Wisconsin Chair Company Fire

FIRE AT PT. WASHINGTON

That city suffers a heavy blow last Sundaynight.
The plant of the Wis. Chair Co. entirely wiped out.
About forty families are left homeless.
Pipeman M. HACKETT loses his life.
Loss $400,000.

extracted from the Cedarburg Weekly News
February 22, 1899
transcribed by Mary Ann Albrecht

One of the most disastrous fires ever known in thiscounty occurred in the city of Port Washington last Sunday night, wiping out theentire large plant of the Wisconsin Chair Company, the foundry building of the Malleable& Gray Iron Co., a portion of the business block and a number of private residences. The fire broke out in the veneering room of the Chair factory at about 9 o'clockin the evening and when discovered by guests at The Wilson house, was only a smallblaze in the interior of the veneering room which they observed through the window. The alarm was promptly sounded, and a line of hose from the engine room of the Chairfactory attached to their pumps they soon had several streams playing on the burningbuilding. With the assistance of the local fire department after several hours workit seemed as though they had the fire under control, but then the three story brickbuilding above the engine room caved in and thus cutting off the supply of waterfrom that source. The fire department's engine also gave out and the fire got afresh start, sweeping over to the north side. In the mean time aid had arrived fromMilwaukee and Sheboygan, which had been telegraphed for by Mayor MUELLER, but asthe facilities for unloading their apparatus were lacking when they arrived at thedepot, they lost considerable time in building platforms for unloading, before theyreached the scene of the fire. The entire plant was a mass of flames including aportion of the adjoining business and private houses, and the firemen directed theirattention to saving the city from destruction, which would have been the case butfor the heroic work of the outside fire departments. Everybody for blocks aroundwas moving out, carrying household goods to neighbors, or storing them on the streetsin the upper portion of the city. While the Milwaukee company was fighting the fireon Franklin street among the burning business block, a chimney tumbled over fromthe Neuendorf building , striking two of the firemen and injuring them seriously. A pipeman named HACKETT was struck in the head completely paralyzing his lower limbs,and Capt. LINEHAN received severe bruises about the body. They were carried intoThe Wilson house and medical aid summoned and the injured men were well providedfor, but the case of HACKETT was pronounced fatal by the attending physicians, Drs.HARTWIG and HORNBOGEN of that city, and he died the following day in the hospitalat Milwaukee, to which city the unfortunate men were taken by the first train in the morning. The condition of Capt. LINEHAN is said to be improving and he may recoverfrom the shock.

At 2:30 o'clock the next morning, after six blocks had been wiped out, the fire wasunder control. The territory destroyed includes that portion bounded by Franklinstreet to the lake, a distance of two blocks, and from Pierce street to Wisconsinstreet, a distance of three blocks. Every business house in the east side of Franklinstreet, between Main and Wisconsin street, is in ashes, but the larger tannery ofMayor MUELLER on the opposite corner was saved. The fire did not reach the westside of Franklin street, but all the buildings, among them The Wilson hotel, hada close call. The loss of the chair factory is a serious blow to Port Washington,even if it is rebuilt it will take some time for the people to recover from the setback. A large portion of the population is dependent on it for a livelihood and the sixhundred employees besides being thrown out of employment, lost their tools. TheChair Co. is said to have carried an insurance of about ninety per cent, while theothers carried one-quarter to one-half insurance of their actual loss.

Port's Worst Night Recalled By Man Who Was There
by Theodore Bode

extracted from Ozaukee Press
February 17, 1949

It was just 9 o'clock that cold February night whenthe young man bending over a book under the gas light in his father's tavern on FranklinSt. was suddenly interrupted by a shrill, persistent factory whistle which splitthe frosty air.

Grabbing his coat, the young man dashed into the street and fell in with his startledneighbors running toward the noise. As he approached the factory the red flames werealready licking through the windows and black smoke was beginning to roll skyward.Within a few minutes the fire was speading through the entire factory.

The young man standing aghast watching the flames destroy the place where he workedwas Theodore Bode, and as he sat in his living room last Monday he recalled thatnight as though it were yesterday. Actually it was 50 years ago, for the scene tookplace on February 19, 1899, the night the Wisconsin Chair Co. factory and six squareblocks of Port Washington were destroyed in one of the biggest fires the state hadever seen.

Theodore was employed at the time as a master mechanic at the Chair Co. He remembersthat the fire started when a lamp used by the night crew tipped over in the veneerdepartment on the third floor of the main plant.

The flames quickly spread in the shaving-filled lathe department on the floor belowand across the outdoor runway to the next building. Within 15 minutes they had traveledthrough the entire main plant, and by midnight the main plant was completely destroyed.

At that time the Chair Co. extended like a horse-shoe around the north harbor. Inno time the fire had torn through the northern and western wings of the plant andspread to the malleable iron foundry located where the Harnischfeger Diesel plantnow stands. Soon the piles containing 2,000,000 feet of lumber were adding theirheat to the roaring inferno. The flames, Theodore recalls, shot as high as St. Mary'schurch steeple.

Fighting the fire was nearly impossible because of the intense heat and poor equipment.The Port fire department had only weak hand pumps and the factory's steam pumps locatedin the basement under the veneer department had been destroyed almost as soon asthe fire started.

Several fire companies were rushed in on railroad flat cars from Milwaukee and Sheboyganas fast as possible, but they arrived in time to save only the boiler room of thefactory. With the aid of a strong west wind they did succeed in preventing the destructionof the entire city.

When they had the chair factory blazing well, the flames spread across Pier St. destroyingthe homes of the Roob, Ubink, Martin, Merent and Oswald families.

The fire also traveled westward to Franklin St. where it rapidly destroyed the Bodehome and tavern, (now the Port bakery), the Schuder bakery, the Pelt millinery store,the John Schroling, Zimmerman and Wambolt homes, Peter Sturm's shoe store, the Pilotoffice and Hugo Neuendorf's residence and harness shop (now Smith Bros.) The onlybuilding spared in the block was Eckelt's Jewelry store, where the Shanty Bar isnow. A Milwaukee fireman was killed when the chimney of the Neuendorf building fellon him.

Theodore also remembers that as the flames spread down Franklin St. he ran home tohelp his father carry the valuable cases of whiskey out of the basement store room.Unable to fight the flames, most of the residents of the burning section of the citywere carrying their possessions to safety.

The fire, meanwhile, was also moving around the edge of the harbor, destroying theBlake warehouse, which was used by the Chair Co. for storage, Mike Neuens wagon shop,the Wilson horse barns, the Gliebly and Harman homes and the State Trucking Co. onGrand Ave.

500 Unemployed
It was a sad night for the people of Port. Not only had many of them lost their homesand businesses, but almost the whole town was thrown out of work, for the Chair Co.employed over 500 people at the time. The factory was 11 years old then having beenstarted as a shash and door co. in 1888.

As soon as the weather permitted in the spring of 1899, John Bostwick set about buildinga new factory, the present one, over the ashes of the old. The work was hastened,Theodore says, by the contribution of $25,000 made by the people of the city to constructthe spur track from the Chicago and North Western railroad to bring in materials.The plant was back in operation the following year.

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