Notable Fires
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Of the notable fires the first was
that of December 14, 1867, when the Reformed Dutch church built in
1814 was burned. The day (Saturday) was bitterly cold. At eleven
o'clock there was a funeral service in the church for Silas
Metcalfe, for many years an honored Principal of the Academy and
prominent in the social and church life of the village. Through
over-heating possibly, or because of an unknown defective flue, fire
started beneath the floor and was well under way before noticed at
about one o'clock. Within two hours little was left except the bare
walls. The pulpit Bible, communion table, sofa, chairs, strips of
carpet, and a few hymn books were saved, but beyond these nothing.
An oaken chest behind the organ, filled with old letters and other
valuable papers, might have been carried out, but in the excitement
was forgotten, for which we have not ceased to reproach ourselves.
The bell was largely melted before its remnants fell. What of the
molten metal could be gathered up was recast into small table bells
which were sold for one dollar each at the remarkably successful
fair, July 4, 1868. |
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The much greater fire of May 9, 1880, originated in a saloon kept by
John Tracey, where, for some never explained reason, a light was left
burning after closing of the saloon near midnight. Soon thereafter two
men who were passing, noticing indications of fire, burst in the door
and found the interior all ablaze and the flames uncontrollable by any
available means. The fire spread both ways and the entire block, from
Bradley's Hotel to and including the late David Van Schaack's law
office, then occupied by Mr. W. H. Atwood, was soon a mass of smoldering
ruins. It was with difficulty that the building east of the hotel and
now owned by Mr. Charles M. Bray, and the home of Mrs. Van Schaack on
Broad Street were saved. The roof of Mr. C. Herrick's building (now
Lindenwald Hotel) was several times ablaze. As noted in the record of
the Trustees of the Village the buildings destroyed were: The Hotel of
William Bradley; Store of Jacob Cook, used as a Hat Store and Post
Office; Saloon of J. Tracey; Barber Shop of G. Post; Saloon of Hugh
Gardner, building owned by Daniel Herrick; Harness Shop of C. E. Covey;
Tin Shop of C. Palmer; Barber Shop of A. Bauer; Law Office of W. H.
Atwood; Barns, etc. As all know, nearly the whole of the burned district
has been rebuilt with a much better class of brick buildings now
occupied by the Kinderhook Knitting Co., John Trimper and the Gage
Brothers. The Van Schaack Law Office which adjoined A. Bauer's Barber
Shop, after which came Palmer's Tin Shop, was not rebuilt.
The next serious fire was the burning of the cotton mill, May 5, '82. It
was then owned by Russell Handy and stood about on the site of the
present Albany Southern station house. Its destruction was a great loss
to our village and especially to the many who had been employed therein.
Our most spectacular fire as regards scenic effects was the burning of
Canoe (Beaver) mill, Valatie. It was during the memorable blizzard,
March 11, 12, 1888, and when the storm was at its height at night. The
sky was filled with snowflakes as thickly, and driving as fast and
furiously as could be. Only near the doomed building could the fire be
definitely located through the blinding snow which so diffused the light
of the flames that (with apologies to Shakespeare) it did,
"The multitudinous flakes incarnadine, making the heavens one red"
The separate flakes were of a glowing pink as they fell about our homes
two miles away. So vivid was the fiery glow that some, fearing the roofs
of their own homes were aflame, rushed out into the storm to see. And
there were those who thought that the end of the world was at hand. The
burning of that large mill was a great loss to Valatie than was the
burning of our own to us.
Of the blizzard we need say but briefly, that while much less severe
here than to the south of us, none then living had ever seen its likes
before. We remember seeing the snowdrifts concealing the top of the
doorframe of the house opposite. We recall crawling as best we could
along the top of the fence east of us, and wading far a field when
obliged to venture out. We recollect the tunnel over the sidewalk near
Jacob Cook's house, though which men passed for several days. How all
travel was suspended and we without mails and every other communication
with the outside world for three or four days; how the supplies of milk
and food began to grow scanty and would have failed except for the
resource of canned goods, none who passed through those scenes will ever
forget. We do not recall, however, that there was much if any actual
suffering here. In due time the storm abated and by slow degrees paths
and roads were opened up and mails and travel facilities restored. And
when, Thursday afternoon, we had papers to read we found that, compared
with many other places, Kinderhook had fared very well through an
experience not wholly unwelcome once in a lifetime for its
impressiveness not without high moral teaching. |
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