Pepperell, Massachusetts, USA
1890 - EAST PEPPERELLS BIG FIRE. A SHOE FACTORY AND A NUMBER OF SMALLER BUILDINGS BURNED.

EAST PEPPERELL, Mass., Oct.24. - A big fire was discovered this morning at 2 o'clock in the shoe factory of Leighton Brothers, and soon the whole building was ablaze. A high wind was blowing and the flames spread rapidly to a row of wooden houses. Help was called from the surrounding towns, the old apparatus of this place being insufficient. Nashua was called upon and responded with some of her trucks and men.

Before the flames could be attacked successfully the shoe factory was burned to the ground. Three residences, seven stores, and a block of boarding houses were also destroyed. The loss is estimated at $300,000. Several hundred persons are thrown out of employment, and the town is in distress.

The losers, with estimated amounts of their loss, are: Leighton's shoe factory, $150,000; Ames Block, owned by W. A. Ames, $3,000; S. Denham, druggist in Ames Block, $5,000; C. C. Blake, clothing, boots and shoes, and furnishing goods in Ames Block, stock valued at $3,000; mostly removed in a badly-damaged condition; house and barn, owned by William Ames, and Hook and Ladder No.1 house totally destroyed; Leighton Brothers; box factory, $2,500; D. E. Watson, tinware and stoves, $3,000; on household goods and contents of a barn, $1,000; C. P. Lawrence, owner of above buildings, $4,000; W. A. Ames, small wooden block, $2,000; T. S. Brown, tailor, occupant of the above, stock removed in a damaged condition; Hook and Ladder No.1 hall in Ames Block, property removed in damaged condition; Pepperell Hall, owned by W. A. Ames, loss on building, $5,000; W. N. Mault. millinery; L. N. Lauker, cigars; Amos Grenier, barber, and Morrissey & Drummy, periodicals, occupants of the above, $3,000; furniture and property in two halls in Pepperell Hall, owned by Thomas A. Parker; Post No. 95, G. A. R., and Court Pepperell, Ancient Order of Devenon, No. 44, Sons of Temperance, $1,000; building occupied by C. B. Parker, $3,000; C. I. Green, bakery and dining rooms on building, $3,000, on stock $2,000; about 1,000,000 feet of pine boards owned by Leighton Brothers, $12,000; A. J. Saunders, grocery and hardware, $1,000.
The Leighton factory employed 400 hands and turned out between 4,000 and 5,000 pairs of brogans a day. The insurance on the Leightons property amounts to $100,000, held by sixty stock companies. Not long ago the Leightons reduced the insurance from $150,000, owing to the high rates.

The New York Times
New York, New York
October 25, 1890

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