Last week, I told the story of the Great What Cheer Fire of 1890. This fire was massive, claiming three blocks and causing $200,000 in property damage. That fire is the most infamous from the town’s history. But, of course, there were other fires over the years.
On Aug. 13, 1892, at around 1 a.m., a fire broke out in the Palace Drug Store, spreading to multiple buildings and causing $50,000 ($1.78 million) in property damage. The fire department quickly arrived, but their water ran out, forcing them to drive down to the creek to refill. This gave the fire time to grow out of control, spreading to Griffith’s drug store, the Masonic Hall, the Robinson meat market and the Lawson Bazarr. According to the What Cheer Patriot-Chronicle, the fronts of the buildings prevented the hose from acting on the fire.
All three of the buildings were abandoned, as the fire department made their stand at the Baines Bros. building. But, the great heat and the shortness of their hoses allowed the fire to spread to the wareroom in the back of the building. The firefighters, believing the fire was handled, left to go protect the Dollar Bros. blacksmith shop, only realizing their mistake and returning in the nick of time to save the Baines building. The fire spread to Wheeler’s art gallery, causing the gallery’s skylights to fall in. The firefighters drenched the art gallery, finally ending the blaze. The Chronicle described this in a fairly poetic way, writing “Thus by combined efforts it was saved and the progress of the destroyer here was stopped.”
On May 13, 1903, at 3 a.m., a lamp exploded, causing a fire that destroyed a pair of buildings owned by A.J. Heubler and Steve Keating. The buildings contained the town’s grocery store and meat market. The Sigourney Review mentioned that Heubler also lost $300 ($11,000) that he had hidden in his bed and that he was still digging through the debris to try and find the money, at the time of publication. A bucket brigade prevented this fire from spreading to the Eclipse hotel.
The Keokuk County News’ recounting of the Oct. 18, 1913 fire begins by saying how fortunate it was that there had been no wind that night, because it would have made the fire far worse. That night, Mrs. Trebel, owner of the millinery store, locked up and left to go play bridge. Minutes later, she heard the alarm. The fire that began in the millinery store completely destroyed that building, as well as the nearby barber shop and the restaurant owned by Mr. Newman. The neighboring Buckles & Phillips building was only saved thanks to two men, last names Gilhousen and Davis, staying inside and holding shut the iron window coverings, to keep the fire from spreading.
The fire also spread to the restaurant owned by Mr. Crow, causing an explosion that blew down the ceiling. The Crow restaraunt and the drug store were both saved by the owner of the Walker and Thompson machine shop, who let their hose be used to put out the flames. The Keokuk County News’ recounting of this fire made special mention of the work firefighters Dennis Stapleton, T. Richardson and P. Lally did to stop the fire. The funny thing about the 1913 fire is that it began mere minutes after the city council had signed a contract to add a new water works system to help fight fires.
On June 9, 1915, the Oleiand’s skating rink caught fire. The rink’s tin roof made fighting the fire difficult, but the firefighters managed to put out the blaze. The Sigourney Review made special note of the fact that Mrs. Ed Lortscher provided hot chocolate to the firefighters, which allowed them to keep fighting the blaze late at night. On March 18, 1917, the What Cheer Clay Products Co., the largest business in the town, caught fire. The fire started in the plant’s carpenter shop and spread to the blacksmith, machine repair shop and dry sheds and lumber storage, causing $15,000 ($404,970) in damage before being put out by the plant firefighters and the city firefighters. On Sept. 11, 1921, Jame’s Doan’s garage caught fire, causing $15,000 in damage as the flames damaged seven cars, two trucks and a tractor.
On May 28, 1977, Ron Harden, owner of Harden’s Funeral Chapel came into his office for the morning and noticed that his clock had stopped. He went to check the fuse box, heard a noise, then turned to see a yellow glow coming from the chapel. Harden fled the chapel to call the fire department, then ran back into the burning building and dragged out the casket containing the body of Vera Whittington, whose funeral had been scheduled for the next day. The What Cheer Fire Department, with help from the Deep River, Delta, Keswick and Sigourney departments, managed to get the blaze under control, but the funeral home was completely destroyed. The fire also damaged the nearby community center, which was used as city hall, forcing the city’s files to be quickly moved to the Patriot-Chronicle office before they burned. In total, the fire did $100,000 ($537,274) in damage.
On May 30, 1991, at 2 a.m., What Cheer Fair Grounds groundskeeper Morris Trabert was awakened by a bright light outside his home at the fairgrounds. By the time he ran outside, the fire had already engulfed the north side of the wooden barn containing the horse stalls. Trabert rushed into town to call the fire department, who put out the fire. Fifteen harness-racing horses were killed by the blaze and buried in the centerfield of the racetrack.
Over the years, What Cheer firefighters have worked tirelessly to keep the city safe from fire. Most of the big fires have, thankfully, been put out without any loss of life. But, in 1933, the town wasn’t so lucky. In 1933, a fire at the meat market led to an explosion, claiming the lives of four firefighters.
That story deserves its own column, which I’ll share next week.
