52 Ancestors Week 15: Fire

Question

Time for the next 52 Ancestors challenge...

Please share with us a profile of an ancestor or relative who matches this week's theme:

Fire

Share below.

You don't need to share every week to participate, but those who do will earn badges. If this is your first time participating and you don't have the participation badge, or if you pass a milestone (13 shared profiles in 13 weeks, 26 in 26, or 52 in 52) let us know here. For more about the challenge, click here.

Comments

I don’t have any old ancestor stories but quite a few years back we had a garage fire. Burned up everything including my husband ragtop mustang.  My son and his friend had just unfroze the engine. He was in jr high then.

One thing that they were able to get out was a Xmas gift for my dad. He did a lot of wood working and he needed a huge shop vac for the dust collector. He said every time he fired it up it smelt like a campfire.

Answer 1

I have the same story as Joelle above. My great-aunt [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Watts-9475 Maude Heritage], in her 70s and blind, ignited her clothing in her kitchen while lighting a fire in her stove and died from the burns. I think it must be an especially terrible way to die.

Comments

Richard, thank you for writing about the very sad story about your great aunt Maude. I wrote a comment to Kevin three answers below, so I won’t write anything, but to say that I feel that many of us need to try to be more careful while cooking.

Answer 2

Week 15 - Fire. The is the first one where I need to step aside to the sibling of an ancestor. Dr. Coote Molesworth-283 and family, were in one of the Molesworth family home's in London, when it caught fire one fateful night. According to the records, which we have from his family Bible, some died in the fire, and some died making the jump from the 3rd and 4th story windows. His record is as follows.

''This lady and her two daughters Mellissina and Mary were destroyed by a dreadful fire which happened at her house in Upper Brooks Street, near Grosyenor Square, London; together with the brother Capt.Usher and two women servants. The children's governess was killed by jumping from the fourth story; and Capt. Usher's man was so burnt that he died the next day. Her oldest daughter Harriet jumped from the second floor and falling on the iron spikes so wounded both her legs, that her right leg was immediately cut off above the knee. Her fourth daughter Louise jumped from the fourth story and brake her thigh, but falling on a bed by me thrown out, saved her life. Her youngest daughter Mary likewise fell on the said bed from the same height, but was very bruised so as to lose the use of her left arm. I hung by one hand near fifteen minutes till a ladder was brought to me. Thus we miraculously escaped by the especial providence of God. (This account was written by Coote Molesworth in his family Bible)''

Terrible incident, and a real insight to how they coped back around 1700. Our family is quite thankful to the many things that Coote had written in his Bible, in keeping the family history.

Comments

Good god. If they'd have a rope to climb down, or a fire escape, none of that horror need to have happened. I hope little Mary's arm healed and she got the use of it again.

Answer 3

The only fire that may have affected any of my family members was the fire of Ottery St Mary that burnt much of the village down in 1866. OSM is located in Devon, England.

My first cousin, 3x Removed, (niece of my 2x great grandfather) was later killed from the collapse of a burnt out chimney - burnt during that fire. Her name was Emma Rowe. She was just 16 years old.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rowe-5633

Answer 4

This is my first time participating in the 52-ancestors challenge.  When I saw the topic, I felt drawn to take part, even though the profile in question still needs some work, as my great-grandmother Barbara Haga nee Lisla was burned to death at age 52 in a horrible accident involving a kerosene-fueled cook stove.  The fuel can from which she was refilling the stove ignited and blew up in her hands, which initially made her, as the newspaper described it in gruesome terms, "a human torch."  The incident resulted in third degree burns all over her body, and although there was no hope of her recovery, she had to endure the trip along country roads to the nearest hospital, where she was conscious almost to the end.  I can only imagine the terrible agony she must have experienced.   

Comments

Kevin thank you for sharing the tragic story about your great grandmother. It reminded me of when my son was in a burn center for 8 days about 13 years ago. If a person where to walk down the hall there was a closed door where the severely burned patients were. I sent the time I was there getting to know other families, and I became friends with a family of a women that was near death from being burned while she was cooking. About six weeks later, my son went back for a checkup, and I asked the nurses if the lady that got burned by her stove had survived. They asked which lady, and my comment was to ask if there were several, and I was told, yes, it was a common accident. I don’t think that people realize that stove fires are common even today.

Answer 5

William Graham https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Graham-2856 was the husband of Mary Shields, a 1st cousin 4 times removed.  He was a man of eccentric habits, possessed of mechanical genius, and he accumulated a large estate in Jefferson County, Tennessee.  When Mary died, William Graham sent away his girls, Eliza and Mary, aged 11 and 8, to live with their uncle Dr. Samuel Shields.  Being left alone, William lived in the house beside his store.

On the night of 17 September 1857, William was sleeping in the house when there was a tremendous explosion; the store was blown to atoms, and the house took fire and was entirely consumed together with the body of William, a large amount of goods, some money and valuable papers such as notes, accounts and public securities.

The next morning thimbles and other articles from the store were found on the other side of the Nolichucky River, being blown from the force of the explosion.

The mystery attached to this affair calls out for a story to be told about William's life and death.  A few years back I read at one sitting "Only a Few Bones," (2000) by John Philip Colletta, a genealogical detective story that explores the story of another mysterious fire and which I highly recommend.

Answer 6

I struggled a bit with this one. I seem to remember there was one ancestor I had who might have been burned at the stake by Bloody Mary back in the 1500's, but I can't find that trail now and it may have just been an unrelated profile I saw several months ago. So I will go with my 3rd great grandfather, James Pearson (1805-1883). He lived in Chester co. Pennsylvania. He was a blacksmith (although I think he also worked as a farmer... this line had a number of people with a wide range of practical skills). And of course, blacksmiths have the ability to use fire in a productive way, so his is a peaceful story, no destructive fires! He lived his whole life in Pennsylvania, married Sarah Wagenseller and had twelve children. 

Sarah came from a German family who also had a number of practical skills, and some of them did indeed, make and sell wagons, for which you would need a good blacksmith. (For the last six months, I have been working on the project of entering as many Wagenseller profiles as I can from the book "The History of the Wagenseller family in America", which I discovered after creating Sarah's profile... I've become strangely obsessed with these distant cousins and have enjoyed improving my genealogy skills... but that's another story). 

His son James, my ancestor, came west to Indiana and settled in Ohio, where he did a little bit of everything; farming, boot and shoemaking, a self-trained lawyer and justice of the peace, postmaster, etc. 

The Pearsons may have been Quakers; James was buried in the Bradford Friends Burying Ground, with several other family members. There are stories that the family was associated with William Penn in the early days of Pennsylvania. I can't confirm those things. But as I've fleshed out the lives of James and Sarah and their extended family, I have become fascinated by these people, with their practical skills that still speak to me. I remember the first time I ever saw a blacksmith demonstrating his craft, harnessing fire to make iron glow red-hot, and making the tools that helped tame the wilderness for generations who came after.

Answer 7

My 3rd cousin 3 times removed perished in a house fire.

BURRAGATE FIRE KILLS RIDER

A prominent show ring rider, Mr. Leslie James "Copper" Farrell, was burnt to death on Friday night.

The tragedy occurred when the house in which Mr. Farrell was sleeping, at Burragate, was completely destroyed by fire.

The late Mr. Farrell's father, Mr. David John Farrell, 74, who was in the same house, escaped from the fire with minor burns.

The two men had been to a cattle sale at Wyndham, on Friday, and had returned home later that evening. Mrs. Farrell, the wife of Mr. Farrell snr., was in Sydney on holidays.

The two men cooked a meal and sat by an open fire, Mr. Farrell snr., going to bed first in a room in the front of the house. His son slept in a room at the rear of the house.

Mr. Farrell said that his son had gone outside to attend to the horses and after they had gone to bed, they talked for a while through the room partitions. Later, at about 10 o'clock, Mr. Farrell heard his son call out and he went to investigate. He found that the house was ablaze and he could do nothing to help his son.

The small weatherboard house had tanks for a water supply and was about one and a half miles outside the small settlement of Burragate. Mr. Farrell attracted the attention of Mr. Stan Umback who lived about half a mile away, but there was nothing that could be done.

Constable J. Trent, who investigated the tragedy with Detective J. Avery, of Bega, said the house burnt fiercely, being lined with a light inflammable type of lining. The fire may have started from the open fireplace as electric power was not connected.

The date of the coroner's inquest into the tragedy had not been fixed yesterday.

Answer 8

i dont have any firefighters in my tree nor any that used fire for their job, but i did have a house fire, the story is here

Answer 9

When my mother, Sheila Rea Bevan, was a girl of 5 or 6 years old, her house caught fire. Her bedroom was on the top floor, and the firemen came up and took her out the window. There were pictures in the paper and everything (which were lost in the sands of time). The house burned down, but they rebuilt it on the same spot.

She always had a bit of a princess-in-the-tower-come-rescue-me complex, and I wonder if it had any basis in this early trauma. There´s a wonderful song that Peggy Lee sang called ¨Is That All There Is?¨ in which she describes her house burning down as a little girl (among other things), and my mother (a singer, like me) loved that song.

Answer 10

Back in the days when the Pennsylvania RR was very important to the life of Fort Wayne, my grandfather was an inspector and this brother Henry was a fireman. I never knew if this uniform was what he worked in,I have not found any tragedies, but in my grade school days our home had a coal furnace. One morning I came into the living room and the windows were covered with beautiful frost ferns. The fire had gone out and created all that beauty. Sleeping under army blankets, no one noticed the cold.

Comments

Shirley, thank you for sharing the wonderful photo of very handsome Henry. I thought it was interesting, especially since my grandmother’s first husband was a railroad fireman, and he might have worn a uniform like his.

---

Thanks.

Answer 11

Blacksmiths needed fire to create the hot coals used to fuel their forge. In this forge, they made items our ancestors needed in their daily lives…axes, hoes, hammers, nails, candleholders, fireplace racks, to name a few.

 

They also made cooking utensils. Those cast iron pots and pans celebrity chefs have made so popular have their origins in the pots and pans blacksmiths made for our ancestors.

 

My great grandfather Mathias Nielsen was the blacksmith for Grundfor, Aarhus, Denmark, a small town situated between cities of Randers and Aarhus. He was born 23 September 1825 a few miles north of Grundfor in Skader Parish, one of 7 children born to Niels Christensen Kudsk, a farmer, and Kiersten Christensdatter.

 

On 5 May 1857 Mathias married Mette Kirstine Poulsdotter. Mathias and Mette had 7 sons, my grandfather, Jørgen Martinus (aka George), being their youngest.

 

Mathias died 7 March 1885 at the age of 59. My grandfather immigrated to America five years later.

 

No article about blacksmithing would be complete without paying homage to the infamous poem “The Village Blacksmith” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

“Under a spreading chestnut-tree the village smithy stands; the smith, a mighty man is he, with large and sinewy hands, and the muscles of his brawny arms are strong as iron bands. …”

 

#52Ancestors  #WikiTree  #Genealogy  #Denmark  #Nielsen

Answer 12

I'm late in responding this week. I'm doing some online teaching/reviews to free up colleagues who are working in ERs and ICUs.

My maternal grandfather (George-7147) was a fire fighter. He loved the work, but did not love the heartbreak and loss that came with fires. He worked in Milwaukee during the 1940s - 1950s. A few months before my grandfather died in 1976, there was a 5 alarm fire in downtown Milwaukee. He was watching it on TV with such longing. An old, retired firefighter. He was frail with congestive heart failure. I said, "OK, Sparky, get in the car." I drove him downtown where the fire was still raging. We walked within 2 blocks of the fire and he was explaining to me what the firefighters were doing and why and what they would do next. The then fire chief saw us (he knew my grandfather - it's a brotherhood) and came over and asked my grandfather if the firefighters were doing what they were supposed to do. It was so endearing that this current chief was honoring this "old fire fighter." They spoke for just a few minutes, then the chief returned to the work at hand.

It was a joy to see his eyes light up...likely with memories his youth and work as a fire fighter serving his community. While home, building, forest, etc. fires that destroy are not an upbeat topic, the people who combat them do a huge service.

Come to think, I turned 75 today, about the same age as my grandfather when this 5-alarm fire occurred. Our fight now is not fire, though. It's Covid-19.

Comments

Thank you for your work, Carol.

Answer 13

My husbands father, Roger, was terrified of flying.  It was a huge deal to get him out to our wedding.  This wasn't just a "i'm afraid of flying" fear. 

My husband told me how his dad was in the Vietnam War, and one at least two occasions, his plane was under fire, and was shot out of the sky.

Answer 14

I'm a bit late posting, but I wrote a short account of a story my grandfather told about his childhood home burning.

https://rhymeschemesanddaydreams.wordpress.com/2020/04/17/52ancestors-in-52-weeks/

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cook-16528

Answer 15

52 Ancestors Week 15: Fire

I feel so comfortable on this subject. My husband has been a firefighter for over 35 years, and his brothers, Roger (Chief), David and Tom, our nephews, Jim (current Chief), Brian, Jeff, Adrian, Eric, Alex, Austin, Billy, and a brother-in-law, Bill have all been on the department.

But on the subject of fire, Mitchell Cantway is the guy. Mitch is the great-grandfather of my niece, Janice. 

The first fire department in Illinois was formed in 1832. In 1835 an Ordinance was passed commanding owners and dwellers to go promptly to the scene of a fire with their very own personal fire water bucket, which was identified by the painting of their initials thereon. And I know you know the next fact: this is where the "fire bucket brigade" got it's name.

Well, Momence was a little behind times. We were not formed until 1834. There were men that ran when there was a fire, but not an organized group. 

A group of men who always went together to put out fires—organized a fire department and raised enough money to buy a fire engine. Mitch Cantway said that at the call of "fire" twenty or thirty men would grab the rope (the engine came equipped with about thirty feet of rope for pulling). Often the roads were so bad that someone would have to go to the livery stable for a team and wagon to come pull the fire engine out of the mud.

Here is a picture of Mitch Cantway with his first fire engine.

By the way, Mitchell was a plumber, by trade, and owned his own plumbing shop.