This 1911 newspaper clipping (unfortunately, I didn’t save the exact source citation and can’t find it right away) documents a housefire in Carthage, Illinois, at the home of my great-grandparents Howard and May Ellefritz and their children. Their oldest child was my grandmother, Orpha Lydia Ellefritz. She married John Arnold in Carthage in 1916 and my father was their second child, born in 1918.
I don’t really have much to say about this article, except that it documents a man that I have almost no record of aside from a couple of photos. The photos are at the end of this essay.
Several things about this newspaper article that fascinate me. First, this fire happened and I never knew about it. This was seven years before my father was born, and his mother was one of the family members impacted by the fire. My second cousin from Oklahoma lost her home in a fire about a decade ago, and she’s still feeling the pain of that loss today.
I’m also a little confused by the story. At one point it says that “before the fire company got to the scene it was all gone.” But two sentences later, it states that “practically everything was saved.” And then the article referred to the house in the past tense. So I don’t know. And finally, the article describes the house as a “five room, one story . . . worth about $1,250.” Only $400 was covered by insurance. I think the fire destroyed the house. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
My grandmother was the oldest of 10 children born to Howard and May, although three of their daughters were either stillborn or they died as infants. This means that at the time of this fire, nine people were living in this small house. I also know from census records that Howard was a farm laborer who worked for someone else and did not own his own home. This was a family with a lot of economic problems; the fire must have been devastating.
This little newspaper clipping gives me a glimpse into the early life of my grandmother and her family. I always found my grandmother somewhat unapproachable, and knowing this little snippet about her upbringing helps me understand her. I wish I had known about this story while she was still alive.
Yes, I imagine there are a lot of family stories I have never heard, either. I think about that a lot, which is all the more reason to tell my stories! 😎