Bertie County NcArchives History .....Fires Of Bertie County 1832-1899
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Gerald Thomas gerald_thomas00@comcast.net February 2, 2019, 9:56 am

ACCOUNTS OF FIRES IN BERTIE COUNTY
COMPILED BY
GERALD W. THOMAS


Introductory comments by the compiler: Over the past four decades as I have
conducted genealogical and historical research on a variety of subjects about
Bertie County, I discovered information which oftentimes did not relate to the
subject(s) I was researching, but was of interest to me. I have maintained a
substantial amount of information concerning various subjects about Bertie
County and its citizens. Following is information I compiled on fires in Bertie
County during the 1800s and into the first quarter century of the 1900s.
Obviously, the below accounts do not cover all significant fires which have
occurred. Most fires were accidental, but some were the result of criminal acts.
The account of the August 1, 1888, fire was published in The Windsor Story:
1768-1968, Volume I, courtesy of my friend and mentor, Harry L. Thompson.
A number of persons, including my great, great-grandfather, Duncan L. Cale,
perished in various fires. Following is a list of persons who died in the fires,
including several individuals who were murdered and their dwellings subsequently
set afire.
Date of Fire	Fatal Victims
October 11, 1823	Two children of Aquilla Todd
January 24, 1840	Patsey Ward
January 1878	Wife and two children of Charles Keeter
August 3, 1882	Child of Hill Ruffin
July 26, 1884	Mrs. Henry Godwin
August 23, 1885	Duncan L. Cale
February 6, 1889	Three unidentified women and a child (murdered)
April 1889	Eliza Hedge
December 7, 1891	An unidentified child
April 24, 1892	Two children of Hardy Smallwood

		
The below information is not necessarily verbatim transcriptions from the cited
sources. Information in brackets [] was added by me.
		

Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), November 1, 1823
Edenton, N.C., Oct. 21 – On Saturday, the 11th inst. [October 11, 1823] in the
neighborhood of Wm. Sparkman, Esq. of Bertie County, the house of Mr. Aquilla
Todd was destroyed by fire, and, shocking to relate, two of his three children,
the oldest and youngest, were burnt to death the house having taken fire by
accident, while the father and mother were absent at a neighbor’s house. A negro
man, who was at work some distance from the house, seeing the fire, ran for the
purpose of saving it; but, on his arriving at the fatal spot, found the joists
of the house falling in, entirely abortive. The unfortunate Todd had three
children, two of whom were in the yard at play when the fire broke out; but the
eldest, on discovering the fire, ran in to rescue the child in danger which
threatened it, when lo, he fell a victim, with the other, to the devouring
flame. With what bitter anguish the parents learnt the fate of their unfortunate
children, can be better imagined than described

N. Carolina Free Press, July 20, 1833
The valuable steam grist mill belonging to William Britton, Esq. of this county,
was burned to the ground on Sunday morning the 30th ultimo. It is supposed to
have been the work of an incendiary, as the fire in the furnace had been
carefully extinguished the evening previous. Mr. B's loss is estimated at from
$2,500 to $3,000. Windsor Her[ald].

Tarborough Free Press, January 31, 1834
The valuable Turpentine Distillery of Messrs. D. & M. C. Ryan [David and Marcus
C. Ryan] at Windsor, was destroyed by fire on the 13th ultimo [December 13, 1833].

The North Carolina Standard (Raleigh), February 19, 1840; The Charlotte Journal,
February 27, 1840
Horrible Catastrophe. On Friday night, the 24th of January, about 7 o'clock, the
dwelling house of Miss Patsey Ward, near Windsor, Bertie County, was consumed by
fire, together with all its inmates consisting of an elderly lady, three
children, and Miss Ward herself. The fire was not discovered until it had
progressed so far as to render the efforts of all to extinguish it, or save the
inhabitants, unavailing. Two sons of the elderly lady reached the scene only in
time to see their only parent buried beneath the mass of burning timber. No
person lived nearer than a quarter of a mile, and none arrived in time to hear a
groan or cry of distress from the burning inmates. After the fire had burned
out, the consumed bones, supposed to be of Miss Ward and the three children,
were found among the ashes.

The North Carolina Standard (Raleigh), February 16, 1848
The Storehouse occupied by Joseph G. Godfrey, at Merry Hill, Bertie County, was
entirely consumed by fire on Friday morning the 4th instant [February 4, 1848],
together with his stock of goods. Loss not less than $3,000.

United States House of Representatives, 46th Congress, 2nd Session Report No. 18.
The Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, to whom was referred the
petition of Mrs. Ann P. Bell for relief … report[s] as follows:
   On the 1st day of June, 1877, the post office in the town of Windsor, Bertie
County, North Carolina, was destroyed by accidental fire, without the fault or
negligence of the postmaster, Mrs. Ann P. Bell.
   The building containing the post office, and also the adjacent buildings,
were totally destroyed with their contents, including stamps, postal cards,
stamped envelopes, money orders and other funds belonging to the government.
   It satisfactorily appears to your committee that the amount in current money
belonging to the government which was in the post office at the time of said
fire, and was consumed, was $497 belonging to the money order division, and $41
belonging to the general postal fund, making a total amount of $538 in current
money destroyed. …

The Alamance Gleaner (Graham), May 14, 1878
TERRIBLE. — Mr. Charles L. Keeter, near Windsor, in Bertie county was off at his
fishery when his house took fire in the dead of night and his wife and two
children, one eleven and the other four years old were burned to death. A son
about twenty years, old and his little brother were sleeping upstairs, when the
older awoke, the room being then full of smoke, he jumped from a window to a
shed room, and from there to the ground, and running to his mother’s room
received the baby, his mother returning for the other child, but before she
could get it and return she became overpowered by smoke and flame, and the boy
upstairs nine years old, and the mother and child below met a horrible death. We
learn of this sad event from a communication in The Observer.

The Farmer and Mechanic (Edenton), May 16, 1878
The death of Mrs. Charles Keeter, of Windsor, Bertie county, who was burned with
her two children, illustrates the heroism of a mother's love. A wakened in the
very presence of a fiery death, she thinks first of her babe. Handing it to a
young man to be placed in safety, she rushes back into the flames for the other
child, and both perish. Upstairs, another boy aged 11 was suffocated in bed. Sad
destruction of a home.

The Farmer and Mechanic (Edenton), August 9, 1882
Burned to Death by the Mother's Tobacco Pipe. Letter from Bertie. Lewiston, N.
C. Aug. 4.
I witnessed the 3rd inst. [August 3, 1882], about mile distant the burning of a
negro cabin in which live[d] the tenant, Hill Ruffin and family, on the farm of
Dr. J. S. Griffin, of Woodville, Bertie County. There perished in the flames one
of the children of said Ruffin, aged 5 years, who was asleep in the loft of the
house which was anew one without a chimney. The mother thinks she must have
dropped fire from her pipe before leaving for her work. The burning occurred at
7 a. m., the screams of the child were heart-rendering to those who heard him,
only two other children, older, were present, the fire originated as above. The
parents and others were at work about ¾ of a mile distant, but were too late to
arrest either the flames or to save the child.

The Farmer and Mechanic (Edenton), July 30, 1884
Last Saturday [July 26, 1884] while Mrs. Godwin, the wife of Mr. Henry Godwin,
of Windsor, Bertie county, N. C, was kindling a fire in her cook stove, her
dress caught tire, which ignited her other clothing and before assistance could
be rendered, she was burned so badly that she died very soon afterward.

The Danbury Reporter, May 21, 1885
State News. Duncan Cole [Duncan L. Cale] of Bertie County, was burning off a
field. The fire surrounded him and he was burned to death [on April 23, 1885]. 

The Roanoke News (Weldon), February 16, 1888
The livery stable and ten horses belonging to J. R. Moody, at Windsor was burned
on the 10th. Loss about $2,000; no insurance. The fire is supposed to have been
of incendiary origin.

The Durham Recorder, May 2, 1888
The little town of Harrellsville in Bertie County [should be Hertford County]
was almost entirely destroyed by fire on Monday.

The Windsor Story: 1768-1968, Volume I, pgs. 47-48 (article courtesy of Harry L.
Thompson).
Windsor Public Ledger, August 8, 1888
The Windsor Fire. Over $7,000 Lost
Last Wednesday [August 1, 1888] at 2 o’clock a.m. a fire originated in a small
shop occupied by Sam Hoggard as a restaurant. The alarm of fire was soon started
and in a short while all the citizens had arrived. In spite of the herculean
efforts of the people nearly the whole of one side of the street was in ashes.
The losers were Mrs. Bell Pugh, a house she used as dwelling and restaurant and
her cooking utensils. A small store owned by Joseph Outlaw and occupied by Mr.
W. D. Hoggard as a store. Mr. H. [Hoggard] lost about three hundred dollars
consisting of bar fixtures, cigars, liquors etc. A small house owned by Joseph
Outlaw and occupied by S. S. Hoggard as a restaurant. A small house owned by
Joseph Outlaw and occupied by Adaline White and used by her as a dwelling and
restaurant. One vacant house owned by Joseph Outlaw and occupied by W. D. Leath
(sic). A large store owned by W.  T. King and occupied by the Messrs Lipsitz,
who saved their merchandise, but loss their household furniture. A large store
owned by W. H. Leigh and occupied by Joe James as a bar and by W. G. L. Carter
as a barber shop. The ice house owned by W. D. Hoggard full of ice was burned
down within twenty feet of it and strange to related not any of the ice melted.
We are glad to state that most all the sufferers were able to save most of their
movable property. Mr. King’s store was the only one among them that was insured
and that only for $700. Among those to whom the people are mostly indebted for
saving their property, and, we may say, the business portion of town, for if
work, and much of it, had not been standing to mark what was once the business
portion of one of the prettiest little towns in the State, were Newell Kenney,
T. P. Gurley, Thos Nicholls, James Saunders, T. P. Smallwood, Thos Todd, Elisha
Todd, L. E. Stokes, W. L. Williams, D. J. Heffrom, F. D. Winston, A. J.
Pritchard, J. J. Jacocks, J. M. Broughton, Chas Sedgwick, J. L. and J. P.
Spivey, B. H. Swain, Dr. E. W. Pugh, and many others, and Augustus Robbins, Mad
Watford, Emanuel Tayloe, Oscar Watson, and many others among the colored whom we
can not at the present recall. The old Roulhac house which was long used by
Madison Outlaw as a hotel caught on fire several times and was put out by the
efforts of the citizens above named with the help of many more. Had the flames
reached the house no earthly hand could have stopped the fire in its made career
until there was nothing else for it to feed upon. Freeman & Mizell’s large white
hotel which is situated at the West of the business part of the street looks
like some medieval castle situated in a plain. In the midst of the fire the
water in the wells gave out and water had to be brought from ditches and springs
three or 400 yards from the scene of the conflagration. The houses on the
opposite side of the street were only saved by covering them with blankets and
pouring water on them all the time. Paint was burned off several and most all of
the plank on the front part of them were drawn by fire,
	The scarcity of water at the recent fire should teach our people the necessity
of having more wells – the wells are small and afford but little water. At least
four more wells should be dug on each business block in the town. A small sum of
money used now may save thousands in the future. Out town fathers should give
early attention to this matter. 

Windsor Public Ledger, February 13, 1889
Murder and Arson
Wednesday morning last [February 6, 1889] it was discovered that two negro
cabins near Mt. Olive occupied by two negro women in one and a woman and child
in the other, had been burnt to ashes together with their occupants. At the well
in the yard was found an apron with blood upon it, and blood stains were found
about the yard. This, with the fact that all four of the bodies were lying down
and burnt to a crisp, leads to the belief that they were murdered and the cabins
fired to conceal the evidence of the crime. So far suspicion has fallen on
several parties. We hope the guilty parties will be apprehended and justice
meted out to them.

Fisherman & Farmer (Edenton), February 22, 1889
ANOTHER CRIME.
News of a terrible crime in Bertie county last Wednesday evening [February 6,
1889], is received. Faucett was a farmer, and it is said before he had been
quarrelling with some neighbors with whom he never had gotten along. Wednesday
night he was away on business, and some unknown party, after murdering his wife
and child and two negro women, fired both houses and burned them to the ground.
The charred bones of all were found among the ashes, and in the yard was a
bloody axe and an apron sprinkled with blood, which told plainly that the
inmates had first been brutally murdered and then the houses fired. There is
much excitement in the county.

The State Chronicle (Raleigh), April 12, 1889
The report of a queer suicide comes from Bertie county. Eliza Hedge, a negro
woman, in the absence of her husband set fire to her house and then covered
herself in bed to roast in the flames. She left a note in her apron, hanging
nearby on the limb of an oak, saying her husband was too cruel to live with, and
that she was obliged to make a support for him; that she had bought the little
home in which she lived with money she herself had earned, and that she desired
to die and would destroy her home in her deal so that her husband might not
enjoy it.

The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh), January 14, 1890
The saw mills of [Greenleaf] Johnson Lumber Co., located at Howard, Bertie
County, N.C., were destroyed by fire a few days ago. Loss, $75,000.

The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh), January 21, 1890
We learn from the Windsor (Bertie County) Ledger that the store of Messrs. J. &
L. Lipsitz of that town, was burned a few days ago. Loss, $1500. Mr. Greenthal
and a Mr. Miller were seriously burned while trying to stay the flames.

The Wilson Advance, December 17, 1891
A negro child burned to death near Windsor on Monday [December 7, 1891] of last
week. This makes the eighth negro child to burn to death in the county within a
year.

The Headlight, April 28, 1892
Two children of Hardy Smallwood, a negro preacher, were burned to death Sunday
night [while locked up in the house. … During the absence of their parents,
three children of David Ruffin, colored, in Bertie county, set the house on
fire, Tuesday, and all perished in the flames.

The Asheville Daily Citizen, April 15, 1893
The hotel at Avoca, Bertie county, belonging to Dr. W. R. Capehart [William
Rhodes Capehart], caught fire Thursday and was burned to the ground. The
furniture belonging to the hotel was also burned. Loss about $5,000.

The Wilson Advance, May 25, 1893
A fire at Windsor, NC Friday burned six dry kilns and lumber valued at $8,000.

The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh), May 14, 1895
The alarm of fire Wednesday broke up court for a while, court officers and
jurymen running to the fire.  The fodder house of Mrs. M. F. Gillam, at
Rosefield, was burnt down. Loss about $25, says the Windsor Ledger.

Windsor Ledger, September 10, 1896
Big Fire
A big fire broke out in Windsor last Tuesday and a great deal of property was
lost. It started in the Masonic Hall at 2:30 o’clock in the morning. Loss
estimated at $50,000.

The Semi-Weekly Messenger (Wilmington, NC), April 26, 1898
The county farm prison in Bertie County has been burned. The Windsor Ledger says
that Mr. Alston's [James Alston] house caught fire and at one time it looked as
though all the houses would be consumed. By hard work the fire was confined to
the jail. Mr. James Alston, the manager, says the house was set on fire by
William Bond, colored, who is serving a sentence for robbery. He thinks Bond was
trying to burn his way out. He came near burning up himself, and worse still,
(he came near burning up John Artis, a crazy colored man, who was confined in
the jail.

Virginian Pilot, August 16, 1900
Fire Destroys Twelve Houses in Windsor, North Carolina

The Semi-Weekly Messenger (Wilmington, NC) August 21, 1900
Twelve Buildings Burned at Windsor. (Special to The Washington Post.)
Suffolk, Va., August 15. Twelve buildings were burned last night [August 14,
1900] at Windsor, a small town in Bertie county, N. C. The fire broke out in a
clothing store, and in the absence of adequate fire protection it had swept the
district in two hours, notwithstanding strenuous efforts on the part of
citizens. The cause of the blaze is unknown. The loss, partially covered by
insurance, is estimated at from $10,000
to $11,000.

The Goldsboro Headlight, August 23, 1900
Twelve buildings were burned at Windsor, Tuesday.

The Enterprise, May 16, 1902
At Kelford, Thursday, six buildings were destroyed by fire.

The Enterprise (Williamston), August 1, 1902
Insurance Commissioner, James R. Young, is in Windsor conducting an examination
in a store burning case. Sometime during the month of March [March 1902] the
store of Mr. C. E. Collins in Windsor was destroyed by fire. At the time there
was nothing suspicious about the fire, but as required by law, the insurance
commissioner caused an investigation to be made. Mr. Collins collected $1,000
insurance money for his alleged loss. Recently some information was secured that
caused the commissioner to have warrants issued for Mr. Collins and two men
named Stallings and Harrell, and upon those warrants the men have been arrested
and Mr. Young has gone to Windsor to conduct a further examination. It is
claimed that four witnesses have been found who will testify to seeing the goods
removed from the store before the fire occurred. The men Stallings and Harrell
are believed to have been accomplices at least to the extent of assisting in the
removal of the goods.

The Semi-Weekly Messenger (Wilmington, NC), November 21, 1902
Charles Harrell Turns State Evidence. Raleigh, N. C, November 17. ... Charles
Harrell, one of the men charged by State Insurance Commissioner Young with
participating in the burning of the store of C. E.  Collins in Bertie county,
turned state’s evidence against Collins. The trial is in progress at Windsor.
The state says that the store was burned by Collins, J. R. Stallings and Harrell
to get the insurance on the stock. Harrell confessed his guilt.

The Semi-Weekly Messenger (Wilmington, NC), February 6, 1903
Raleigh, N. C, February 3. Governor announces the pardon of Charles Harrell. of
Bertie county, convicted last November of burning a store there to get the
insurance and who was sentenced to five years imprisonment. Insurance
Commissioner Young earnestly requested the pardon. Under his direction the case
was prosecuted. Harrell was indicted jointly with two others the owner of the
store and a clerk
and was the state witness. He pleaded guilty but the jury acquitted the two
others. The governor says those who prosecuted the case are firm in their
conviction that Harrell's account of the burning is true and that he was the
tool in the hands of the other defendants. The opinion in the county is
practically unanimous in urging his pardon. This ends a notable case

The Enterprise (Williamston), December 11, 1908
Windsor Fire. The depot of the Wellington and Powellsville Railroad was burned
last week at Windsor. The steamer "Mayflower" was in great danger and bad to be
drifted down the river. Large quantities of cotton and peanuts belonging to
merchants were consumed and the loss could not be estimated. Some place it at
$15,000. Origin of fire not known.

The Review (High Point), June 5, 1919
Heavy Fire Loss. Aulander. The Bertie Cotton Oil Company suffered a severe fire
loss when the seed house and cotton storage warehouse were completely destroyed
by flames which originated, in the front end of the seed house. Between six and
seven hundred tons of seed were stored in the seed house representing a value of
over $40,000, partly covered by insurance. This was a total loss as the cotton
ware house in which 200 bales of linters and about 40 bales of cotton were
stored. The origin of the fire has not yet been fully determined.

The Alamance Gleaner (Graham), December 23, 1920
Most destructive fire at Roxobel – the mercantile establishment, Roxobel Supply
Co., burned.

The Enterprise (Williamston), November 17, 1925
Eight Frame Buildings Destroyed at Loss of $15,000.
Business District of Windsor Had Narrow Escape From Being Completely Destroyed
By Spectacular Blaze Yesterday Morning.
Mrs. F. D. Winston, while shopping in Windsor yesterday morning [November 16,
1925], about 9:30, discovered a fire in the old Cooch shop, belonging to Mr. E.
S. Dail. So far as known no person had been in the building since Saturday. The
building was an old frame structure and burned like tinder, firing the store
building of Mrs. George Mizell. This was also an old wooden structure and burned
very rapidly. Three frame buildings belonging to Doctors Evans [Leslie B. Evans]
and Lyons [Henry Wise Lyon] were also burned. Two of these buildings were used
as colored barber shops and one as a mercantile store by A. E. Cowing. The three
buildings were worth about $2,500, merchandise perhaps $1,500, and barbers’
supplies several hundred dollars. 
	The undertaking establishment of Taylor & Davis was destroyed, but most of the
stock was saved. The loss of the building, which was the property of the Dail
estate, was estimated at $2,000.
	Several small wooden storage warehouses were burned. Only one brick building
suffered any loss, the building on the corner belonging to E. L. Gatling and
occupied by W. R. Thompson suffered a loss estimate[d] at $1,000 to building and
goods, principally from water.
	There was very little insurance as the fire happened in the fire-trap district,
which made insurance too high to carry.
	The total loss will not likely exceed $15,000, although about eight buildings
were entirely consumed.
	This was the first test Windsor’s new water system has had, and but for which
the town would have suffered very heavy losses, as the wind was setting exactly
right to sweep one side of Main Street [King Street.].
	The newly organized Windsor fire company did good work in the fight, as there
was so much danger to the other building standing very near.
	The Williamston fire company was called on for help and responded very
promptly, but found the fire practically under control when it arrived. The
Washington fire company was also called and reached Williamston where they
notified that the fire was under control, and they did not go further [farther].
	This was the first call sent to any neighboring fire companies since the
organization of the Eastern Carolina Firemen’s Association, and was a clear
demonstration of the importance of such an organization, which will make it
impossible to burn a town with a water supply except in a case of a very high wind.




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