Furniture Factory Destroyed

(Originally published Neillsville Republican and Press 06/30/1910 & used with the permission of Dee Zimmerman)

About five minutes to four o’clock Wednesday morning, the night watchman at the furniture factory discovered fire on the third floor. He immediately gave the alarm and a quick response was made by the fire company and citizens generally. The inflammable character of the building and its contents made the battle against the flames well nigh useless, and the factory with the greater part of its contents consisting of machinery and a large amount of stock in various stages of manufacture, were in a short time entirely consumed. Some of the lumber piles were saved and the boiler and engine may be of some value. Four cars of furniture ready for shipment on the track were saved by being pushed along the track.

The origin of the fire can only be guessed at. It was probably spontaneous combustion; that is fire starting of itself in oily waste or rages. Great care had always been taken to prevent anything of that kind, but a small quantity dropped or overlooked at night might have caused the fire.

The loss is hard to estimate, but will aggregate a large sum. So far as known it is covered by about $27,000 insurance. The factory was completed in 1891. After running a few years, it was closed down after the panic years, and remained idle for some time. After some hard work and sacrifice by local people, it was again got running about ten years ago and placed in the hands of a Baltimore firm, The Reliable Furniture Mfg. Co., which operated this as a branch factory. To them the fire will be a severe loss, and to Neillsville it is a hard blow. It can not now be stated whether it will be rebuilt or not, but it is hoped by everybody here that it will be.

Between the company and the people here the most cordial friendly relations existed from the first. They have run the factory on fine business principles. Everyone connected with the concern from top to bottom have proven themselves to be helpful, high-class citizens. The people of Neillsville want them to stay here. If there is anything the citizens of this place can do to keep them here and help to rebuild and continue the business, it will be done. The destruction of this plant is a momentary shock, but let us not sit idly down and repine. Here is a chance for the local patriotism to show itself, and we fully believe that it will.

Neillsville Republican and Press 07/07/1910 - Furniture Factory Meetings

On Thursday night the Neillsville Advancement Association got together to discuss methods of assisting in rebuilding the furniture factory. A committee appointed, consisting of H.C. Clark, J.F. Schuster, W.J. Marsh, W.L. Smith, Charles Cornelius, Mayor Wm. Huntley and L. Williamson, to canvas the situation. On Friday night a mass meeting of citizens was called at the city hall, and was largely attended. A number spoke and all agreed that the citizens should unite every effort to do all within their power to help in rebuilding, and a resolution to that effect was adopted. The meeting adjourned until such time as the Advancement Association committee should have a chance to meet the officers of the company and learn their wishes in the matter, when the chairman is to call another mass meeting.

The Advancement committee had a later meeting, after talking with citizens and decided that they has such assurances from business men and other as would warrant them in offering to furnish a new site on higher ground and a building that would cost about $15,000 or its equivalent.

On Tuesday night a meeting was held consisting of the employees of the factory, all of who showed interest in having the factory rebuilt. Forty-two of those present pledged themselves to give $35 each to assist in the work.

Wednesday morning President Muhlhenrich arrived from Baltimore to meet the insurance adjusters. As soon as that work is completed, it is expected that he will meet the local committee, and if found desirable, another meeting will be called at once.

A great many have expressed themselves willing to subscribe good round sums to help along. It means much to Neillsville in a business way, besides the fact that nearly all of the employees have made friends here socially; they have become an important part of the life of the town and no one wants to see these families leave and have these ties of friendship broken.

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Transcribed from Clark County Press Extract from Local History – Fateful fire ends booming firm for city

An industry which at one time boasted the largest manufacturing employer in central Wisconsin formed a bright picture in the city’s economic future back at the turn of the century.

It was the Neillsville Furniture Factory, organized by a group of local men in 1890. First production came in 1891 in a large frame building, four stories high and located on the site of the former city dump, near the present city waste treatment plant. The business took off almost immediately, but the local backers soon ran into financial problems. The panic of 1893 brought them to their knees, and in order to save as much as they could, they sold to a group of Baltimore, Md. Business men. The Neillsville Furniture Factory became the Wisconsin Furniture Manufacturing Company with George G. Muhlhenrich, president, and Fred Karner as local manager.

The new company weathered the financial storm and quickly moved on to maximum production. Stories tell of high employment, at times as many as 500 men., and of carloads of furniture being shipped by rail to eastern outlets.

Business was booming and everybody was happy, until that fateful June 28, 1910 at 3:55 in the morning.

Con Gorman, the nigh watchman, made his rounds and found everything in ship-shape at 3:00 a.m. He went to the engine room, which stood apart from the main manufacturing building, to stoke up the fires for the day. That was 3:55. Through a window he saw flickering yellow lighting in the windows on the northwest corner of the third floor in a ghostly pallor.

Gorman quickly gave the alarm, and the company’s own fire-fighting apparatus was brought to bear. Within minutes four streams from the company pumps were throwing water into the mounting inferno. The city volunteer fire department joined with a fifth stream; but there was really not stopping the fire. It quickly reached the varnish and finishing rooms on the third and fourth floors, and not long afterward the entire structure was ablaze. Flames soared an estimated 100 feet and more into the sky.

Within two hours the large, four-story building had been reduced to smoldering ashes and charred timber.

Loss was substantial. Firemen and volunteers were able to pull four rairoad freight cars loaded with finished furniture out of danger. They also saved an outside pile of lumber. But the whole second story of the building was jam-packed with finished furniture awaiting loading and shipment. That was gone.

Loss of the factory posed a severe blow to the residents of Neillsville and the surrounding countryside, for the factory furnished the bulk of employment opportunity outside the lumber camps.

As the reporter for the Neillsville Times wrote: "The burning of the furniture factory has cast a pall of gloom over the entire city, for it was the leading industry and one on which a good portion of the city population was dependent, either directly or indirectly."

The Wisconsin Furniture Manufacturing Co. recovered $38,000 from the insurance company for its loss of completed product. It was not reported that fire insurance was carried on the building, supplies or equipment, but it must be presumed there was none or it probably would have been mentioned in the reports of the time.

Almost immediately, with the coals still hot, A.J. Phillips of Neillsville Advancement Association (The Chamber of Commerce of that day) called a meeting. Several hundred people attended and pledged from $5.00 to $50 each to a fund to be used to try to entice the Baltimore owners to rebuild the factory. Negotiations began, and prospects were considered good.

Muhlhenrich unfolded plans for a new 80 by 200 foot building with a separate two-story storage warehouse, separate dry kiln and engine house. They proposed, also, installing a sprinkler system to guard against another fire disaster. The total bill for construction, they estimated, would be $60,000.

The plan looked enticing to the people of Neillsville. Local folks did not even consider the demand for a $20,000 bonus as a drawback, but when a guarantee of $30,000 in bonds for operating expenses was added, there was some resentment.

In other words, the manufactures wanted the city residents to put up $50,000 alongside their $60,000, to reopen the factory. They would reap no pecuniary return.

The $20,000 bonus was quickly and easily subscribed. Most of that had been pledged before the Wisconsin Furniture Manufacturing Co. had submitted its proposal. But when the drive for $30,000 in bonds for operating expenses was sought, the drive stalled at $20,000. Local promoters couldn’t get it higher.

The promoters went to Muhlhenrich in hopes he would consider the $20,000 adequate. A few weeks later they received a rejection, and the largest employer in central Wisconsin shuddered its death throb.

The Neillsville Manufacturing Company is hard at it buying timber with which to stock the factory. Ash and other woods, birch, oak, maple, etc., will henceforth not be cut down and set afire in log heaps to get them out of the way as was the custom ten years ago.--The Neillsville Times, January, 21, 1890.

WILLIAM MORRISON, superintendent of the Neillsville Manufacturing Company in Neillsville, Wisconsin.