Suncook, New Hampshire Fire
March 31, 1894
SUNCOOK FIRE SWEPT.
THIRTY-EIGHT FAMILIES RENDERED HOMELESS.
Conflagration a Great Blow to the
Town---Miraculous Escape From Destruction of a
$7000,000 Mill.
Concord, N. H., April 2. ---The most
disastrous conflagration known in the history of
the town of Suncook occurred Saturday night.
Thirty-eight families were rendered homeless,
and three large blocks are now a mass of ruins.
The loss is about $35,000, and the blow to the
town of Suncook will be felt for years to come.
It was only a miracle that saved the large china
mill plant, estimated to be worth $700,000, and
three large warehouses a few rods away,
containing 1500 bales of cotton, barely escaped
destruction.
A canvass made by the selectmen shows that over
350 people are homeless, with hardly enough
clothing to cover their backs. The people were
all employes of the cotton mill, and are French.
They lived in blocks like sardines, and were, as
a whole, very poor. It was a distinctive
settlement of its own, and comprised most of the
working people of Suncook.
The selectmen immediately took steps to relieve
the suffering and clothe the naked. The citizens
responded nobly, and the burned out are all
comfortably located. One of the mill managers
says the families will average seven persons
each, and this, with the 80 boarders in the
second block burned, will make it about 400
people that lose everything.
How all of the small children got out of the
blocks at that time of night is miraculous, and
beyond a few slight burns, nothing serious is
reported.
The Lowell Daily Sun, Lowell, MA 2 April
1894
Transcribed by Helen
Coughlin. Thank you, Helen!
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