Mt. Carmel Fire, 1889

MEIS, ROTTLER, WIEDERIN, WIEVEL, THIELEKE, KRAUSE, HOFFMANN

Posted By: david reineke (email)
Date: 1/20/2005 at 19:15:48

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, 12 April 1889. Any information in brackets or notes at the end is my own explanation. It reads as follows:

The bell of the Mount Carmel church rang out frightfully in the night between Friday and Saturday, calling the residents of the small town out to fight the flames. In full blaze, the fire was already spreading from the stall and the corncrib on the Meis property before it was discovered by the housekeeper of the local priest. The discovery was due to the fact that Father Ruttler [should be Rottler] was seriously ill. The housekeeper, who had just finished preparing a medicinal drink for her employer, looked outdoors and at first thought the church tower was burning, but on closer examination she discovered the actual location of the fire and ran to sound the alarm. But when the residents quickly came to the rescue, the horses belonging to August Wiederin, which were in the stalls, were already suffocated, and the people could only try to ensure that the flames did not advance further, because if the fire had just reached the blacksmith shop, then Hoffmann’s property, the church rectory, schoolhouse, convent, the Krause property, and Mr. Wievel’s property would have fallen irretrievably to the fire since the wind would have carried the sparks and heat in that direction. The value of the burned property, namely Wiederin’s horses, horse harnesses, 300 bushels of corn belonging to Aug. Thieleke and Conrad Meis, as well as the structure, amounts to $800. There was no insurance. August Wiederin unquestionably suffered the most grievous loss because he had purchased the horses with his hard-earned wages which he had saved through the utmost frugality and which represented almost his entire property. It was a hard, discouraging blow for him, but he bore it with the stoicism of a philosopher.