Dover, New Hampshire

Stratford County Insane Asylum Fire

February 10, 1893

THE ASYLUM FIRE.

Where the Watchman First Discovered the Blaze.

Everything Done to Rescue the Helpless Inmates.

Only Three of the Forty-Six Escaped.

Dover, N. H. Feb. 10. With regard to last night’s holocaust, Watchman Wilbur Chesley says that while making his ten o’clock rounds he discovered fire in the cell occupied by Mrs. Lafountaine, at the foot of the bed. He pulled the woman out of the room and closed the door. He called Keeper Driscoll, who helped break the locks and gave a general alarm. The Lafountaine woman and Frank Dauchenue ran out into the yard. The fire ran rapidly through the building as if it were saturated with oil. There was no way of getting the insane people out. Chesley himself had to run through a

Sheet of Flame

to get to the outside door. He could do nothing to save the asylum.

Keeper Driscoll, who lived in the building, says he ran from his room, in his night clothes and did all he possibly could to get out the inmates. His hands were badly burned. He had to break through a double window from the outside to rescue his wife and children, clad only in their night clothes.

Driscoll says there were forty-six inmates in the cells and only three escaped. Carpenters had been doing some work at the asylum, but it is not known that the Lafountaine woman got any of the shavings. She made her way by some means to the yard, which was surrounded by a high close fence, and must have

Been Roasted Alive.

Dauchenue managed to climb a fence and was saved. Charles Demeritt, superintendent of the farm and alms house, says he was awakened by the watchman. There were ninety paupers in the alms house, and forty of them were women, in the wing next to the asylum. He got them all into the other wing and the men done good work with water in pails and saved the main brick building.

Coroner Daniels, of Rochester, began an inquest at one o’clock to-day. The scene is five miles from this city over one of the worst roads ever traveled . The body of Mary Roberts, of Great Falls, has been identified.

People for Miles Around Visit the Scene.

The ruins of the Strafford county insane asylum present a gruesome spectacle today. People are driving in for miles around to view the charred and blackened ruins. The burned building was of the ordinary wooden type, and was a veritable tinder box. There is no effectual fire protection within four miles. The insane were locked in cells, and as usual in such institutions the great majority were chronic cases. Mary Lafountaine, a French woman from Great Falls, who had been afflicted with melancholia, became so violent recently as to be absolutely dangerous, and was locked up in a small room by herself. She had not been let out for two days. The keeper found this woman in the mad enjoyment of a

Blazing Fire

increasing every moment in energy, and in its scope. How it was kindled cannot be known for Mary La Fountaine has been carefully searched, and was allowed neither matches nor lamp. The only means of protection were fire pails set in quartettes along the corridors. Each bucket was filled to the brim with water. There was no force pump, and the nearest efficient fire apparatus was four miles off by the lonely ice bound road.

There were upwards of forty-eight persons, a third of whom were under lock and key, at the mercy of the fire with which this mad woman was so

Recklessly Frolicking.

Mr. Driscoll was prompt to act. “The fire,” said he, “seemed at first no bigger than my hand. I dashed the contents of the nearest four pails of water upon it and then ran for the cells to release the other insane people.”

The keeper succeeded in opening fifteen cell doors before he was obliged to fly for his life and escape by jumping from a window. The flames rushed through the corridors, the length of the building, 135 feet, and the smoke enveloped the stairs. There was no escape except by the windows. The lunatics on the second floor soon became frenzied. They laughed sang and shouted by turns, while some sat stupefied, and gazed with summary melancholy pleasure upon the approaching flames. The building soon became a furnace of fire.

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Bangor, ME 11 Feb 1893

SIMPLY HORRIBLE.

The Strafford County, N. H., Insane Asylum Burned

AND FORTY-FOUR PATIENTS CREMATED

The Poor House With Its More Than One Hundred Inmates Saved by Heroic Efforts--List of the Lost and Saved.

Dover, N H, Feb. 10--The county asylum, four miles from here was burned last night and forty-four lives were lost. When Watchman William Chevey made his 10 o’clock trip into
the insane asylum, he found fire coming out of the cell occupied by A. Lafamitain, a woman, and gave the alarm.

William Driscoll the keeper, with his family, lived in the building, and he at once broke the locks off the fifty-four cells and tried to get the inmates out, then he got his wife and two children, neither of whom were dressed.

Of the forty-eight inmates only four escaped. They are William Twombley, Rose Sanderson, William Davey and Frank Donshon. The latter walked two miles in a blinding snow-storm, with only his shirt on, to William Hoene’s house, where he was taken care of. Those who were burned were

ROBERT DOINE, of Salem Falls, N H.
MARY FOUNTAIN, of Great Falls
FRANK NUTTER of Rochester
WILLIAM CHESLEY, of Durham
MRS. ROBERTS, of Great Falls, and an 18 year old child
LESTER JONES of Farmington
WILLIAM TWOMBLEY, of Barrington
OWEN MALLEY, of Great Falls
MICHAEL CASEY, of Dover
FRANK ROW, of Great Falls
CHARLES LIBBY of Great Falls
FRANK PAGE, of Rochester
WILLIAM FILES, of Great Falls
FRANK SPR[?]GG[?]NS, of Dover
HARRY KIMBALL, of Dover
JULIA REED, of Dover
MRS. MAAY LAVIN of Salmon Falls
MRS. MARY McCLINTOCK of Dover
MAGGIE WHITE, of Great Falls
ANN CARR of Hollingford
MARY NUTTER, of Rochester
MARY MALONEY of Dover
LENNA ELLIS, of Rochester
MARY WILSON, of Lee
MARY TWINDALL, of Milton Mills
CAROLINE RANT, of Dover
MRS. ANN ROTHWELL, of Dover
LIZZIE ELLIS, of Great Falls
CATHERINE HA[?]EY of Dover
ELIZABETH PICKERING of Gonic
MARY COGGLEY, of Dover
SARAH SW[ET?]T, of Rochester
SARAH HUTCHINSON, of Dover
KATE DUFFEE, of Dover
SARAH McCLINTOCK, of Great Falls
FANNIE SLATTERY of Great Falls
ANN McDERMOTT, of Dover
ADDIE OTIS, of Great Fall

And six others whose names could not be remembered by the keeper, whose books were burned in the building.

The building was of wood, 31x36 feet, two stories high, with a big yard on each side. It was built twenty years ago, and had fifty cells.

One woman escaped to the yard, but was burned to death there. The building cost $15,000. The main building, in which were over 100 of the county poor, caught fire, but was saved by the heroic efforts of the inmates, who carried pails of water and extinguished the flames, although many were burned in so doing.,

The Dover fire-department was summoned, but owing to the distance, the blinding snow-storm and the icy roads it took ninety-five minutes for the department to get there--too late to be of any service.

The smoking ruins show the charred bodies still lying on their beds. How the building caught fire is a mystery.

The Daily Review, Decatur, IL 11 Feb 1893

Transcribed by Helen Coughlin.  Thank you, Helen!

Search for more information on the Keene Fire and other disasters in the  Historic Newspapers Collection.  Search over 1000 different newspapers at ancestry.com.  Use this Free trial to search for your ancestors.

Search for ancestors in Keene, NH among billions of names at ancestry.com. Use this Free trial to search for your ancestors.

New Hampshire Census 1790-1890 Search it on line at ancestry.com. Use this Free trial to search for your ancestors.