucket brigade under the direction of that veteran organizer, John Scott, but the only visible result was the ability to save the furniture before the fire had assumed complete control. My own place in the fire line upon that memorable morning was the roof of the Cochrane building, the water pails being passed from hand to hand from the pump that stood in front of the Revere House, whose never failing well in those days was the source of good water for a considerable section of the village. Had there been any ordinary fire protection system in vogue at that time there would have been no difficulty in coping with the situation but the lack of anything more adequate than a few wells and pump in below zero weather made it more than obvious that the business and houses on the east side of Argyle street was doomed to destruction. Those who suffered losses in that destructive fire that occurred nearly fifty-one years ago were : P. Doebereiner, photographer; Wm. Gal1er, groceries; Misses Wigg, millinery; D. Turnbull, jeweler; W. F. Old, tin smith and hardware, and T. Cochrane, barber.
Toronto, Jan. 11, 1936.
CHARLIE WEBBER.
Dear Sachem, Reminiscences of the fire of February, 1885, would be incomplete without calling to mind some of the incidents in connection therewith that linger in my memory. There is nothing that will reveal either the excitability or the sang-froid of people as will a fire. I recently read of a man who jumped from a sixth floor window, with fatal consequences, when informed that the basement was on fire. Nothing serious as that occurred upon the occasion of Caledonia's ancient blaze, However, but there were happenings that, as in the case of the man who scampered from his burning home with a mirror under one arm and a pair of Indian clubs under the other, provided the reasons for many a hearty laugh. even though a near tragedy was in the making. The nearest thing of a fatality was when a member of the bucket brigade situated upon the roof of Josiah Cochrane's home hurled an iron pail to the ground, said pail just missing by inches the head of Postmaster John Scott, who stood at the foot of a ladder efficiently engaged in conducting measures for combating the fire. The principal actor woke up when informed of the reason for the explosive "Toot, toot" that reached his ears. There was no more "blind" pail throwing. Another "high light" was the case of an elderly citizen who, in his excitement, momentarily forgot that he was the father of a recent arrival and then ran around in circles, wringing his hands and crying "De baby, de baby." Fortunately a mother had remembered the baby and all was well. One lady, in an effort to save her household effects, surprised spectators by throwing glassware out of an upstairs window while unbreakable articles were being carried out through the doorway. That was to laugh. One of those who suffered loss by the fire was Donald Kennedy, merchant tailor, a good friend of mine in those days and one with whom I spent many a pleasant talk fest as he plied his needle nor pressed a finished suit. By his intimate friends he was known as "Dang It," that being his severest expression when circumstances demanded language beyond the ordinary. Friend Donald's stock-in-trade had been safely removed to the street, but before a safer place for storing it had been found sneak thieves had been busy, thus adding additional loss to that achieved by the fire. The blaze upon that exceedingly cold morning, when gloves froze to the fingers of the fire fighters, failed to make much impression upon the weather until it reached the cellar and its finish in the building occupied by W. F. (Billy) Old, whose stock included paint, varnish and oil. There vast volumes of black smoke and intense heat made the scene impossible of approach, the efforts of onlookers being confined to preventing destruction of other property in the vicinity. One of the duties that fell to the lot of a certain printer's devil in the winter months of that time was the lighting of the fires in the Sachem Office, a job that necessitated a trip.to the news emporium before breakfast. Upon my late arrival at the Sachem Office that February morning I discovered I had lost the key of the door somewhere in the fire zone, and after forcing the door, discovered that everything had frozen solid, including the water in the boiler. There was no typesetting done that day; it took two stoves and a slow fire under the boiler nearly all day to thaw things out. During the years that have intervened, while working amidst the up-to-date advantages of a modern city plant, have I remembered the discomforts and disadvantages of a country printing office in the nineteenth century.
For the next month, he writes about the history of the Fire Brigade and passive aggressively points out all the opportunities the town had to organize any kind a fire fighting system.
Dear Sachem:
To the disastrous fire of February 1885, may be attributed the organization of the Caledonia Fire Brigade in January, 1886. When one recalls the fact that prior to that time there had been a number of costly fires in the community, one wonders that there had been no previous effort to organize a fire fighting system, as either in the year 1852, when the old Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railroad ran its first train through Caledonia, or between that time and 1873, when the Caledonia and Lake Erie Railway came into active operation, there had been installed a water main and a pumping engine to supply the water tank erected at the station to serve the ancient "John Scott" and other locomotives as they passed through. Owing to this circumstance, the way had been partially paved for taking definite measures to inaugurate some better method of protection against fire than the hastily formed bucket brigade. As formerly stated, the village had suffered loss by fire in earlier years upon more than one occasion. These losses included the destruction of Barber Bros. woolen factory in 1881, said factory having been erected in 1848 by Caledonia's founder, Ranald McKinnon; Hick's flour mill; McKinnon's grist mill built in 1844, destroyed in 1862 and again in 1874; the G. T. R. station and the Slater House, rebuilt and renamed the Campbell House and conducted by an Englishman named Warren in the 80's; Timothy Peters' bakeshop which stood between Peter Murphy's hostelry and the present Exchange Hotel on Argyle Street; and John Builder's furniture factory, which stood in the open space behind Sam Avery's home and Wm. Symington's blacksmith shop, also the furniture show room that stood on the north-east corner of Sutherland and Argyle Streets where Ketts' Garage now stands. To these aforementioned conflagrations must be added one of the worst in the history of the village, when in February, 1863, just ten years after its incorporation, both sides of Argyle Street from Caithness Street to the bridge were wiped out, including one hotel, nine stores, one dwelling house and one brick block owned by the late John Scott. and used by him as store and post office. During the fifteen years subsequent to the blaze of 1885 and up to 1900 when I severed my connection with the village and its fire department, I can recall but two fires outside of the usual incipient ones that occurred from time to time. The first was when the livery stable in connection with the Union Hotel was destroyed, the first occasion upon which the newly organized brigade had a chance to display its efficiency and upon which occasion the officers and members certainly made good in confining the flames to the building in which they originated. The other fire was another story, however, and may be counted as one of the three really big ones thot have happened during the lifetime of the village. It was early in the morning of January 18th, 1893, that, having failed to be awakened by the fire alarm. I was aroused from my sleep by other members of the Brigade to learn that the block on the west side of Argyle St., which included the Union Hotel, the double store containing general merchandise owned by Messrs. A. & R. Atkinson, a store used as a shoe repair shop by a man named Taylor, the Scott Bros. feed store, Dr. Burns' office, the Public Library and I.O.F. Hall. The whole of the above premises were doomed for total destruction, as the flames had made much headway before discovery and the firemen were hindered in their work by the cold and intensely high wind. It was only by super human effort that the fire was kept within the bounds of the property destroyed. During pioneer days many hamlets and villages in Canada and the U.S. suffered either partial or total destruction by reason of fire, mostly it would seem in the winter time, weather conditions and old-fashioned heating methods contributing largely to the loss incurred.
He makes an interesting observation about firehalls being an early form of a men's clubs.
With the necessity arising for protection from fire hazards came the erection of fire halls, engine houses, etc.in many of the pioneer communities in Canada and the United States, and as in Caledonia, these buildings for many years became the rendezvous of the male population to engage in a friendly game of cards or checkers, or take some part in the heated arguments of a political controversy; in other words they became the original homes of many men's clubs of the American continent.
He shares his friend Walter Seldon memories of the first volunteer Caledonia Fire Company. He also points out how the Valentine's Day fire of 1885 could have been far less destructive had there been a Fire Engine to use. Especially considering we had one back in 1864:
Caledonia once owned a fire engine purchased by the village fathers as a result of the fire of 1863, and which went out of commission at the time of the Peters' fire either in 1866 or 1867. That engine was an old style manual in vogue even in Old London in my boyhood days. According to my informant it performed valiant service at the bakery blaze, manned by a small army of efficient volunteers directed by such able fellows as the late Col. Matt. Howard, his brother, Robert. Jonathan Booth, A. C. Buck, Hugh McKinnon and others. Alas! after pumping three wells dry in the brief space of ten minutes, it gave up the ghost and refused, like the well-known grandfather's clock, to go any more. What became of it, despondent knoweth not. Who does?
It's true. 20 years earlier, same month, same side of the street. Downtown Caledonia was on fire.
Wednesday, February 18, 1863
Wednesday, February 4, 1863
Mrs. Roper & Mrs. Buck organized a ball to raise money for a fire engine. The Sachem reported 70 or 80 couples from Cayuga, York, Dunnville, Hamilton and Brantford attended. The music was from The Caledonia Brass Band and the Caledonia Quadrille Band. Everyone had a wonderful time and they danced until near daylight. In total, they raised $82.00.
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March 4, 1863
Investigation into the fire. An anonymous scoundrel is the only suspect.
September 2, 1863
An "anonymous Enquirer" writes to The Sachem to enquire about the fire engine fund.
"...Mr. Ball, one of the councilors went to Hamilton to see some Fire Engines the corporation had for sale, and also to ascertain the cost of a new one. He found that a new Fire Engine, with suction-hose and apparatus complete and in every way adapted for this Village, could be purchased for $500 cash, and a very useful, second-hand Fire Engine could be purchased from the corporation for $300 cash. With so large an amount of subscriptions yet not paid in, the Council did not feel justified in making a purchase. If the parties who hold back what they have subscribed will pay up promptly, to the Ladies who got up the subscription, a good and sufficient Fire Engine can now be procured and the Council will gladly make the purchase at once, if they can only get the funds to do so."
March 16, 1864
Our fire engine arrives by train.
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According to the final fire engine fund report. The Village of Caledonia paid $200 for a second hand "Live Oak" Engine from The Buffalo Fire Department.
The Live Oak fire engine served the community well, and for over two years it fought some huge fires. It was there for the McKinnon woolen factory fire of 1864, then died valiantly fighting a fire at the bakery across the street from the Sachem in 1867.
"..pumping three wells dry in the brief space of ten minutes, it gave up the ghost and refused, like the well-known grandfather's clock, to go any more."
Oddly enough, even though it had proved its worth, town council did not help fix or replace it. Caledonia didn't have a fire engine for the next 58 years.
Wednesday, July 8, 1925
This the Bickle fire engine used by Burlington, Ontario fire department.
The new Bickle Fire Truck, delivered to Caledonia, is mounted on a Reo 6-Cylinder 50 Horse Power Chassis and consists of a Rotary Pump, ball-bearing type, connected through a Clutch arrangement to the Engine. This pump can be operated at three different speeds so that short, medium or long lines of hose can be handled with equal facility. Under test, it delivered well over 400 gallons of water per minute, which means two excellent fire streams that will reach a height of better than 100 ft in still air. The outfit also has a Chemical Tank of 40 gallons capacity and a Hose Body to carry 1200 ft. of 2 1/2 inch fire hose and it has a complete sundry equipment of ladders, axes, hand fire extinguishers, searchlight, and fire whistle, etc. All of the complete equipment, except the Chassis, is built in the Bickle Factories at Woodstock and similar outfits have been supplied in our vicinity the past months to Hamilton, Dunnville Burlington.
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Grand River Sachem
Hamilton Spectator
