Destruction of the Rockdale Mill by Fire - 1879

HOSFORD, DEGGENDORF, WATERS, MEYER

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 5/9/2016 at 20:35:43

Dubuque Herald –Jan. 1, 1879

A NEW YEAR’S BLAZE
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Destruction of the Rockdale
Mill by Fire
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A Repetition of the Minneapolis
Disaster
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Loss About Forty
Thousand Dollars
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About 12 o’clock last night information was received at the HERALD office that the large stone flouring mill at Rockdale, owned by Thomas Waters, A. P. Hosford, and Meyer & Deggendorf was burning. A HERALD reporter was immediately dispatched to the scene conflagration, and seated in a light cutter, behind one of Dubuque’s swiftest flyers, with an expert driver, it took but a short time to reach the spot. Arriving at Rockdale, he jotted down by the bright light of the burning mill the following particulars as stated by Mr. Waters. The fire commenced at 11:45 p.m., and originated in the dust room of the purifier. There was no one in the mill at the time the fire started; Mr. Waters his wife and the miller, James Sims, and his sister being at a social party at the residence of Mrs. J. C. Caffall-Mr. Waters brother-in-law. No cause can be assigned for the fire, except for it being spontaneous combustion in the dust room of the Minneapolis middling purifier-that instrument that seems to be the inevitable destruction of almost every mill in which it is placed. The mill had been closed for several hours, and there was no machinery running at the time of the fire.

The mill was valued at about $40,000, on which there is an insurance of about $14,000. Each member insured his individual interest. Mr. Waters (owing about one fourth) was insured for about $4,000, and Messrs. Hosford and Meyer and Deggendorf owing the remainder were insured for about $10,000, on the mill machinery. There was a large amount of stock in the mill which was run by Hosford & Waters, and this stock was partially covered by an additional insurance of $2,000. The loss on stock will probably be heavy as there were only 80 barrels of flour saved. The proprietors had lately received a large amount of new machinery to put in the mill, which was luckily saved. They intend to rebuild immediately, and make it-as it was before-one of the best flouring mills in Iowa.