The fire of 1870

 In 1870 downtown Rensselaer had a big fire that fortunately was contained. Below is the account of the fire from the Rensselaer Union of December 15, 1870, page 2.

On page 3 were updates. (The paper was a weekly, so there was time for updates in the same issue.)

Nothing came from the efforts to organize a hook and ladder company. It was not the first time that the community had recognized a need to protect against fire. Below is a notice from The Renssealer Gazette, December 7, 1859 page 5:

It was not until 1888 that the a fire department was finally organized. (The Rensselaer Republican, April 5, 1888, page 5.)

Sometimes you need the right people to get things done. One of the people who worked to get the department organized was E. D. Rhoades, mentioned in this bit from The Rensselaer Republican, March 29, 1888 page 1:

Rhoades was featured in last year's Cemetery Walk.

In 1870 gasoline was a byproduct of producing kerosine and had few uses and was often just burned at the refineries. I was surprised to see it mentioned. It had limited use as a solvent and for clearning. 

All of the above were found on the Hoosier State Chronicles. It takes a while to figure out how to best use the search on the site, but the site makes it possible to find things in Rensselaer's past that otherwise would be imposssible to find.