Fire at Pinkstaff-1890

August 29, 1890

The good people of our neighboring village of Pinkstaff, four miles north, retired to sleep on the last Sunday evening as usual, not dreaming that they would be called out that night to fight fire, but such was the case. It had a good start however, and every store but one had burned to the ground.

 The following are the names of the business people with their losses:

·         S.I. Carlyle, postmaster, also carried a stock of notions, books, wallpaper and drugs, got nearly everything out; loss about $250.

·         Next to Carlyle was Dr. H.M. Vaught’s office. He lost everything, except two books, which happened to be near the door. He claimed to have the best office of any physician in the county; loss $1000.

·         The next building was a small one, occupied by T.E. Dollahan, who had a small quantity of lime and building material; loss $300.

·         The next store was occupied by R. L. Lackey; his stock consisted of general merchandise. Nothing saved, loss $2800, insurance $1200.

·         Over this store, Silas White and family were living. They awoke in time to save their lives. Every bit of clothing except night clothes were burned, he having to borrow a pair of pants to wear. The next day a collection was taken to buy a pair of shoes for him and he returned to Lawrenceville where he had formerly lived.

·          A kind of warehouse which was used to store away tin cans, fruit jars and the like, and an icehouse, belonging to T.J. Pinkstaff, was burned; loss about $500.

·         The only store remaining is the general store of T. J. Pinkstaff, which by hard work was saved, although nearly all the goods were carried out.

That the buildings were set on fire, there seems to be no doubt. There was but little money in either of the stores. In Lackey’s store, there was between $20 and $21, which up to Monday had not been found. S. J. Carlyle will rebuild and the others are undecided. R. I. Lackey just received the policy for his insurance on Friday before the fire, and none of the others had any insurance. Dr. Vaught said that he had lost about $2000 worth of property by fire in the last eight years and never had anything burn that was insured.

Research by M Wagner