Submitted by Marge Womach
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SPRAGUE IN ASHES

Sprague, the most progressive and prosperous city of its size in all the Pacific Northwest, peopled by a prosperous, contented people; a city that last Saturday was one of the proudest cities on earth, is today a waste of blackened ruins, its peoples homeless, many of them with complete ruin staring them in the face—and all from a spark of fire from a blacksmith’s chimney.

At 11:30 AM, Saturday, an alarm of fire was given from the blacksmith shop of Archie McIntosh, adjoining Bryant’s chop mill, facing Railroad Avenue. The flames had dry boards to feed upon, and in five minutes’ time had enveloped the chop mill adjoining and was reaching out for other victims. Before the feed mill was half consumed, the fire had extended to the rear of the old Gehres & Hertrich building, occupied by the Sprague Independent, and with the rear end used by Gehres & Hertrich as a storeroom for all their oil. When this building became ignited, all hopes of saving any of the row of wooden buildings was gone, and it began to look doubtful for the balance of the city.

The wind was blowing due northeast, and the flames, fanned by it, spread rapidly. One building after another caught fire, and within thirty minutes after the first alarm was given, all the business portion of Sprague was in flames, and at 2 PM, nothing was left of the business part of Sprague but a few blackened and shapeless piles of brick and stone—the smoldering embers of a once prosperous commercial giant.

Never, in so short a space of time, was such terrible and complete ruin wrought by the fire fiend. Absolutely nothing was left in its track,  from the time the flames left the new Gehres & Hertrich brick block to mark the spot where it began, until they had wiped out every business and dwelling house, church and saloon, from D Street east, a distance of more than half a mile. A space of four blocks wide by half a mile in length, containing property valued at nearly two million dollars, was left in that two hours’ march, smoldering in ruin. From the well filled stocks of our merchants, little or nothing was saved, and what was saved was so badly soiled as to be almost valueless.

The Sprague Fire Department, assisted by the citizens, fought hard to stay the conflagration, but to stop it was impossible. Before its onward rush, everything was forced to give way, and in less time than it takes to tell it, almost the entire business portion of the town was in ruins. Block after block of costly stores were enwrapped in the lurid flames, until it seemed as though the whole city had been fired at one touch. The wind was in the fire’s favor, and spurred it on to renewed efforts, hastening the work of destruction.

It was all over soon, but the memory of it will live forever in the minds of the citizens of Sprague.

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THOSE BURNED OUT

Bryant’s feed mill & wood yard and McIntosh’s blacksmith shop and corral. The old Gehres & Hertrich building, occupied by the Independent office, also used by Gehres & Hertrich as an ice house and oil storeroom.

Murphy & Burns’ building, occupied by Dr Jacobs as dental parlors.

Jim Lee’s wash house, owner unknown.

Stooke & Amery’s feed store.

Starling & Mead’s blacksmith shop.

Sprague Livery barn owned by J L Garvey, and unoccupied.

Stooke & Amery’s implement warehouse, full of farming implements.

R E Winter’s saloon and contents.

Commercial Hotel, sample rooms and bar, owned by Geo F Gehnighoff.

Littlefield & Charboneau’s store, the Model Restaurant and the Sprague Packing Co, buildings all owned by H M Schneider and occupied as business houses by firms mentioned.

Littlefield’s Cash Store, J F Hall’s general merchandise store, Post office, Fred Supp’s shoe store, Davies & Co general merchandise store, the Mail, Stooke & Amery’s hardware store, and the offices of Cooper & Sanderson, Merritt & Salisbury, H N Martin, and the AOUW lodge room also occupied by the Maccabes, ORT, ORC, and other lodges, all buildings owned by E M Kinnear.

New York Racket Store, general merchandise, owned by Geo Murphy.

Kirk’s Meat Market, building owned by Wm Kropke.

Mrs Heard’s Millenery store and dwelling house.

Wm Buckley’s Tinshop in the K of P building.

Herbring Opera House, occupied by W H Old’s City Drug Store, and G H Gilpin’s large general merchandise store; large empty store building; store building occupied by Wells the Jeweler and White the Tailor; all owned by Henry Herbring of The Dalles, Oregon.

Lee & Astrup’s Saloon, building owned by Joe Wormald.

Cosgrove’s Saloon, building owned by W H Olds.

Paul Herold’s barber shop; J W Weyer’s shoe shop.

Chicago Store, general merchandise, stock owned by F D Morrill and the building owned by Sprague Lodge IOOF.

Ben Ettleson’s Saloon and W R Peters’ Harness shop, buildings owned by Ben Ettleson.

Smith’s barn and store, unoccupied.

Culross & Richards’ tailor shop; A W Holland’s real estate office; Inland Telephone Co’s plant and office; buildings owned by strangers.

L Y Williams’ second hand store and W P Putnams’ drug store; office of Dr D W Buchanan, buildings owned by W P Putnam.

Masonic Hall, occupied by many secret societies; the Christian Church; buildings owned by Masonic Lodge.

County Jail.

A Van Allen’s blacksmith shop.

Old Opera House, unoccupied, owned by Thos Dewant.

Hicks’ residence.

E H Stanton’s residence and barn.

R R Jones’ residence and empty store building.

D Winter’s shoe shop and residence.

Robert Morrison’s dwelling.

N T Caton’s law office.

A W Lowe and L Y Williams’ dwellings, owned by Mrs Rasch.

Methodist Church.

Frank Edmiston’s dwelling, owned by Dr Olds.

City Hall and Troop A’s Armory and Sprague Fire Department.

City Jail.

Journal office, owned by J Moore & Co, San Francisco.

R Newman & Co’s general mer-chandise store, overhead occupied by D Vinyard, Jackson Brock and J M Gunning.

J W Ryan’s Saloon and new store building.

B B White’s buildings, occupied by Beardslee’s paint shop, Hagen’s carpenter shop, Mrs Moore’s restaurant and Hick’s hardware Store.

Jesse Moore & Co’s vacant store building.

B B Burne’s residence.

About ten small dwellings, owners unknown.

Lienrance & Astrup’s saloon, Flaig’s jewelry store and Mcquaid’s fish market, all owned by Miss Minser of Tacoma.

J H Linder’s cigar store.

J W Reed’s jewelry store and the OK barber shop, owned by White.

Troy’s City Restaurant, Frank Parker shoe shop, Eckhardt’s cigar factory and an empty store owned by W P Murray.

J J Burns’ saloon, with lodge-rooms overhead.

J Moore & Son’s grocery store.

Sam Lee’s wash house.

A McLennan’s empty store building.

Silver Club Restaurant and Mint Saloon buildings, unoccupied, owned by P Clinton.

P Peterson’s dwelling house.

Three vacant buildings, owned by John Bracken.

NORTH SIDE of TRACK

John Kleba’s paint shop.

Mrs Ebell’s dressmaking rooms; J Bartol’s building; Mrs Lon Conlee’s restaurant; Wm Evans’ blacksmith shop—all owned by a stock company.

Garvey’s livery barn and hay barns, owned by John Garvey.

National Hotel, owned by Mrs Jane Evans.

Peoples Party Co-Operative store.

S W Jansen’s carpenter shop.

Charlie Woo’s wash house, owned by Tom Dewant.

R B Hooper’s residence, owned by Mrs A Sawyer.

Pacific Hotel and outbuildings, owned by J Sawyer.

Dwelling house, owned by Sawyer.

Free Coinage Restaurant of McGill & Bernard, owned by John Kirk.

Otto Arnold’s saloon.

All of “Whitechapel”

Two dwelling houses owned by W J Slattery.

John Garvey’s residence.

T J Allen’s residence.

B Flaig’s residence.

W Weyer’s residence.

John Kirk’s residence.

Mrs Nelson’s residence.

A J Turpin’s residence.

Wm Schaffer’s residence.

R O Porak’s brewery, ice house, barn and brick dwelling house.

James Barber’s residence.

John Roberts’ residence.

George Price’s residence.

James Burns’ residence.

W F Finley’s residence, owned by W J Cowing.

Vacant dwelling of J Fogarty.

A Wichman’s vacant dwelling.

Gus Mancke’s residence, owned by A Riley.

Minnie Lowe’s residence.

Jim Roger’s dwelling.

A Miller’s vacant dwelling house.

A dozen small dwellings, owned by shop men, names unknown.

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RAILROAD PROPERTY

Every piece of property from the Northern Pacific Elevator on the west to the Northern Pacific stockyards on the east, a distance of half a mile crowded with railroad property was burned. The list includes:

                N P Wheat Elevator.

                City depot and Western Union telegraph office.

                Old warehouse where material was stored.

                Two ice houses.

                Car repairer’s office and oil rooms.

                Two coal sheds, and all the bunkers, containing about 400,000 tons of coal.

                Master Mechanic’s office.

                Headquarters buildings, that cost $50,000 to build.

                Car shops.

                Machine shops.

                Roundhouse.

                Storerooms.

                Oil House.

                Dry Houses.

                Two water tanks.

                Pump house.

                Section house, occupied by John Fogarty.

                Stock yards.

                Twenty-one locomotives.

                Ninety five freight cars and cabooses, many of them being in bad order, and only ten or fifteen of them being loaded.

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THE FIRE’S TRACK

                All these buildings were in the track of the fire, and all of them went. Those of our readers who are familiar with Sprague as she was will realize from the list our city’s terrible loss. To those who are not familiar with our city, it is only necessary to state that, from a city with nearly 200 business houses, only the bank, one hardware store, one drug store, one harness shop, three general merchandise stores, one furniture store, one photograph gallery, and one newspaper office, The Herald, are left—asloe from the lumber yards and flouring mills, which were many blocks removed from the scene of the fire.

The following list, which, so far as it goes is accurate and may be relied upon, will give you an idea of the losses and insurance:  

Sprague Packing Co (10,000) no ins.

H M Schneider (6,000) no ins.

B B Burke (2,000) 1,000 ins.

Lieurance & Astrup (1,000) 400 ins.

H ___________ (________) ___

Co-Operative Store

Geo F Bennighoff

John Bartol & Co (800) no ins

J H Linder (800) 775 ins.

Murphy & Burns (18,000) 2,000 ins.

O K Barber Shop (100) no ins

A Wichman (200) no ins

Davies & Co (20,000) 3,500 ins.

Charlie Woo (300) no ins

W R White (1,000) 200 ins

R L Wells (500) no ins.

W H Olds (7,000) 3,350 ins.

Geo Cosgrove (2,500) no ins

Gehres & Hertrich (6,000) 600 ins

T F Meagher (2000) 500 ins.

W J Cowing (700) 450 ins

A Riley (600) 300 ins.

Mrs F W Littlefield (3,000) 1,750 ins.

J Moore & Son (5,300) 1,150 ins.

W Weyer (3,500) 200 ins.

B Flaig (600) 350 ins.

George Price (500) no ins.

W R Peters (300) 300 ins.

P Peterson (500) no ins.

Frank Parker (50) no ins.

Stooke & Amery (9,000) 5,200 ins.

R R Jones (1,000) no ins

J W Littlefield (1,800) 800 ins.

W F Finley (1,000) no ins.

John Garvey (2,500) 1,150 ins.

J W Ryan (10,000) 2,400 ins.

Henry Herbring (27,000) 6,000 ins.

A W Holland (900) 300 ins.

F L Edmiston (500) no ins.

G H Gilpin (23,000) 9,000 ins.

City of Sprague (14,000) 3,000 ins.

County of Lincoln (2,500) 2,000 ins.

J Culross (200) no ins.

Astrup & Lee (700) 325 ins.

R E Winters (1,000) 700 ins.

A J Turpin (300) no ins

Mrs Jane Evans (4,000) 2,000 ins.

Jas Burns (300) no ins.

F D Morrill (12,000) 2,000 ins.

Fred Stipps (500) no ins.

John Bracken (2,000) no ins.

John Kleba (500) no ins.

Ben Ettelson (2,100) 1,250 ins.

C Briggs (1,000) no ins.

C Hagen (100) no ins.

Geo Troy (500) 150 ins.

A Miller (200) no ins.

R Newman & Co (22,000) 14,000 ins.

L Y Williams (800) no ins.

N T Caton (500) no ins.

D Winters (1,200) no ins.

Otto Arnold (600) no ins.

J Starling (700) no ins.

R B Hooper (250) no ins.

John Kirk (2,000) no ins

Geo Beardslee (450) no ins

T J Allen (1,500) 500 ins.

Dr Whitney (150) no ins

C F Eckhardt (500) no ins.

Masonic Lodge (4,000) 2,000 ins.

E H Stanton (1,000) no ins.

C E Richards (450) no ins.

Joe Wormald (1,400) 700 ins.

H N Martin (150) no ins.

Cooper & Sanderson (400) 250 ins.

J Roberts (1,500) no ins.

J W Reed (500) no ins.

R O Porak (45,000) 2,400 ins.

Dr Buchanan (50) no ins.

Mrs M Heard (10,000) 1,500 ins.

W F Thompson (2,000) no ins.

J Barber (1,200) no ins.

J Sandygreen (200) no ins.

Wm Buckley (250) 200 ins.

A McIntosh (1,500) no ins.

Tom Smith (500) no ins.

Dr Putnam (6,000) 3,200 ins.

J F Hall (9,000) 4,000 ins.

J Sawyer (12,000) no ins.

Paul Herold (650) no ins.

A W Lowe (100) no ins.

L F Williams (1,000) no ins.

Palmer & Rey (800) 500 ins.

Sprague Mail (900) 500 ins.

Jim Lee (500) no ins.

Tom Dewant (2,000) no ins.

J M Gunning (100) no ins.

Jackson Brock (100) no ins.

A McLellan (300) no ins.

P Clinton (1,000) no ins.

Mrs Ebell (250) no ins.

S W Sensen (300) no ins.

McGill & Bernard (150) no ins.

“Whitechapel” (3,000) no ins.

John Fogarty (2,000) no ins.

Gus Mancke (400) no ins.

J W Bryant (1,600) no ins.

Odd Fellows (1,800) 950 ins.

AOUW (350) 295 ins.

K of P (1,300) 700 ins.

E M Kinnear (25,000) 6,600 ins.

Miss Minser (1,200) 700 ins.

A VanAllen (400) no ins.

R Morrison (1,500) no ins.

Methodist Church (2,000) 1,000 ins.

B B White (1,500) no ins.

Jesse Moore & So (1,000) no ins.

W P Murray (800) no ins.

Rathbone Sisters (150) no ins.

W D Sorenson (2,000) 500 ins.

Mrs Rasch (1,200) 500 ins.

N P Railroad (750,000) unknown ins.

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INSURANCE

The insurance policies on property within the fire limits were held by the following local insurance writers:

Cooper & Sanderson                            $50,000

A W Holland & Son                                  32,000

George S Brooke                                       5,000

W B Lottman                                               4,600

J W Merritt                                                   2,800

R K McComb                                              1,000

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Sprague Fires, Sprague, Washington submitted to the WAGenWeb

January, 2006 by Marge Womach

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