LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA

Columbus Gazette, Columbus Junction, Iowa Thursday, November 17, 1892 page 5
Transcribed by Beverly Gerdts, November 18, 2020

At 5 o'clock Sunday morning our citizens were awakened by the whistling of an engine on the Cedar rapids road and the cray of fire. Before half of them could get to the ? of fire, Hanna's block was ? developed in flames past hopes of saving. As quickly as possible the fire engine was manned and all efforts were directed toward confining the flames to that block, and the ? building just north of it. The engine did effective work and although a string wind was blowing at the times, these efforts were successful. The barn on J. L. Collin' lot caught fire a dozen times or more which was as often extinguished. The buildings burned were those in the Hanna block, all frame, partly two story. Mr. Hanna had an insurance of buildings and furniture in hall of $3,050. His loss will be a full 2,000 more than that. The other building burned was the small harness shop belonging to Charles Getts. Mr. Getts carried and insurance of $1,000 on both building and contents. That on building was only $100 we understand, which will make a small loss to him on building, but none of stock. Koos, the tailor, had no insurance but nearly all his goods were saved. His loss will aggregate $150. Fox's carried $700 insurance on merchandise, tools and household goods. As everything was burned the loss will be heavy of them, as they saved nothing, not even enough clothing to protect them. Harries & Merrill had $1,000 worth of furniture in the room north of Fox. All burned, with an insurance of $500. The next room was occupied by Miller's restaurant and family. They had no insurance and their loss was total. It could not be less than from $1,000 to $1,200. They consider themselves fortunate to escape with their lives. Miss Bliven had but recently vacated the other remaining room in the Hanna building and her escape was a lucky one. J.L. Collins suffered a loss of a hundred dollars or more on his barn back of and his machine sheds in front of, the burning buildings. No insurance. Those burned out were provided for temporarily by our citizens and paper was passed around for their relief with gratifying success.