Paterson, New Jersey, USA
1869 - Great Fire in Paterson.

Mr. Michael Morris's warehouse, Paterson, and adjacent buildings were burned on Monday. The warehouse owned by Mr. Morris was used as a waste house. - The flames communicated with the Murray Mill, a superb brick building on Mill street, owned by Messrs. John Ryle & Co., as a silk manufactory. Day & Co., silk weavers, also occupied a part of the building. The flames spread rapidly and communicated with the tenement houses on each side and in the rear, and thence to the Murray Mill. After a short time all the buildings were enveloped. So intense was the heat that the fire spread in various directions, and eighteen or twenty tenement houses were speedily reduced to ashes.

The loss to the Messrs. Ryle is very heavy. The mill and machinery have been destroyed, and they were valued at $250,000. The only insurance was of one thousand dollars on the dye house. - Scarcely any of the tenements destroyed were insured. The loss on them will be $50,000 or $80,000. Day & Co.'s loss will amount to $50,000; no insurance. The total loss is $300,000.

Daily State Gazette
Trenton, New Jersey
May 12, 1869

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