Fire in Arcadia, 1882

SCHMALFELDT, ARFF, SLATER, MUELLER, BARR, BOYSON, OLTMANN

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 5/19/2007 at 16:35:13

I translated the following article from Der Carroll Demokrat, a German-language newspaper published in Carroll, Iowa, between about 1874 and 1920. It was originally published on Friday, 16 June 1882. Any information in brackets or notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

The Fire in Arcadia

Friday afternoon a fire was discovered in the blacksmith shop occupied by Mr. Fred Schmalfeldt. Everything possible was done to halt the spread of the flames, but it was in vain and within a short time the entire workshop burned.

The Northwestern Hotel, property of Mrs. Arff and Mr. W. J. Slater, stood directly east and within a short time it was enveloped in flames and destroyed. Mr. Slater lost between $400 and $500 in furniture because he had no insurance. The building was insured for $1500.

The building west of the workshop belonged to Rudolf Müller. He used the upper floor as a residence, while the ground floor was used by D. Barr as a saloon. Müller had no insurance and he lost about $1200. It is very difficult for him because during the last two years he has had a great deal of bad luck. Niles Boysen’s blacksmith shop was torn down in order to save Mr. Oltmann’s hotel, which stands just east of it.

The people of Arcadia are thankful that the fire was not worse than it was.