Question: The laws of physics are being employed in this late 19th century photo. A wooden crane, gears, pulleys, rope and wheel are all needed to move the long metal objects seen at the left side of the picture. A new century was about to dawn, and Baldwinsville would be riding the rails of modern technology and its marvelous discoveries and inventions. Do you have any idea what is being moved and what it will be used for?
Last week’s answer: A significant part of the answer to this week’s History Mystery came from Anthony Christopher’s Sketches of Yesterday article, “The Phoenix Fire of 1916.”
“In 1916, our neighboring village of Phoenix was a prosperous and busy community. There were paper mills, a silk mill, chair factory and many other industries, all operating to capacity, and most of them running by water power.
“Phoenix has a large water power potential, far greater than Baldwinsville, due to the fact that the Seneca and Oneida rivers join to form the Oswego at Phoenix.
“On the Saturday night of Sept. 23, 1916, at 10 o’clock, the Phoenix fire alarm sounded. A cloud of heavy smoke, rising over the Sinclair Chair Factory on the island, indicated the building was on fire. This was a precarious situation. Two other mills stood near, and one of these, the Duffy Silk Factory, housed the village fire pumps.
“Within a short time, all three mills were ablaze, and the pumps became useless. The desperate feeling of the firemen may be imagined, with plenty of water in the river and none in the hydrants. Furthermore, Phoenix did not possess a fire engine. Realizing the predicament, distress calls were sent out half an hour later to Oswego, Fulton, Baldwinsville, and Syracuse.
“Meanwhile, the old mills were burning furiously and sparks had crossed the canal, igniting some of the buildings along Canal St. It was not long before the fire jumped to stores on the opposite side of the street. By the time help arrives, houses on Main Street were in flames.
“Oswego responded with a fire engine and men, and stationed themselves on the west flank of the fire. Mayor Louis, of Fulton, brought a pumper behind his car, but his equipment failed after it was put into use. Syracuse sent Fire Chief Philip Kantz with a steam pumper, loaded on a New York Central flat car. The car was drawn by a special engine. This unit was delayed slightly at Woodward, to wait for a through train. City firemen fought the blaze on the east side.
“Baldwinsville President John Snell commandeered his Model T Ford grocery delivery truck, placing 500 feet of hose upon it, while Village Fire Chief Wormuth collected as many of the 10 men on the force as he could locate, and the improvised fire truck headed for Phoenix. It has been pointed out to the writer that their pumper was not taken along because of the general knowledge that the distressed town had a good water system.
Retired Fire Chief Howard Harrington, who was a young firemen at the time, recollects, ‘Rolly Marvin (later mayor of Syracuse) took his touring car, and with firemen Charles Baker, the plumber, C. G. Wells, a local photographer, and myself, hurried to the fire.’
“Steam already was up in the Oswego, Fulton and Syracuse engines when they reached the scene of the disaster, so that in a short time streams of river water were fighting the flames. The firemen’s plan was to check the fire by confining it to a square area.
“Firemen never fought a conflagration as hard nor as valiantly. Fulton and Baldwinsville firemen, with no engine of their own in operation, assisted in many ways. Mr. Harrington mentions that he and an unidentified person brought two elderly ladies out of a burning upstairs apartment, one in a wheelchair. Their possessions, tied in a bed sheet, were also saved. Only one person perished in the fire. He was James Goodwin, 72, who rushed into his burning house to get something, and never came out.
“Residents were greatly alarmed and confusion ran high. People living in houses across the street from the Free Will Baptist Church carried their furniture into the tabernacle, thinking it might not catch fire. Odd as it may appear, the church burned but their homes were saved. The hasty persons thus lost their belongings.
“As in military battle, the firemen met the enemy at its last stand, on the spot of the Baptist Church. It was here the tide of combat turned for, with the falling of this building, the flames were stopped.
“Near dawn, the fire came under control. But 80 mills, stores and homes had been leveled. The loss was close to a million dollars. Many have said this was the largest fire in central New York up to that time.”
The photo accompanying the answer to this History Mystery is of the aftermath of the fire.
This week’s photo was correctly identified by former B’ville resident Tom Disinger, who now lives in Clifton Park. Disinger saw the photo on our website and even got the date of the fire right.
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
