Last revised on
Monday, November 19, 2001.

Charlie Slack lived in Bingham Township in the late 1800's. He left behind a wonderfully detailed journal. Here is an excerpt regarding the 1881 fire.

"I have mentioned the fire of 1881. It was in September. Father was plowing for fall wheat with Jim and Bill in the field S.W. of the house. It began to get very smoky and about 10 a.m. father unharnessed the team, spread the harness out on the plowed field and turned the horse loose and went to work pumping water and filling everything he could find with water. Before this was finished Billie Warren came over to help us. Supposing there was no fire except at our place.

Father sent me to Sam Donaldson’s to get him to help us too. But Sam said he would have to protect his own property and of course he was right. At about the half mile point there were log heaps on each side of the road, and when I came back they were all on fire. It was awfully hot but I knew that if I did not get through Mother would send Father after me and take him away from fighting the fire. I don’t know how I learned it but I ducked my head as close to the ground as I could and ran as fast as I could. When I was about half way through my straw hat that mother had made blew off. But I kept on for I knew that if I turned back I would loose my life as well as the hat. When I got home mother, "thoughtlessly of course" started to scold me for loosing my hat but father told her not to scold me. That I had done perfectly right. Billie Warren did not loose much in the fire but he helped us save our buildings and grain and hay stacks. Billie Warren saw a spark light on a hay stack and he ran with a pail of water and threw the water and it landed on the spot. He and father poured several pails of water on it before they put it out. It burned a round hole down in the stack about 18" deep and large enough so they could run their arm in it.

It was an awful fire. Many were burned completely out. Families moved in with other families. In the white school house, one mile East of Ubly, there were several families. Many men were blind for a time after the fire from the smoke. My father had to be lead around by the hand. About a week after the fire Mr. Maxson (the man who cleared the land for the ox team) came over to our place – lead by the hand. He had been completely blind. His sight was coming back by this time. While sitting in our house the cat walked across the room and he said "I can tell that is a cat." Mother had emptied the straw ticks a few days before and she and I had a hard time to keep the straw from burning. I can remember the trees to the south of our house burning. There were a lot of standing dead hemlock trees. The tops of which were on fire and lasted a part of the night. They made a pretty sight.

Mr. Maxson had the ox team at his place the day of the fire. I think the team was standing out in front of his house in the road and not hitched to any thing. It seemed they knew what was happening: so they started to run away from the fire. When they got within less than a half mile of Pagett’s Corners they fell through a culvert and could not get out. They died there.

The fall of the fire a large amount of relief – food, clothing, etc. was sent on – Father used his team – Jim and Bill – to have some of the goods from lake points – there being no R.R. in there at that time. He hired Mr. Maxson to drive the team. We got some of the goods in payment for our services and for the team. One day I was with father at the White School House. I remember how crowded it was inside the school house. Father had parked the team along beside the building so I could see inside. I remember one little boy about my age (8) who was doing a lot of crying. I suppose the confusion had tired him out. His father took a cup and broke it full of crackers, poured syrup over it – stuck a spoon in it and gave it to him. I thought "if I could only have a dish like that". Had I asked my father he might have given it to me.

While the roads kept good that fall it was not so hard on the teams: but when the rains came the roads were bad fore there was no pavement in those days just dirt roads.

It was a hard time for the people. Most lost all they had. Some put their clothing and bedding in the well but the cover over the well would burn and the things in the well would burn. What floated above the water would burn and the things rise, dry out and burn. So that did not help any. One man said when they did not have enough water they would use what they had to wash their eyes and then drink it

But the worse tragedy I know of is the death of the Day family. This family lived in the center of Section 8 in Bingham Township. There was very little clearing and plenty of dead dry timber. There were the father, mother, Anna and Willie. Another girl – Fannie – was away from home – living with a family by the name of Sherwin. Father Ross drove through there earlier in the day and he tried to get them to go home with him but they thought they might be able to save something, so stayed. Everything they had was burned and they were found burned, or rather roasted to death. I remember one day during the summer term of school, standing on the bank of the school house and talking to Anna and she – in her shy-girlish way – said that she was going to be in a higher reader next term. I suppose it was the second reader."