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€Srtat Tire in Topsliam ! ! !•On Saturday morning, 13th inst., nt about i half-past owe o’clock, the Great Mills situated on the upper side of the Androscoggin Bridge in Topsham, were discovered to be on tire underneath the main tloor. The alarm was im- i mediately given by the workmen, but notwithstanding the most extraordinary exertionswere made, the fire was not subdued'until the mills containing four saws and a lath machine together with a building connected and owned with the mills containing a clapboard and shingle machines, and about six hundred thousand feet ot lumber, and seventy-six thousand of shingles, were almost totally destroyed. About ninety feet of the Bridge, underneath which a large quantity of the lumber was piled, was also destroyed. The fire raged unabated until about seven o'clock, when by the almost superhuman exertions of the citizens. its progress was stayed, barely saving the llox Mill of Messrs. A. S. S. A. Perkins and Alvah Jameson, and the Toll House and a further destruction of the Bridge.The lire is supposed to have caught from a lire used by the workmen in preparing a meal.To the citizens of Topsham and Brunswick and especially the lumbermen, the students of Bowdoin College, and to the ladies of Topsham, w ho at different periods of the conflict lent their aid with a zeal worthy of imitation by some of the sterner sex, too much credit cannot be given for the exertions which were used.The Mills and lumber were owned as fol- ( lows: by John and ’William Barron, one saw valued at $2000, and lumber at about $1000 * j ba James and Hannah Thompson and Joshua ! Haskell, one saw at $2000, and lumber belonging to Haskell valued at about $1200 ; by Ja-bez and Nahum Perkins and David Scribner, one saw, $2000, and some lumber ; by Jcssc D. Wilson and O. E. Frost, one saw, $2000, and lumber belonging to Wilson valued at about $-3000. The Messrs. Barrons and Haskell were partly insured on Mills. Lumber not insured. The total loss as near as we could ascertain will not fall short of $1.3,000. Further particulars will be given in a few days.We visited the scene of destruction at about half-past eight o'clock. The fire was still ragir.g with great fury among the lumber, which continued at three o’clock, when we left, but no farther damage was apprehended.Notwithstanding the efficiency which is to he desired in a fire department, is lacking, as it appears to us, with our Brunswick and Topsham neighbors, we cannot refrain from noticing one feature of its arrangement. It is that by w hich the water of the Andruscoo8111 Ican be conveyed to any part of the two towns through the means of a stationary engine in the Cotton Mills lately occupied by Messrs. Kimball Sc Coburn, through hose, thus affording an unfailing supply of water for any number of engines. The benefit of this arrangement in this instance at least was apparent to every ouc present. The damage which might have ensued in its absence could not be calculated.
Newspaper Details
Daily Northern Tribune
Bath, Maine, US
Mon, Nov 15, 1847
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 14 Apr 2023
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