Image provided by: Crook County Historical Society/Bowman Museum; Prineville, OR
About Prineville review. (Prineville, Crook County, Or.) 1???-1914 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 1894)
PRINEVILLE Ml EXTRA EDITION. .... 3 PRINEVILLE, OR., SUNDAY, DECEMBER 30, 189-1 A SAD CHRISTMAS. The Little Town of Silver Lake Mourns for Its Departed. CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVITIES TURNED TO SORROW. Forty Men, Women and Children Are Caught in a Fire Trap and Per ish in the Flamas. The Worst Holocaust Kver Hurled in tin Mate. On Christmas eve, as the peopV of Silver Lake ami vicinity were assemble! to sive and rrft tokens of friv?uuhip and love lor each other, they wvr? uia'ie the subjects of one of those visitations of Providence, not lefr for mortal man to ex plain or even comprehend. The following meagre particul irs were furnished us by the kin dues of drs .las. Vanderpool. from a letter hastily written hy her son-in-law. Warren Duncan, a res ident of Silver Lake: The accident occurred in a twustorv building the lower story of which was used for mercantile purpos stud the up per ntorv for a public hall. The writer begins his letter with the statement that "It was one of the most heartrending scenes man ever witnessed." Hun-elf and family escajed, as did the bdmco who were saved, by jumping from (ho upper wind .v M the grou t 1 14 feet Ik bw. Tho hall was tilled, and busily engaged in the exercises, when a large gallon lamp exploded immediately over the door. The flames increased so rapidly as to almost immediately cut ofFall passage at thedor which seems to have been all the mums of ingress and egress excent the windows. The people immediately legan jumping from tho windows, but the lire increased so rapidly that forty, out of one hundred and seventy-five, perished in the flames, and a number was seriously burned and hurt, some fatally. An idiM of Home of the scenes whicii occurred in that firey cauldron may ne had by a few quotations fioni ..Jr. f)rn can's hardily written letter. "As Iiick would have it I saved my f.miiv, 1 i.o; Ida and jiimix'd to the ground, fourteen f'-et. Ida sprained her ankle b.idlv. l,e lie got the back of head and ears burned to a blister. lie escajed at the door. A number of jKioplc are burned so badly they are not exj-ected to live." Follow in.: is u lit of those who pr ishd, soiu.? of wImui were former resi dents of l'rinevill", mid nearly all of whom huve relatives or acij uiniain lierti ; Mrs, Abshire, aged Mrs. Jul in Uurii-k, aged M. I aie I'oriek, aged I. J . J. Ihiriek, aged J . a.'1 Hnriek, age. I 5. Fred lb i rick, agml 8. K 1. Ikm ell, aged 2"). .il rs. Lute Cos how , aged .. Mrs. Howard, aged 4 ). Harry Howard, aged 5. llesie Hownrd, aged 'J. Wotjdford Ue.ust , aged -i Mrs. Ada Hearst, aged IS. Ira Hamilton, aged I.iura McCanley, ag'd IS. Clay Martin, aged :Y.). Mrs. Kelie.ih Aiaitin, aged IJO. I'uel Wanl, aged 1. Mrs. Owdey, aged 01. Lily 0hIv. aged -5. Hrnce O vly, aged 22. Hazel L.-ihrei', agtd 1. Mis. Snelliug, aged aZ. Lncinda Streeier, aged 27. K-don Streeter, aged .5. hrankie. Horning, aged !. Mrs. BayriH, ug-d 45. Hubert Small, aged 11. Samuel Ward, aged 00. Mrs. 1). I). Wanl, aged ID. Ktta Ward, aged 1. Mrs. Williams, aged Henry Williams, aged 5. Frank Hons, aged 23. Mrs. Phillip, aged 4.J. Daisy Phillips, aged 4. H. V. Went, aged 52. Mrs. West, aged 34. Bertha anil Herbert West, twin, aged 5.