The Court House Burned to the Ground
All of the following article was transcribed
and donated by Fran Warren
Below is the newspaper account of the burning of the court
house of Crawford County in March of 1877:
Van Buren Press
Crawford County, Arkansas
March 27, 1877
TERRIBLE CALAMITY
The Court House Burned to the Ground.
All the Records of the County Burned to Ashes- Nothing of Value
Saved, Loss to the County Irreparable.-
Never before, in the history of our county, has there been a calamity,
burdened with more general interest to all our people than the
conflagration of Friday night last. "Twas midnight's holy
hour, and tired man, had from the drowsy God inhaled the breath
of sleep", when the terrible alarm that always affrights
the suddenly awakened sleeper, startled our people to the consciousness
that the dread disregarder of person, the fire king, was at its
work of demolition in our midst.
It was about 1 o'clock Friday night when flames were discovered
in the south east corner of the upper room in the court-house
building. Before the alarm had gathered together many of our citizens
the flames had grown to such a body that the upper room could
not be reached by the stairway without much danger to the persons
making the attempt. And yet upon that floor in the southwest corner,
directly opposite the locality where the fire was supposed to
have originated, was the room where were kept all the records
of the county, and there seemed no probability that any of them
could be saved. A ladder was brought and the window of the room
reached and broken in by some of our young men, but to no profit,
for on the admission of air, the flames which as yet had not penetrated
it, burst forth with demonical fury, driving back by their intense
heat, these heroic young men and baffling all their efforts to
save the valuable books and papers from the oblivion of the flames.
But it was all to no purpose. The "wild, wild winds"
fanned to dreadful madness the fierce jets of fire, that seemed
to kiss the very darkness of the cloud begirted heavens and all
the air was filled with burning leaves, the eternal farewells
of those silent but darling reminiscences of our county's past;
and today, among the smoldering ruins, is to be found all that
is left of the records of our county.
Everything in the Sheriff's office was saved, the tax books being
carried every night to Captain WINFREY's house. The room was on
the northwest corner of the building and the last part of the
office to succumb to the flames.
The loss to the county in the complete destruction of its records
is irreparable, while the consuming of the building is the severing
of associations which with our older citizens, have served to
link the present with the dim and shadowy past.
The walls of the building are standing and those who know say
they are safe. The origin of the fire is not positively known,
though it is supposed by some to be the work of an incendiary
and by others an act of carelessness. There had been no fire in
the part of the building where the flames were first discovered.
The wind bore the burning papers in every direction and showers
of sparks fell on all sides. Mr. TURNER's old house caught from
the falling embers, but was speedily extinguished. It had rained
the most of the day Friday and was also, slightly at the time
of the unfortunate disaster, and to this propitious circumstance
we are indebted for a curbing of the terrible message of woe.