Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 80, Number 109, 26 December 1890 — THE FIRE OF '52. [ARTICLE]

THE FIRE OF '52.

I I COLONEL AHDEEWS WAS IN IT AND j NOW TELLS ABOUT IT. , One of the M. ruorable Incident* in the History ot Sacrament j— A Costly Christmas Dinner. Many of the present residents of Sacramento were here in 1852, when a great fire swept out of esister.ee the greater portion of the city, and they will no doubt read with interest the following brief recital ol incidents connected therewith. Colonel A. Andrews, of San Francisco—like many othera of the prominent and wealthy men of that city—wes then a resident of Sacramento, and he thus relates bis experiences of thai (ioie ttuough the columns of the Examiner: While everyone else is describing his first Christmas in California, I will pass over to what some people would Bay was aiy worst Christmas in the State. This was in 1852, just after the preat Sacramento fire, and jast be'ore the great Sacramento flood cf 1853 .November 2, 1852. I was in Placerviile, where I bad gone in'o business. My partner, Mr. Hiller, and I had a large jewelry (store in Sacramento. We were very proud of it and of oar success. Money came in by the carload and our credit, in the Sate was uoiimitfd. As I left P.acerville on November 2i in the stage for Sacramento, I was filled with the confidence ami bap' pinesß tbat success gives to a man who has tried har<l to eatn it. I reached Sacramento the evening of November 2d, and after a mild dinner went to bed, weary with the day's ride. 1 tbiuk it rauft have been about 11 o'clock when I was awakened from a sound slumber by the sound nf hurrying feet, of wild commotion, of shouts from people in the street —and with it tU a frightful roar, as if the city had become a volcano suddenly. It was a? bright as day. I rubbed my eyes and rushed to the wiadov. It was ho' with the scorching flames without. Hurrying on uiy clothes, i dashed down stairs to the street. The fire had started in the millinery shop of Mrs. Milness, and^ras rushing like a plague through the town. I rushed to the aid of the firemen, who were trying to slay its course. My partner and I helpei others to save their <fftcts, and kept at work tiil all of a sudden the fire became thoroughly uncontrollable and swept away the town in an hour. Our own establishment went so quickly that we could save nothing. This was "the Overton Biock, then the largest aDd finest building in the State. We were penniless, with a SCO 000 debt in New York. The day following the fire. I left for San Francisco and bought $30,000 worth of goods on credit. Instant action was necessary, for I had a family on its way to California. I took my goods back to Sacramento, wheie my partner and I established a store in the middle of the street. Lots of other people did the same thing, for the town was like a plain. You could not trace the old blocks and streets, I tried to find our old store, in the hope that the safe might be there, bnt it was like looking for a nerdie in a haystack. Among the first to begin building were Hagain <fc Tevis. They put up a block and rented us a store at $600 a month on a lease f.jr fur years. You couldn't get $15 a month for the tame store now. I had hardly got started in the cew quarters when my wife and family arrived irom the i,ist. They came on the Tennessee, which, by the way, went ashore at the time on the Sausaiito shore and was lost. It wes nearly Christmas when they got to Sacramento, and I resolved to make things as bright as possible by giving a grand Christmas dinner. I had reu'ed a little shaniy from Page & Bacon, the bankers, fcr $1 500 a year, and hired a servant at $80 por montQ. Th? Christaias ilianer was a wonder, so everybody said,' and it cost time and money. I managed to buy two turkeys at $32 a piece. 1 found four chickens at $10 each. Then I h;d po;a'oea and cabbage, and menaced to get a dozen botitles of Mu.Tim. which was the champagne drank in. those days, at $10 a bottle. The guestx wert: .John A. Collide, since dead; ex Mayor HurdeDburg", who is deed; Sueritl' David Hunt; William Nedy Jubnson; now dea<i; Wiu. Hoce. r,ov7 the" well-known capitalis:; Colonel Hall auu his daughter; es-Gov-trnor John B. Weiler. now dead, and other well-known people of the city. Our dessert was a crowning triumph, for I had secured seme apples at five dollars apiece! Thi.-: Christmas feast made a great talk at the time, and every one who hadn't I):en there asked for invitations next year. The Hangin & Tevis building was almost completed. We began to get our s.o.k of goods in shape, and Mr. A. A. Bennett, who dlei a week or two ago, was looking after the fixtures, etc All of a sudden the river bpgan to rise, and presently swept down on the place till the water was even with the apper windows. Instead of looking af.er fixtures, Mr. Bennett c.nsirr.cted a boat in our store and sailed out through the upper window. Then he started a regular fetry business, and made as high as $75 a day in transporticg people from one house-top to another. Taking one thing with another, Secramento had as hard a time to get started as any city I ever heard of. First, the cholera of 1851; second, the firetif 1852; third, the flood of 1853. Somebody has tried to circulate rumors ebjut the continued presence of a State Legislature there, but the statement is entire y irrelevant arid malicious. When the waters subsided my partner and I resumed business. This meant that wi'bin twenty niontbs we had paid oil a debt of $00 000, aud had put np a building at the corner of Third and J streets that brought in a rcn'al in those days of 41 543 a month.