Bios transcribed by Kay R. & History by Jan Cortez
The Great Fires
Oshkosh has been so remarkably unfortunate in fires, and so subdues in the spirit with which she has thrice arisen from calamities which seemed almost irreparable, that a pause in her municipal history is here taken to indicate briefly the ordeals through which she has so bravely passed. In May, 1859, her main business street - Ferry - was swept clean of buildings on both sides for nearly a quarter of a mile. In less than half a year, Oshkosh, which then had not a thrid of its present population, was newly attired, and pushing itself on as before. The city met with no serious clamity again for seven years. In May, 1866, both sides of Main street, from High to Algoma, and from Waugoo to Washington, were burned; also the north side of Washington, from Main street to Jefferson Avenue. The post office was destroyed. A few months sufficed to restore this destruction. On May 9, 1874, a fire started from the lumber yard of Spalding & Peck, near the corner of Hancock and Marion streets, and flying up to Algoma, swept away $50,000 worth of property. On July 14 (same year), a district for a mile along Upper Main and North Division streets was destroyed; but before winter set in, new and better buildings were proudly standing upon the ruins. In this fire William P. Taylor, City Treasurer, lost his life. In less than a year - April 28, 1875 - the flames, seeming to remember some work undone, sprung up that afternoon in Morgan Brothers' mill, and, assisted by a gale, burned over, in the course of a few hours, the western portion of the Second Ward and the southeastern part of the First. They licked up saw mills, planing mills, machine shops, the banks, the post office, the most prominent business houses, hotels, churches, schools, the Harding Opera House, printing offices and private residences. The court house narrowly escaped destruction. Main street was in ruins to the point where the ruins commenced after the conflagration of 1874. From east to west the burned district was a mile in length, and one quarter of a mile from north to south. Besides the business wealth which had gone up in the flames, over two hundred private residences were destroyed. The loss has been placed at $3,000,000. Two lives were lost - an employee at Morgan Brothers, in attempting to check the fire with an extinguiosher, for which purpose he had entered the burning mill, was fatally burned; and an old man was crushed by the falling walls of the Harding Opera House. By January, 1876, over $1,000,000 had been expended in the erection of new and fire-proof buildings, and before the close of the year, scarcely a sign of the terrible visitation remained. There is hardly an important business or manufacturing locality in the city of Oshkosh which has not been swept by fire, and sometimes repeatedly.
