On May 10th, 1914 a major fire began in Manito during the
shift of Night Marshall Edward Naven.
Naven discovered the fire not long after it first started but once the
fire reached the heavily oil soaked work bench it reached the point of
no-return. Naven rushed his 63 year old
body to the Manito Hotel (Rollerdome) to begin ringing the alarm bell. The volunteer fire department had little if
any effective equipment in the era when bucket brigades were often the most effective
fire fighting device a small town had.
By the time a significant number of fire fighters had been
aroused from their deep sleep, the fire had already destroyed the Brenner and
Hendricks Harness Shop and reached the Marshall Hardware's storage sheds not
far behind the harness shop. Near the
back of the harness shop was a doorway that led into the recently completed
Pollard and Gordon Garage that bordered the alley. Once the fire burnt through the door it soon
engulfed the garage. Several cars were
inside the garage, three were pushed outside but four cars were destroyed in
the fire.
Marshall's main building facing Broadway was 30 years old
and was entirely of "frame" construction. Two new cars inside were rescued and the
entire supply of tires were also pulled from the fire's path. The company's business records were also
rescued. Many other records were trusted
to the safety of the company's safe but the safe was bulged and thought to have
ruined most documents inside, but two days later when the door was finally
opened many papers had survived.
Dimmig's restaurant building which also housed one of the
village's telephone services and a residence was the last building to
burn. Many felt that Dimmig's could have
been saved but without a secure water source and adequate fire fighting equipment
it ended up being a total loss. The
Bloomington Pantagraph reported that the fire caused about $75,000. In today's money adjusted only for Cost of
Living $75,000 of 1914 dollars would be
equal to $1,830,000 but an estimated economic loss of $35,300,000.00.
Beside the phone service destroyed in the Dimmig Building, a
second service was also destroyed leaving Manito with only the ability to
communicate with the outside world via telegraph.
Most of the business destroyed in the fire never
re-opened. The harness shop re-opened in
an existing building east of the alley that was not affected by the fire. The Pollard & Gordon garage rebuilt in the same location. In 1915 the People’s State Bank acquired the
former location of Dimmig’s Restaurant for their new building. Also the Citizen’s Phone Company built a new
switching service just north of the former site of Marshall’s. watch the video below. https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9vu29as5kg05wa/FIRE%20STORY.mp4?dl=0
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