Caldwell County MO Archives History .....THE HAMILTON FIRE OF 1871 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:50 pm

	THE HAMILTON FIRE OF 1871
	Narrators:  Harry Lampton, 75, and Irvin Harper of Hamilton

     The first fire in Hamilton Main street of any consequence was in 1871.  
It was the night of May 27, 1871.  Mr. Lampton was then a small boy who went 
to the fire.  Mrs. Mamie Eldredge, also a child recalls the commotion it 
caused.  Her father, Dr. Tuttle, had been on a country call in his buggy, and 
on his return east of town, met a man who told him Hamilton was burning up.  
The fire was in the first block north of the railroad, east side, and started 
in a frame store on the lot now occupied by the McDaniel cafe.  McGrew kept 
the store.  The fire went both ways.  To the north was the drug store of R. 
Williams, and on the north corner (present Bram site) was the grocery of 
Blanchard and Goodell, all two story frames, as Mr. Harper recalls.  To the 
south of McGrew was Dick Ervin's drug store.  (At that time, the Ervin store 
was a store further south than the later site occupied by him, which was the 
McDaniel site.)  Then to the south of Ervin was the Jew Jacob Goldberg's store 
and John Minger's bakery and restaurant.  All these went up in flames.  About 
half a block went.  Later, this whole block, rebuilt, suffered again on the 
morning of July 5, 1884 and again Minger and Ervin were burnt out.  (See 
separate account of the fire.)
     This 1871 fire is supposed to have been started on purpose by McGrew who 
carried a heavy insurance, but the sentiment was high and he skipped before 
collecting it all.
     The 1871 fire did not burn the whole block down for good reason.  There 
were wide gaps between bunches of buildings.  There was a gap between Mingers 
store and the next store to the south, which did not catch fire.  When this 
row of frame buildings burned in 1871, they were soon rebuilt by more two 
story frame stores, except on the lot at the north corner, where Anthony 
Rohrbaugh built a brick double store building, which is still standing, used 
by the Bram store.  This brick store was used as a landmark for years in the 
70s, when people would say, "Two doors south of the brick store" etc.
     Mr. Harper believes there was a fire on that section of Main street prior 
to 1871, which brunt out the shacks originally built there in the early and 
middle 60s.
     Interview  1935.


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