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In The News
The Daily Alaskan.
Skagway, Alaska.
Wednesday Morning, January 17, 1900.
Vol. III, No. 14.
Page 1.
FIRST BIG FIRE IN A WHOLE YEAR.
The Brannick Hotel and An Adjacent Building Burned to the Ground.
ACTIVITY OF FIRE BRIGADE SAVED THE TOWN.
Wind Blowing a Forty Mile Gait, and no Building South Was Considered Safe.
Firemen Work Heroically. Total Loss, Estimated, $10,500.
The Brannick hotel and Warner's paint store, on Fourth avenue near State street,
were burned to the ground between 2 and 3 o'clock this morning. The building
occupied by the paint store belonged to Dr. J. A. Cleveland.
The losers and their losses are:
E. J. Brannick, $10,000.
Dr. J. A. Cleveland, $450.
F. E. Warner, $200.
The fire started at 2 a.m. from a defective flue in the rear of the Brannick
hotel, and within five minutes after it was first noticed the whole Brannick
hotel seemed ablaze, and the heavens were aglow for blocks around.
A northerly gale was blowing all the time, and its cold and unmerciful breath
fanned the greedy flames to greater and greater fury, until only a few minutes
after they burst from the inside of the building the whole structure was
enveloped in the blaze and was burning furiously.
The wind swept myriads of sparks to the southward, and the air seemed alive with
the dancing fire flies for a block or two beyond the immediate center.
Ten or fifteen minutes after the Brannick started to burn the Cleveland building
was afire and rapidly being devoured.
Stores on the north side of the street and the Remick blacksmith shop, right to
the east of the Brannick, were threatened, but the firemen and volunteers worked
heroically wetting down house fronts ad tops and prevented the spread of the
flames. For a while it seemed as though Clayson's furnishing store, Carroll &
Col's general merchandise store, the Bank of Alaska, Everest's merchandise
store, and other buildings in the same block would be victimized by the all
devouring element, but the diligent and fearless effort of the city's bravest
men proved triumphant, and all that valuable row and, perhaps, many others
beyond were saved. The Clayson building was on fire several times, but was saved
by timely applications of water.
The firemen did splendid work, and that right in the midst of an Arctic gale,
carrying with it a driving stinging snow. Near the fire the snow and the cold
did not trouble so much, but on the outside, where trucks and hose had to be
handled and couplings made to hydrants the keenest cold was felt. The boys
seemingly did not mind the cold, and took hold with vim. Four or more streams of
water were kept playing on the big fire, and the firemen and private citizens
industriously carried out furniture, clothing and whatever else thee was to be
found that was movable from the Brannick and the Warner store. Some carried
furniture, goods and private belongings from stores on the opposite side of the
street and nearby buildings on the flanks sides, but it later proved to have
been unnecessary.
Very little of the property of the Brannick was saved. The guests got out the
greater part of their baggage, but only a little of the furniture was saved. F.
E. Warner, owner of the paint shop, saved the greater part of his stock, but
probably lost, including articles in the rear part of the building, where he
lived with his family, goods to the amount of $200, and belonged to Dr. J. A.
Cleveland, manager of the Common Sense Transportation Company, who has been a
guest at the Brannick the last several months. He bought the lot and property
two or three months ago from J. St. Clair Blackett and John Patten as a
compromise measure between the parties, the lot having been jumped by Patten. P.
Kern bought the rear of the lot, on which stands the buildings occupied by the
Pacific Meat Company and F. Woland, the tailor. The buildings, were dangerously
near the fire, but were saved by the hard and diligent work of a small bucket
brigade. The thermometer was at zero and a terrible wind was blowing, yet these
men and many others were hurrying through the snow with buckets of water,
scrambling over the slippery housetops, handling streams with small hoses.
Even in the rear of the burning Brannick hotel the property owners or occupants
were plying small streams of water on the fences and outhouses, but the most
heroic work was on the buildings on the south side of Fourth street. The smoke
and cinders were driven straight in that quarter, and enveloped the whole front
of the buildings facing the Brannick, yet men scaled ladders and roofs, and
fought without great regard to the benumbing cold and the occasional splashes
from the water. One here in particular was the man on the front and very top of
Everest's building. There, in the teeth of the gale and the very hall of sparks,
and almost within reach of the tongues of flame, he played a small stream of
water down the store front, and his efforts were not in vain.
The Brannick hotel was built and furnished at a cost of $10,000, and was owned
by E. J. Brannick, formerly of Portland. Mr. Brannick was in the house when the
fire started and worked with all his strength to save what he could. He finally
gave up, and walked the street viewing the flames and watching the crowds. While
on the street he said, "When I was with my mother in Los Angeles a few weeks ago
she did not want me to come back to this country, and said as I left, 'I wish
your old hotel would burn.' Her wish is fulfilled."
There were three stories in the Brannick, and the flames started from a
defective flue in the rear of the building. The house extended all the way from
the sidewalk to the alley. Only the second floor was furnished for lodgers.
There was no restaurant in connection. A bar was once operated in the house but
it had been closed and the fixtures were left in the house.
Much sympathy was felt for Mrs. Clayson and her daughters when the Clayson store
was threatened. The Rev. Sinclair, of Bennett, approached Mrs. Clayson to ask
her if he could do anything, and the woman who has been almost prostrated with
grief for a week by the missing of a much loved son, in quest of whom another
son is absent, told her despair and grief in more than volumes of words would
express by simply dropping her head with a slight shake and sighing, "Oh."
There were no casualties and no one was seriously injured though Mrs. Butler,
the housekeep at the Brannick, narrowly escaped losing her life. She was soundly
asleep in the adjoining room from the one in which the fire started and was
awakened just in time to escape the flames.
Chief Fleming who was everywhere present was frozen but not seriously. He was
wet from head to foot and the zero temperature did the rest. C. E. Cole, who did
heroic work with Hose Co. No. 2, was injured by having his kneed pierced with a
nail. A ladder fell on P. Lowe, foreman of Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1, and he was
carried away senseless, though it is thought the injury is not serious.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANOTHER DRUG STORE.
William Britt to Open One on Sixth Avenue - Goes for Stock.
Mr. William Britt, formerly clerk in N. K. Wilson's drug store, will open a drug
store in the room now occupied by Mr. Wilson, as soon as Mr. Wilson moves into
the new Tapper building at the corner of State Street and Fifth Avenue. Mr.
Britt is having his fixtures made in Skagway and will go south on the next boat
to leave, where he will probably procure a fresh stock of drugs, perfumery,
stationery, etc. specially selected for the trade.
Mr. Britt has had fifteen years experience in the drug business, eight years in
this country and seven years in Norway, Germany and France. He is a graduate of
the pharmacy apartment of the University of Norway.
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Page 2.
BIRD NOT TO HANG.
J. Homer Bird, sentenced to be hanged February 9 at Sitka for the murder of his
mining partners, Herling and Patterson, on the Yukon,, eighteen months ago, will
not be executed on that date. His appeal to thee supreme court of the United
States was granted by Judge Johnson, which postpones the execution indefinitely.
Bird was sentenced at the conclusion of his trial in Juneau about two months
ago. The trial lasted two weeks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SKAGWAY PEOPLE RETURN.
J. A. Nettles and Dr. M. F. Hall arrived from Boston yesterday on the Cottage
City, and were welcomed by many friends in this city.
"The Cape Nome fever is very general throughout the whole of the east and many
are preparing to come this way," said Mr. Nettles yesterday. "A large number
will come from Boston."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SKAGWAY GIRL MARRIES.
Miss Bertha Matlock, daughter of Mr. J. D. Matlock, formerly of Skagway and
Bennett, and niece of W. F. Matlock, of this city, was married to Mr. E. A.
Emmons at her father's residence in Dawson on New Year's day. Mr. Emmons is the
Dawson representative of New York capitalists and a brother of the Messrs.
Emmons & Emmons, the Portland lawyers.
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Page 4.
HOTEL ARRIVALS.
Occidental - J. D. Kelsey, Miss C. Bernice.
Mondamin - H. Leach.
Dewey - Chas. Mathews, J. C. Burns, N. T. B. Pentreath, T. A. Hecker, B.
Mansfield, D. Menzies.
Pacific - P. O'Brien, T. Wood, C. H. Beers, J. T. White, A. Faber, B. Johnson,
C. Anderson, H. H. Morgan.
Golden North - A. H. Clerk, T. A. Woodruff, A. Clmer, J. O. Hall, Geo. Rayne, J.
Smith.
Brannick - D. W. Ding, J. Dalton.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
H. G. Dalby has refitted his office, on Broadway, and now has one of the neatest
and most comfortable of quarters in steamboat row. A new counter has been put in
with incased glass topped plans of the ships of his fleet, and the wall has been
tastily papered and adorned with pictures.
W. G. Mogeau, who has been with the Arctic Meat Co. for the past eight months,
returned on the Cottage City yesterday afternoon and has opened a meat market in
the building formerly occupied by the Canadian Bank of Commerce. His fixtures
are amongst the best in the city, and were transferred by Mr. Mogeau's old
market in California to this city. Mr. Mogeau made friends while in Skagway and
understands his business. He says he has come to stay.
Attorneys J. H. Cobb and F. D. Kelsey, of Juneau, passed through Skagway
yesterday on their way to Sitka.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Dortero's Confectionery Store. Fruits, candies and nuts. 428 Broadway.
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