Stories of the Peshtigo Fire


Select a button below to read stories of the deadliest fire in US history.

Father Peter Pernin’s story of the fire can be verified—he wrote it himself for posterity. Most other stories have been passed down through storytelling. Some have become legends; many cannot be verified. Here are some of the stories we’ve heard. Fact or fiction? You decide.

Warren Seymour

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

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, Soldier

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 […]

Dead in Williamsonville

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 […]

List of the burned in Lincoln

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 […]

List of dead in Peshtigo

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, […]

Names of the dead: Sugar Bushes

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 […]

Letter: Martha Newberry Coon

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 Lamp/Lemke

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 […]

Survivor: Wesley Duket

“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. […]

Survivor! Amelia Desrochers

“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 […]

Prejudice and humility

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 […]

Good Samaritan rewarded

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 […]

Can you save my children?

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 […]

Separation and reunion

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 […]

Sparks of romance

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 […]

Human combustion

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 Villers and Joseph LaCrosse

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, […]