Stories of the Peshtigo Fire

Warren Seymour, member of G.A.R. Post No. 207, was born Jan. 12, 1845, in Dexter, Michigan. His parents moved to Oconto to engage in farming when he was ten years old. He enlisted Dec. 5, 1861, in Company I 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry. His Company was to protect Union citizens, disperse guerillas, and take notes of […]

John Utter was born on August 4, 1844, in Canada. His family lived in Michigan, and he enlisted in the Company K 22nd Michigan Infantry on August 7, 1862. His regiment was in the Battle of Chickamauga where he was taken prisoner on September 29, 1863. He was confined to Danville, Charleston, and Andersonville, where […]

Christopher Winehart was born Jan. 16, 1844, in Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey. His family moved to Peshtigo in 1863 to engage in the lumber business. He enlisted in June 1864 in Company B 1st Wisconsin Cavalry. He was in the command of General Sherman at the Victory of Atlanta. He was in the battles […]

This information was found in a binder in the Peshtigo Fire Museum The following reported by Thomas Williamson in 1871. Researched and contributed by Janet McNeil There were also two French families, whose names I do not know Bowdoin, Frank Bucklin, George, wife, and babe Coneya, wife and child of MaxemeOf Green Bay, Wisconsin. Died […]

Information found in a binder at the Peshtigo Fire Museum. The residents of Birch Creek are the last known victims of the Fire. Ames/Eames, Mrs. Phineas, age 42, and two children: Lincoln, age 7, and Mary, infantMr. Ames, badly crippled in both hands and feet, and two daughters were saved Brokling, Peter (age 40), wife […]

This information was found in a binder in the Fire Museum. Kolbeck, George, wife, and three children Milichewart, Joseph, wife, and four children Mutter, Frank, wife, and two children Pavlic, Casper, a child of Seveikert, Michael, wife, and five children; also the wife’s father and mother, names not ascertained Shelber, John, wife, and child Trydy, […]

Information found in a binder at the Museum Bodot, Mrs. Louiswas found in the woods eight days after the fire, crushed to death by a fallen tree Denis, Mary Delafosse, Matilda Dantoin, Mrs. Joseph, and three childrenAlthough burned to death herself, she had so well-protected an infant in her arms that it was saved, though […]

From information found in a binder in the Fire Museum. An estimated 800 lives were lost among the residents of Peshtigo Village alone, most unrecognizable. Alvord, John, wife, and one child Alwine/Elwert, Johann (nee Goeth) Baker, Augusta(Milwaukee Sentinel, October 16, 1871) Barton, RogerDied from effects of the fire at Peshtigo Harbor Beebe, John, wife Francis, […]

This content was found in a binder in the Fire Museum. Names of the dead found in documents and archives but not affiliated with a particular place of death From a 1985 newspaper reportA partial list of those who perished in the terrible fire at Peshtigo in 1871 given in a Marinette paper suggests that […]

This content was found in a binder in the Fire Museum. List of the dead in the Sugar Bushes Alschwager, Mrs. John (Minnie) and one infant childHusband Charles and five children saved Auest, Fred (Aust, Friederick—November 22, 1822 – October 8, 1871Mays Corners Cemetery, now Marinette County, Wisconsin; wife saved Aldis, William, wife and two […]

George Coon married Martha Newberry and Grace Coon married Martha’s brother Charles Newberry (Martha and Charles were brother and sister; they were children of Henry Sr). George, Martha, their son, and Grace all survived the Peshtigo Fire. Charles Newberry and his and Grace’s two sons died. Grace survived by taking refuge in a small pond […]

Charles “Karl” Lamp (or Lemke) was a German immigrant farmer in the Lower Sugar Bush with his wife, Fredricke, and five daughters. His very pregnant wife began having birth pains during supper on October 8, 1871. Karl hitched the horses to a wagon and loaded his family—Fredricke holding the reins—when the frightened horses fled to […]

Hoppe was four months old at the time of the fire. She lived with her parents and 18-month-old brother on a farm six miles from Peshtigo. Her father, Ezra Jackson, was bedridden with scarlet fever, and her uncle was on the farm at the time, assisting the family. “When the fire came, my father was […]

Anna was only nine days old on the day of the fire. She was born in Peshtigo on Sept. 29, 1871, and was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lars Korstad. Her father came from Norway in 1864 and worked for the next three years to save enough money for his wife’s passage to the […]

“When balls of fire started coming down from the sky, my mother and father took us to the spring and wrapped us in wet quilts,” said Wesley Duket, who lived in Sugar Bush, five miles from Harmony Corners. “My sister saved the sewing machine by wrapping it up, too.” “We had a team of oxen. […]

“Wake up! The end of the world is coming!” Mrs. Amelia “Stoney” Desrochers recalled her mother shouting when she was only five years old. The blaze reached their home at about 9 p.m. “There had been fires all along. The men had been fighting them,” Desrocher said. “One night a terrible wind storm came, and […]

Abram Place, originally from Vermont, was the second largest landowner in the area. He also worked at the Peshtigo Company. Yet people looked down him because he had married a Native American woman. He regularly welcomed Native Americans to his home—they warned him that fire was coming. To prepare, Abram and his sons created a […]

The family of J. E. Beebe—he, his wife, and four children—were running for the river. Both parents and three of the children were struck down by the flames, but the four-year-old daughter was unhurt. She was seen and snatched up by a cobbler, Fred Guse, who carried her to the river. She clung to his […]

Many people thought plowed fields would provide protection from the fire, and they often do in a regular forest fire. This, however, was not a normal fire, and most who sought refuge in a clearing perished. An exception is the Bakeman family. Henry Bakeman lived with his wife and six children in the Lower Sugar […]

Some survivors suffered for hours or even days, agonizing over the unknown fate of their loved ones. Charles Albrecht lived with his wife and three children in a house on Emery Street, west of the Peshtigo River. He worked as a carpenter and at the time of the fire was employed on a project near the […]

Most stories of the fire are about people desperately trying to save themselves and their families. The young man John Cox, however, courageously helped a stranger—a young woman named Kate Guillfoyle—find safety in the river. Even with the town burning around them, John noticed Kate was pretty. And Kate must have seen him as her […]

Fireballs rained and hot air rushed ahead of the main fire, detonating and exploding buildings—and people—faster than it took to describe the scenes. Women and girls were especially vulnerable. The combination of layers of clothing and higher fat content in their bodies intensified the heat, just as a covering wrapped around a lighted candle. People […]

The Martin Joseph Villers family was traveling in October 1871. They were Wisconsin residents, but not from Peshtigo. How they ended up there that fateful evening is still a mystery. When the fires struck the town, Martin and his wife, Octavia, prepared to flee to the Peshtigo River. They put their baby, Florence, in a basket, […]