Details of a Horror

Forty People Were Burned to
Death at Silver Lake, Or.

Fully as Many More Hurt.

December 24, 1894

Christmas Eve Festivities Ended in a Horrible Holocaust, the Upsetting of a Lamp Caused the Calamity, Many of those who perished were burned beyond recognition.

Portland, Or., Jan. 2. A letter to the Associated Press from Silver Lake, Or., gives the number of people burned to death in the fatality of Christmas eve as 40. Fully as many more were injured, some fatally. The names of the dead were given in former dispatches.
The fatally injured are: Robert Snelling, Roy Ward, Mrs. Thomas Lobrie, George Paine, Charles Hendricks, Bert Cowdy, Mrs. Charles Hamilton, Annie Anderson, Mrs. Ward and three children of Mrs. Egli.
Those seriously injured are: Four Buick children, Jack Henderson, L. Coshow, Clara Snelling, Mrs C. Marshall, Mrs. R. Homing and Mrs. L. Buick.
Many of those who perished were burned beyond identification. About 200 persons were in the hall altogether. All had met at Chrisman Brothers to hold Christmas tree exercises. While presents were being distributed George Paine, a young man, started to go to the door, walking on top of the seats. His head struck a large lamp, which began to swing to and fro. He caught hold of it to steady it. The lamp began to flash up. Some one knocked it out of his hand, and it fell on the floor. Oil was spilled on the floor, and the flames started to run along the side and across the rear of the building, where was the only outlet to the hall, cutting off all egress.
Panic followed, and but little thought was given to the screaming women and children. It was a case of survival of the fittest. A number of persons got out at one of the two windows in the hall, but soon the entire building was enveloped in flames, shutting off all hope of escape for those still in the hall. The fearful calamity has prostrated the whole county. Every house in the village is a hospital, and people have come for 100 miles to minister to the injured and inter the dead.
There was nothing left by which to identify the victims, and the bones were gathered up and all buried in one grave.
James Small, a well known stockman of the county had started east with a band of horses and had reached Burns, Parney county when he heard that his son was one of the victims of the fire. He started to return immediately and in 10 hours he covered a distance of 200 miles on horseback. He returned just in time to see the bones of his son laid to rest in the common grave with the other victims.