The Fire

October 31, 1899

Title: Centenary College Institute Fire

Source: Hackettstonian

Date: September-October 1899

Centenary Collegiate Institute, of Newark Conference was destroyed by fire early Tuesday morning, October 31st

The origins of the fire is unknown.  It was first discovered by a night watchman fifteen minutes past twelve o’clock, midnight, in a partition between the janitor’s workshop and the boiler room.  A few minutes previous he had visited this spot preparatory to doing a half hour’s work on the halls of the main building.  The location was in the basement under the dining room in a five-story extension to the rear of the main building. Fifteen feet from the partition that was aflame lay a large hose, attached and ready for instant use.  But the employee was afraid to set to work alone in the smoke that already filled that part of the basement.  He rushed to the fourth floor to summon Mr. Terrrill, the bookkeeper, a brother –in-law of President Ferguson. They returned promptly, but found that the fire had made such progress that it was unsafe to delay longer a general alarm.  In making their way to the boiler room they were followed closely by three professors, who happening to be awake and fully dressed, had detected the odor of smoke.  Believing that the combined efforts of five men would be futile in fighting the fire with the facilities then at hand, they agreed quickly upon a plan of arousing the 215 inmates, who were locked fast in the deep sleep which comes to tired and healthy youth.  One went to the President’s family, another to the teachers in the young ladies halls, another to the teachers in the young men’s halls another to the servants’ hall and another to summon the village fire department.  This plan of action was very successful, and in a few minutes teachers students and employees were all awake and ready to escape as soon as told that the building could not be saved.  But so rapid was the spread of the flames that nearly all were compelled to leave their rooms without dressing and without opportunity of saving their effects.

The young ladies had assembled in the President’s rooms on the first floor. Here they were kept calm by Mrs. Ferguson until they were organized in files and sent across the campus to the young men's gymnasium, where the roll was called from memory by the heroic preceptress, Miss Hoag, and none were found missing.  A little later they were taken to the home of Mrs. G.W. Tillman, who generously opened her house to them and ministered in every possible way to their needs.   The professors were assured that every young man had left the building.  Thus every life was saved.  No one received the slightest injury, except Mr. Robert Matthews, a young man with weak lungs, who rushed back into the smoke, against the protest of those on guard, in order to save a friend's treasures.  what a merciful providence, accompanying wise management, that all escaped death from such a fierce fire at such an hour! 

The fire department responded quickly, and the citizens rushed to the scene to lend assistance.  while they were pouring streams of water into the basement suddenly they found the chapel on the third floor and the reading room on the fifth floor all ablaze.  The flames had leaped to these upper stories through a shaft from the water motor in the basement to the pipe organ in the chapel, and up a rear stairway which lead to the topmost story.  The upper floors were flooded, the students using the regular Institute fire hose to supplement the efforts of the firemen.  but a strong wind prevailed, and all the flooring and other woodwork had been so thoroughly dried and seasoned by steam head throughout the past twenty-five years that the material that the material seemed most inflammable.  At two o'clock the bell in the front tower tolled and almost immediately fell.  The wreck was then complete, except the two gymnasiums, the chemical laboratory, the barn and the ice house.

A conservative estimate of the value of the building burned and their contents is $225,000.  The insurance carried aggregates $116,000.  There is a loss, therefore, to the Institute of over $100,000.  All the records and account books were saved.  The teachers, except three, lost everything, and but two of them carried insurance.  The President's apartment were so situated that nearly all his effects, including library, desk, and piano were removed safely, so that is loss does not exceed $600l  The losses to students were considerable, and especially burdensome to the forty students who were wholly or partly self-supporting.  President Ferguson was away from home at the time, having gone to Potsdam N. Y. to deliver the anniversary address to the Sunday School Union and Tract Society, and to visit for one day at the home of a sick sister at Iroquois Ontario.