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Recollections of 1947 fire at Fortunes Rockslo the Editor:Last Wednesday my wife and I were told a vivid story about how a Fortunes Hocks home was saved from the terrible andterrifying forest fire that swept the area in October 1947. What actually happened was recalled because a letter from me to the editor published previously gave the impression that the house now on the site was a “replacement of one burned in the disaster.To be given the facts I was invited by Minot (“Nat”i Grose, owner of the house in question, to visit him and his wife Their home stands on a slight rise from Route 9 opposite Granite Point Hoad As 1 entered Mr Grose said 1 was standing in what was once the office of the Curtis Farm Hotel, which my earlier letter indicated was the building burned in the forest fireMr. Grose assured me that the fact was that the hotel, then owned by Charles Tanner, had been partially burned before 1947 Behind it stands a large red barn that Mr Grose said was built by Lin wood Thomas, a neighbor, not before, but after the forest fire It was not the one I remembered from summer vacations spent at Curtis Farm after my first arrival as a baby with my mother and sisters in 1902In confirmation, Mrs. Grose showed me a photograph of the hotel and its barn both painted white and the latter of far different style than the present structure. That refreshed my faulty memoryThen Mr Grose described how he. hisfather-in-law Royal Leath, and “LinThomas saved the home from destruction by thoroughly dousing it with water they carried in buckets before the raging fire reached it. The house at the time belonged to Mr Leath who had purchased it withmore than 200 acres of land.When reports of the fire began coming over the radio, Mr Leath and Mr Grose were in the former s Dedham, Mass home. Leaving immediately by automobile they arrived in Fortunes Rocks ahead of the flames Soon, however, winds from the direction of Kennebunk blowing at what Mr Grose said seemedgale force began sweeping the flames nearer and nearer. At last the fire roaring through the dry tinder of the trees hit thehouse and barn across the road reducingthem to hot ashes Before this the three men received needed aid from two volunteers from Exeter, N H who drove up in a truck loaded with large drums of water, an absolute necessity when the Rocks water failed They asked if they could help and, of course, were welcomed.Mr Grose and Mr Leath arrived from Dedham at about 3 Monday afternoon. It was early Tuesday morning before they felt it was safe for them to leave On their way back to Massachusetts they stopped for food at a Hampton, N.H. restaurant. There Mr. Leath collapsed and fell to the floor unconscious from exhaustion He was revived. Father-in-law and Mr. Grose reached the Leath Dedham home still black from soot and climbed into their beds for what all must agree was a well-earned rest.This incident of the big fire may have been told before. However. I believe, if it has been, it is worthy of repetition and 1hope your newspaper does, tooPhilip Schuyler 97So.CompoRd Westport, ConnecticutOn vacation at The Morton Cottage Biddeford Pool
Newspaper Details
Biddeford Sanford Journal Tribune
Biddeford, Maine, US
Tue, Aug 23, 1977
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 03 Jul 2023
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