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Brief Overview |
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CHRISTMAS EVE, 1898
“Fire! Fire!” That word, dreaded by all, was especially
fearsome to those living in New Windsor in the nineteenth century. The
majority of buildings were constructed of fast-burning wood, and fire
equipment consisted of little more than a garden hose attached to a pump
and buckets of water handed down a line of “fire fighters.” Shortly
after midnight on Christmas morning, 1898, that dreaded cry rang out on
the chill winter air. The warehouse behind Dr. E. L. Emerson’s drug
store was burning. The fire moved slowly from building to building, from
west to east, until virtually the entire block was engulfed in flames.
There is some confusion concerning who first sounded the alarm.
Traditionally, the story goes that A. G. “Shorty” Youngberg was working
in the barber shop, saw a “flicker” of flame and spread the alarm.
Newspaper stories, the following week, gave conflicting reports...
Source: an excerpt from
the sesquicentennial book written by Pauline Larson. The book is to be
released June 24 2007
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