Lenawee County History: 1908 Britton fire recounted through archival stories

I rarely got outside of the west part of Lenawee County growing up.

Towns like Britton were places through which I seldom passed. When I drove through the small community recently, I decided to look up the village, home to about 550 people.

I have in my archive a photo of the downtown area in the 1940s, as well as an image from the early 1900s that showed the remnants of a fire, titled “Britton disaster.”

The postcard was with similar images of Riga, a portion of which had been lost to fire in 1908. Soon enough, I found the answer to my inquiry: What happened in Britton?

Nearly every community in Lenawee County was visited by sweeping fires over the years. Britton lost five stores in a block the evening of Sept. 18, 1908. The fire was said to have started in the Maccabee Hall, above A.C. Drake’s drug store. The Daily Telegram at the time reported the fire “defied all efforts on the part of the inhabitants.”

The entire town turned out to save its brick business block along M-50, quickly organizing a bucket brigade, as few rural communities had an organized fire department. The fire was discovered about 11:30 p.m. A.F. Clement was asleep in a room above a nearby meat market and smelled smoke. He notified dancers at the Lenardson Hall of the smoke, which quickly turned to a fully involved fire.

Bucket brigades were assembled and residents accessed chemical devices — today known as fire extinguishers — in the surrounding businesses but the fire was moving too fast to stop. Efforts then turned to saving as much as could be salvaged from the stores about to be affected. Unfortunately, in the chaos, looters helped themselves to the salvaged merchandise, to where a guard was stationed to prevent additional loss.

Within four hours, a west wind had blown the flames down the block, and everything in the fire’s path was reduced to smoking ruins. Once it was determined nothing to the east could be saved, water brigade efforts were focused on keeping buildings to the west from catching alight.

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There were no reported fatalities, although there was one injury. Frank Pocklington was part of the bucket brigade and someone threw an empty bucket off a roof. The bucket struck Pocklington in the head, knocking him “senseless” for a few moments. He recovered from the injury in short order.

Adrian and other departments were called for help during the fire, but with no reservoir, lake or pond from which to draw water, those departments would not have been able to keep up with the advancing fire. The Telegram reported that “it was found that about the only way to get (from Adrian to Britton) at that hour was to drive overland, and the proposition to send aid from here was abandoned.”

In the end, B.J. Beasley’s furniture store was lost, as was Louis Knabush’s saloon, A.O. Drake’s drug store, G.L. Gripton’s hardware store, a store owned by W.W. and C. B. Exelby; and Bert Allen’s barber shop. The total loss came to $16,000, an amount equalling a half-million dollars in purchase power today.

Dan Cherry is a Lenawee County historian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County History: 1908 Britton fire recounted through archives