Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, October 10, 1910, Page 1

THE BEMIDJ1I DAILY P ONEER:Z" ' VOLUME 8. NUMBER 189 BEMIDJI, MINNESOTA, MONDAY EVENING., OCTOBER 10, 191). TEN CENTS PER WEEK. FIRE L0SS INCREASES; HUNDREDS OF L T powerless. Of course the fire alarms aroused the inhabitants and thus many were enabled to escape. The Story of Horror Not Yet Told. “But_the story of the blackened ruins has not been told and ghastly tales lie buried in the smouldering ruins for many a human form adds its contribution to the ash heaps. How many lost their lives can only be conjectured until the region traveled by the fire has been thorough- ly explored and all missing persons accounted for. One of First to Escape. “When I saw that Baudette was fated and that the flames might leap the river, as they later did, I hustled down to the railroad yard where I found a Capnadian Northern pas- senger train headed for International Falls. In the yards I picked up two children, a girl and a boy each about three years old. The boy, I after- ward learned, was the son of the yard-master. I took them on board the traiz and it is a gcod thing I did for they certainly would have been burned to death. “We made our way to the train through a shower of cinders. The air was oppressive and the heat was so intense that the rear coach of the train, which, because of the near approach of the flames, had been un- able to stop at the depot, was blis. tered. The engineer opened the throttle and we ran out of Rainy River at a lively clip and the trip to International Falls was made with- out accident. This was the first train out after the fire and there were but four persons on board from Baudette and Rainy River.” TELLS HOW BAUDETTE MELTED FROM THE MAP P. N. Kulseth Gives Vivid Description of Seas of Flame Which Broke With Startling Suddenness. RAN FOR LIFE DESPISTE RIDICULE Got Into Rainy River Just in Time to Hear Bells Clang Out Town’s Death Knell. P. N. Kulseth, of Beltrami, repre- senting a Minneapolis heating plant concern, arrived in Bemidji tonight direct from Baudeette and confirms the report of the destruction of prop- erty and human life and tclls a dra. matic story of his experience with the fire and gives a vivid description of the destruction of Baudette, of which he was an eye witness. When he left Rainy River, Friday night, half that town had been burned and the flames were making headway at the rate of from ten to twelve miles an hour. Mr. Kulseth said: Watched Town Melt From Map. "The newspaper reports of the fire at Baudette have not been exagger- ated and I know what I am talking about for I watched that village melt from the map. “I was in Baudette calling on the trade. I had been apprehensive all day as the town was dense with smoke. About 7 p. m. I became so BEMIDJI RUSHES AID T0 HOMELESS HORDES Special Train of Three Cars Furnished by M. & 1. Loaded With Pro- vision, Physicians and Help MILITIA GOES TO ACT AS GUARDS Ordered Out as Result of Talk With Governor Over Long Distance ]. Telephone. Although half a dozen towns and great stretches of woods together with humble homes of straggling settlers and hundreds of heads of live stock and hordes of wild animals driven to bay, have been consumed, the skies are still filled with the smoke of insatiable forest fires. Apprehension concerning the loss of life in the Baudette and Spooner region in the northern part of Bel- trami county is hourly increased by the reports received here which tell of the complete destruction of these two villages near the Canadian line as well as the annihilation of Pitt, a village of 100 inhabitants, Graceton, twice as large, and other settlements of that district. 1t has been impossible to confirm the approximate number of deaths which range from 200, to 500 owing to the demoralized condition of the wires tapping the fire zone. Only lumber-making KELLIHER IN GRAVE ~ DANGER OF DISASTER Kelliher missed destruction by forest fires last night by less than 40 rods. For three days 150 men had fought the fires and at least once the town had before been in grave danger. alarmed at the fire which was being driven against the town with a great crackling and intermitent detona- tions from forest explosions, and I hurried to the hotel and told the clerk that I was going to check out. He laughed at me and said that there was no real danger. Bells Clang; Whistles Blow. “I insisted that there was grave danger and got my grips and pro- ceeded on foot to hasten across the bridge to Rainy River. “Here I re-registered and began making business calls but had not been in Rainy River longer than three-quarters of an hour before we heard the Baudette bells clanging and the fire whistles screeching. Like a Blast From Hades. “Baudette had become aroused too late—the town was doomed. Nothing on earth could have stopped that mighty monster from the forest driven as a blast from the infernal regions by a wind Yesterday, a strong wind blew the flames toward the village and directly in their path lay the Ross & Ross cedar yards, the largest in the world containing 300,000 cedar poles and posts. The flames crept up so close that the fire fighters were unable to use the fire hose. The flames came from the south and southwest and raced through the most important messages-are per- mitted to be sent and the firstof these was a call for aid in bebalf of the 2,000 or more -homeless persons who tonight inbabit the blackened ash strewn heap of destruction. Bemidji responded to the call for aid by sending a staff of physicians, and a carload of provisions guarded by Company K. Minnesota National Guards, which, under instructions from Governor Eberhart, was order- ed out by Adjutant General Wood, as a result of a conversation over the long distance telephone today. This relief is being rushed to the devastated district on a special train of three cars. The train was furn- ished free by the Minnesota & In- ternational Railway Company and left here at 3 p. m. under the care of Conductor St. Cyr. The relief expedition is in charge of Sheriff A. B. Hazen and Deputy Sheriff A. G. Rutledge. Reports that looting had already begun re- much valuable timber and as a re- sult much logging will have to be done this winter, Just as the flames were creeping up to the buildings, the wind changed and by desperate efforts the fire was checked about mid- night. CLEARWATER GllllilTY SAFE with the power of a hurricane. The Town Goes Wild. “The town went wild. The streets filled with frantic persons who rushed in disorder toward the Rainy River bridge or to a train of box cars which had been hur- riedly collected.” ““As many as could clamber on board, while still others succeeded in making ihe Canadian side of the river foot, To presume that that al} escaped would be ndicul- ous, High School Boys Organize to Fight on Moment's Notice. Lurid Effert Produced. “The burning of Baudette was spectacular in the extreme. A cur- tain of smoke had darkened the sky and when the flames reached the buildings of the village a lurid and altogether weird effect was the result. Building after building yielded to the fury of the fire demon until the work of the flames was complete, the depot in a favored location, alone marking the site of what twenty- four hour hours before had been a thriving, prosperous and happy town. Many Explosions Heard. “Previous to the burning of the village, many’ explosions were heard and these were caused by the form- ing of gas in the swampy vegetation. Why so many persons refused to heed the warnings of the noisy flames isa mystery to me. When Bagley, Minn. Oct. 10—There is no danger of forest fires close to Bagley as all the fires are well in hand, but big fires are reported in the fine timber in township 143-37- 38. There are also bad fires in the vicinity of Gonvick where they cal- led for aid Saturday. Clearbrook reports fires in the timber north and east of that place from three to five miles and have sent men out to fight the flames. The Bagley high school boys, as well as all available men, have been formed into companies and are ready on instant call to go to any dangerous spot in the county. Up to the hour that this is written no lives have been endangered: and: no buildings or stock lost so. far as can be learned. The entire country is aroused and will, without question; hold the fire i eck, ¢ the place was past salvation the fire department assembled but was sulted in the determination to take the militia along to guard the stores as wellas to do whatever police work might be required of them. 35 of the militiamen responded to the hurry call for duty. The orders from St. Paul were that the men arm themselves with rifles and pre- pare themselves with two days’ rations. They are under command of First Sergeant Harry Geil. Although the .call for assistance was not received here until late Sun- day morning more than $300 werth of provisions were aboard the train, which pulled out at 3 p. m. and rushed along at a mile a mioute on its mission of mercy, orders having been issued giving it preference over all other traffic. 2 The provisions consist of flour, sugar, coffee and tea, canned goods and other groceries and ham, bacon and smoked fish. These sup- plies were purchased in the name of the Bemidji Commercial Club, al- though it is expected the cost will be finally paid by either the county or state, Mayor John C. Parker appointed the following committee of Bemidji business men who are aboard the special train to see that the goods were distributed where they would do ‘the. most good: ' T. J. Burke, president - Northern Wholesale Gro- cery Co; County Auditor Hayner; Register of Deeds Harris; W. R. ‘Mackenzie, secretary of the North- ern Minnesota Develgpmerit - Asso ation; G. E. Carson of the Bemidji byterian church. the train. Doctors Ward, Smith, Marcum and Henderson. Many private do: and clothing, Pigneer; Ray Murphy, undertaker; and Rev. S. E. P. White of the Pres. Five physicinns‘and Coroner M. E. Ibertson, equipped with medicines and surgeons’ supplies, were aboard The physicians are: Sanborn, 4 ions are also loaded on the “car including tents The special train arrive at Inter- national Falls about g p. m. but was delayed until 11 p. m., then proceeded on the Canadian North- ern tracks. A bulletin flashed back from Blackduck says: “Train ran through bad stretch of flames here and the extensive cedar yards of the Charles Carter Co. at Spur No. 117 between-Hines and Black- duck are on fire. There are 28 on board aside from militia and sheriff Hazen has sworn them in as deputies.” i all After he had superintended the starting of the relief train Mayor Parker dispatched a squad of men to Popusky and Nebish, 25 miles north of Bemidji where it isreported bad fires are raging. There bas been a brisk wind blowing all day and the possibility of further damage throughout this entire country is imminent. vicinity of Bemidji and there is in this city. May Need More Aid. The following message from B. Kinney, chairm: today. shelter and clothes. - 225, national Falls will be the only First Sergeant Geil in command need of provisions. continue.” ordered out. Bemidji, will assemble the men There are no fires in the immediate need of alarm on the part of any one having property, relatives or friends “and G, Emerson, secretary of the ‘ Inter- national Falls relief committee, was received in Bemidji at noon “International Falls citizens have opened their homes to refugees and all are cared for as to money, food, They number No state help needed here but if fire destroys Rainy River, Inter- fuge for inhabitants and there are 3,000 refugees now there so be.in readiness to send help on demand. Bemidji Militia now at Baudette will wire International Falls mayor today exact conditions as to likeli- hood of spread of flames and the High ‘winds The militia companies of Eveleth and Thief River Falls have been northern no C. re- of Capt. Otto of the Bemidji com- pany left for the fire district on a freight, this morning. Second Lieut. Kenneth Kelley, commanding officer of the members of the militia still in quick notice if the men are needed! The relief train was delayed at Ft. Francis until the regular Canadian passenger arrived this morning and the three cars were taken on toward Baudette and no word has since been received from it. The train also took relief coaches of provisions and Northern attached and other necessities sent from Duluth and Crookston. DIETZ FAGES CHARGE FIRST DEGREE MURDER Winter, Wis., Oct. 10—(Daily Pioneer Special Wire Service.)—The coroner’s: jury ia the .case of Johp Dictz, his- wife and two- children, who ‘were captured Saturday after Dietz bad been wounded and deputy sheriff killed, this afternoon teturned a verdict that tle deputy was killed by a'shot fired by some member of tke Dietz family .and chargiog murder in the first degree. Several carcasses of deer were found at the Dietz cabin and Dietz, will also be ated. SITE OF TWO TOWNS Not a Buikding Left Standing in Spooner and only Few in O!d Part of Baudette Efforts of Residents to Escape Des- cribed By Refugees Who are Now in Bemidji. A train of refugees arrived in Bemidji at 10 o'clock this morn- life has been most appalling and that it is reasonable to suppose that most of the four hundred missing persons were cremated in lonely settlers homes, struggling settlements and prosperous villages. Five miles southwest of Baudette, John Strand, a settler .with a wife and - eight children succeeded in crawling half a mile to the adjoining claim of Peter Svedlund, who had a small root celler. When the Strand family reached the Svedlund home, he found the celler door blocked and the celler jammed to the point of suffocation with other settlers who had rushed there as the last hope of refuge. Strand beat down the door and the smoke from the forest which filled the place, suffocated several of those on the inside but Strand man- aged to crowd his family inside and only three deaths resulted. Charles G. Mosen, head mill- wright of the Shevlin-Mathieu mill at Spooner, gives the following clear account of the destruction done an the deplorable incidents in connec- tion with the conflagration at Spooner and Baudette: “My wife had been ill with typhoid fever and is just recovering. At 8 o’clock Friday night I was waiting upon her when a man yelling at the top of his voice came to our house and said the forest fire was eating up the village. “I" had already retired but I jumped out of bed and started to dress when the flames roared go close to our house that I decided we had to make a quick dash for it or we would all be lost. “I called to the three older chil- dren, grabbed up the baby and pul- led my sick wife from the bed and we left the house, the children practi- cally naked, and I was not much better off myself. ““We were three-quartersof a mile from the depot and I bhurried my folks along the best I could, carry- ing the baby under one arm and dragging my wife with the other. «At the depot we found several hundred persons waiting for a train, snd we clambered aboard a train of box cars and were pulled out of danger. «There is not a single house left standing in the village of Spooner. The Shevlin-Mathieu mill which stands out quite a distance from the village, escaped the flames, The three churches in Spooner wzre consumed, as was also the school house. «The new part of the village of Baudette was wiped out to the last 'stick. Some of the buildings in the old part of Baudette still stand, including a hotel and two saloons. 2 “The bridge across the Rainey river was'burned.” *“The housekeeper for Albert Berg, former secretary of state and recent candidate for state senate against A. L.: Hanson, was burned to death. She was quiie an aged woman and proach: of the flames, which com- ly dntroygd Berg residen lage mas Bl ASHES MARK FORMER Govérnor—Eberhart iésues Call for Aid BERG'S HOUSEKEEPER CREMATED | W g <.t Stroig and Danger of Further Destruction Not ing and they confirm the earlier|zone, more than reports of the destruction of pro-|corpses are perty and declare that the loss of ashes which are the sole relic of became panic stricken with the ap-|Who buried himself in the creek. DEFECTIVE PAGF b1 [ | = IVES ARE LOST and Relief is Being Rushed in On Special Trains WINNIPEG SAYS 1,000 ARE DEAD Yet Passed---Thrilling Stories Told of Beltrami’s Horror. St. Paul, Minn,, Oct, 10 (Daily Pioneer Special Wire Service.)— According to reports received today from all points in the fire 500 charred strewn among the Spooner before the flames reached there. Bridges and culverts have been burned out, wires are down and traffic is impeded. Among the list of dead are: Julius Bratten, wife and five chil- dren, homesteaders; Ed Rulin, wife and seven children. George Weaver, homesteader: James Barbeau, wife and and six children. Charles Baker, homesteader. Mrs. Pearl Browns, nfant child; mother was badly burned in escap- ing; child was smothered. Julius Bord, wife and children. Carlo Lorenzo, homesteader, suffering from typhoid in cabin, in- jured. Walter Ferguson, head to feet. J. C. O’Neil and his whole family, including his oldest son William and little baby, seven in all, were smoth- ered to death. Mrs. P. Brown lost her child. Her millions upon millions of dollars’ worth of property. From Winnipeg comes the re- port that, according to information from railroad officials, the death list must approximate at least 1,000 human beings. From Crookston comes a message claimed to be backed by reliable in- formation that already 185 dead bodies have been recovered. The destruction of $3,000,000 worth of lumber, mill property and vast acres of timber bearing trees has been confirmed. . Governor Eberhart yesterday after- noon assembled the board of man- agers of the recent Conservation Congress for a conference at the state capitol. It was decided that|eyes were badly burned. imriediste _steps.toward furnishing| Julius Bord and family, eight in relief should be takenand this-morn-|all; Were going-to” bed when ~the ing the governor issued a‘proclama. |roof fell in before a gust of wind tion calling for aid and ,as presi-|and crackling timbers. The house dent of the Minnesota branch of the | was consumed. National Red Cross association, an-| Carlo Lorenzo, who laid sick of nounced that contributions in be-|fever in a lonely hut, was burned to half of the fire sufferers would be|death while crawling to safety. burned from received in St. Paul, Minneapolis,| Frank Ciffin, wife and five Duluth and Moorhead. children. The destruction at Spooner and| Tom Barr, homesteader near Pitt. McCumber, dren, M. Brennan, Rapid River. Gaffins, wife ane three children, Alfred Palm, homesteader. Three unknown dead on Rapid River. Nine dead bodies were seen on the Canadian Northern tracks by women who mounted horses and fled down the railroad. Baudette appears to have been com- plete and with the exception of the Shevlin-Mathieu saw mill, not a structure remains standing in Spoon- er and all of new Baudette, which in- cludes - the “entire busness section and most of the residences, was de- molished. Rainy River was saved after the Rat Portage Mill & Lumber Co. plant had been burned. At Inmternational Falls 64 bodies bave been recovered. Refugees are; A woman known only by the name swarming into that village and free|of “Kate,” a homesteader, was burn- trains have taken many hundreds to|ed to death as was also Mike Beaver Bemidji, Virginia, Duluth; the Twin|of Baudette. Cities and other points. ' Seven settlers between Baudette Thirty-five typhoid patients were|and Rapid River are known to be carried on improvised litters from |dead. wife and six chil. went to the Berg-home and en- deavored to rescue the housekeeper but she said she would not come out of the house and ten, minutes later the structure was smoldering ruins. “I personally know that out of a family of six persons by the name of Swenson, near my own home, three were burned to death. “Frank Larson, living' five miles out of Spooner, buried himself in the sloppy miskeg soil and stayed there with just his mouth and nose exposed ‘while the flames swept by with the roar and almost the speed of an express train. He crawled out none the worse for his experience and ran to Rainy River, where I heard him say that he saw no less than twenty- five persons lying in the woods some dead and others overcome with smoke and heat. He belieyes none can escape. “One man fourteen miles south of Baudette by the name of Edward Rulin, who has seven in his family, endeavored to persuade his folks to go with him to a nearby creek, but they refused and the -only one of the family to escape was Rulin bimself, It was the fire at Pitt that first aroused the inhabitants of Beaudette and they began to pack up, but the flames came tearing on at the rate of from ten to twelve miles an hour and bore down on the village with unexpected suddenress. “The fire seemed to leap as an ocean of flames from the treetops onto the buildings of the village and almost in the twinkling both Spooner and Baudette found themselves a mass of flames and it was the height of folly to attempt to fight the fire, “Those persons who had attempted to save their goods by packing them 1 found when they attempted to carry anything to the depot that it was impossible as the streets were crowd- ed and frantic and desperate men, women and children, who rushed in a disorderly mob to. the depot and B would not permit ‘any one to take 1 packages on board the train of box 5 cars which were filled to the limit. “How many persons failed to get on board that train I do not know, but those who did fail to board it or to make the bridge before it burned gave their bodies to the fire ged and their ashes now mingle with those of the destroyed villages. “Hundreds of heads of horses and - AL i S o Y e g l@nflnued on Page 4] "The village of Pitt was swept as : tely from the map as. though Kansascyclone bad done the work.