Kewaunee County & the Great Fire of October 8, 1871

 

In  the decades leading to this year’s 150^th anniversary of Great Fire - a.k.a. the Peshtigo Fire -  far more about the origins, deaths and manner of death, and extent of the fire have become well-known, however there are many who continue to believe the “old wives' tales” handed down over the years. With the passage of time, other large area fires were “lumped in” to the Great Fire. The weather patterns responsible for Wisconsin’s greatest natural disaster wrought havoc in other states and after 150 years, there still remains much to be learned.

Wikipedia says, "Occurring on the same day as the more famous Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo fire has been largely forgotten, even though it killed far more people. Several cities in Michigan, including Holland and Manistee and Port Huron, had fires on the same day."

The Midwest was dry in 1870-71, and, in northeast Wisconsin, the slash from ruthless destruction of the forests baked in the hot dry air for months. It was the weather forming over the middle of the country that created the winds aimed at Wisconsin on October 8, 1871. Massive temperature changes created strong winds that fanned fires into conflagrations, creating walls of flame as much as 5 kilometers wide (a little over 3 miles) and 1 kilometer high. Firestorm at Peshtigo authors Denise Gess and William Lutz discussed vitrification and the sand transformed to glass, indicating that temperatures reached over 1,000 degrees.

In a 2020 interview, Peter Leschak, author of Ghosts of the Fireground, told Minnesota Public Radio listeners that air temperatures during the fire were “likely between 260-370 degrees C, or 500-698 F. To put that into perspective, cookies generally bake from 350-400 degrees F while a pizza is perfect at 400-425 degrees F. Leschak further says that temperatures of 260-370 degrees C are hot enough to combust hair. And they did.

The great fire was quenched by rain beginning the night of the fire, October 8, and into the next day, and by the decrease in wind velocity. Temperatures in the 80s on October 8^th plummeted to 41 degrees after the fire went through, leaving survivors to freeze in the elements. Some survived the fire only to die of exposure within a few days. Survivors were without food and water. Wells, rivers, and streams had mostly dried up, however, where there was water, there were dead bodies. Water was unfit to drink.

Long before the 1871 fire, there were often ignored early warnings about lumbering and the destruction of Wisconsin’s magnificent forests. Our immigrating ancestors knew they had trees to last a lifetime, but what they needed was food and the desire to grow prosperous. The thick forests stood in the way.

The year 1871 was one of fire in the northern mid-west, the eastern states and in Canada. For years, the fire was known as the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin’s peninsula. Door County’s Belgian-populated towns saw unspeakable horrors, but so did Kewaunee County. That’s a story few know. The Night It Rained Fire: Kewaunee County and the Great Fire of 1871 is at the publisher now.  While the compilation touches southern Door and eastern Brown Counties, its purpose is the largely unknown and untold story of Kewaunee County in the Great Fire. 

In October 1871, populace of the county’s northern towns knew the end of the world was coming. People died of suffocation or burned like candles. Heads and limbs were burned to a crisp and separated from bodies. Plowed ground burned. Fires burned underground. After came graft and fraud. If there was an angle, more than likely somebody thought of it. Insurance companies even foreclosed on those whose policies they carried. Those lawsuits went on for 25 years. The stories go on.

The fire was far greater than imagined 150 years later. Every 1871 Kewaunee County resident experienced the fire or its aftermath in one way or the other. If your ancestors were in 1871 Kewaunee County, they experienced the fire. Some survivors could never bring themselves to ever mention the day they felt was the end of the world. The horror and the terror were unspeakable.

When the Night Rained Fire will be released about August 1.

Note: The book is available thru Yardstick Books, 317 Steele St. Algoma, 920-487- 8174, and Algoma Public Library, 406 Fremont St., Algoma.