News: Clark County, Wis. - Forest Fires (12 Sep 1901)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Payne, Hohenstein, Green

----Source: The Neillsville Times (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) September 12, 1901

Forest Fires (Southern Clark County, Wis. - 1901)

The forest fires south of us have been doing a lot of damage during the week past.  The James Payne farm in Levis was in the path of the fire and the house burned, many tons of hay in stacks on the big marshes have been burned, farmer Hohenstein’s house was burned, the settlers in south of Carlisle have been fighting fire day and night and over west, in Hewett, much damage has been done.  In Jackson County the losses range into the thousands of dollars. There has been a great deal of gross carelessness in the matter of setting fires by those who are clearing land, and the law should be enforced by the fire wardens.  On Friday last, black clouds of smoke hung over Neillsville and a stiff breese (breeze) from the south blew burned leaves and cinders into our streets.  Joe Green, mail carrier on Route 1 reported the smoke so stifling near his farm that teams sent south to assist settlers had to turn back, fearing suffocation.

The plentiful rains early this week were the medicine nature needed.  More rain fell yesterday. The fires are a thing of the past and fall plowing is under way.