Fires of 1877 and 1879
Downtown Hartford Michigan

from
A History of Hartford
by Charles Spaulding

         On Thursday morning, June 21, 1877, occurred the fire which swept before it nearly all the buildings on the south side of Main Street.  The loss was about $20,000 with but $6,500 insurance.  The origin of the fire was in the store of Jacobson and Spaulding, dealers in dry goods and groceries.  The other firms were Paul Husen, jeweler; Levi Earl, butcher; C. Boynton, grocer; W. Watts, shoemaker; H.M. Olney, druggist; W. R. Mills, photographer; Harley and Smith, liquior dealers; A.H. Young, dry goods and groceries; John Gross, meat market; H. Eaton, clothing and groceries; Sherburne and Crafts, general merchandise.  Within a fortnight, bids were made for vacant lots in the burned district.  People from neighboring towns were anxious to secure lots but our town people at once commenced the work of clearing away the debris and making preparations to build.  It was decided to allow none but brick buildings to be erected in the burned district.  Our merchants were doing business right along in those days and didn’t suspend for either pleasure or misfortune.  They moved their goods into convenient vacant stores and continued as if at the old stand.  Mr. Olney moved into a vacant store in the Reynolds block, Eaton into the store just east of it, Young into the Morse building, Sherburne and Crafts into the old post office building, Paul Husen into Shadler’s office and John Gross into J.P. Earl’s building.  Earl and Allen and C.H. Engle were the first firms to build.  They built the store just east of what was until recently the Academy of Music. In August 1879 the row of wood buildings on the east side of Center Street from Main Street to Mrs. Maxim's house was burned. In 1883 the planing mill, sash door and blind factory of Olds Brothers was burned together with several barns and a dwelling house.

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© 
A Pictorial History of Hartford, Michigan
Emma Thornburg Sefcik,
Competent Secretarial Service
Copyright © 2000 - All rights reserved.

Revised: August 02, 2008