Fires & Floods

The rubble left on Water Street after the 1900 fire.

Annie Blackwell Jarvis was born March 25, 1876, daughter of Oliver Jarvis (1828-1883) and Jane Sparrow Jarvis (1849-1911). She died at the Beaufort County Nursing Home on October 4, 1972. She was 96 years old, never married, and is buried in Oakdale Cemetery.

In the early 1900’s, Annie served as a teacher at Washington’s primary school. She was also a substitute librarian at Washington Public Library during the Depression.

An Account of Fires and Floods in Washington by Annie Jarvis

 The first fire that I remember was in the late 1880’s. At that time Water Street in Washington was not the placid place that it is today. Fish and oyster boats were tied up at the wharves and sailors roamed the street. No “nice people” were supposed to frequent Water Street.

The Eagle Hotel

On [Water] street, back of Jack Oden’s store, stood a frame negro hotel, the Eagle, with no good reputation.

One freezing cold night, the fire bell rang, and we looked out to see the Eagle Hotel a mass of flames. The fire equipment at that time was the Ocean steam engine and the Salamander pump engine belonging to the negro fire company, with Sylvester Dibble, Captain. The water supply was the river.

The wind was strong and sparks from the burning building were carried as far as our houses. It looked as if our neighborhood was doomed but the firemen of that day were as good fighters as we have today and only the Eagle Hotel burned. This was probably a blessing to the town.

A good dog story comes from this. My Mother took a sheet and each member of the family brought a changed of clothes to her and she tied up the clothes, ready to take with us if the house caught. A loved member of the family was a beautiful Irish Setter, belonging to our uncle. The dog walked around the bundle, sniffed and sat down and stayed with it during the fire. When things were over and the bundle opened, it was found that Lee had been guarding his master’s clothes all during the fire.

Fire of 1898

About 1898, a grain elevator stood on the river shore at the end of the Coast Line Rail Road at the end of Gladden Street. This elevator caught fire one afternoon and a terrific conflagration followed. Soon the surrounding buildings, Taylor’s and Hoyt’s hardware next were in flames. The fire engines, Ocean (white) and Salamander (colored), were on the river back of Fowle’s store, now Sears Roebuck.

It was a sight –  the reflection of the fire on the water and the swarthy bodies of the negroes as they pumped up and down in time to their singing.

The Fowle home next to the store was an emergency first aid. As the men were overcome by work and heat, they would be stretched out in the floor of the living room with some doctor aiding. Kim Sauders declares that I give him a good drink of liquor. I have no memory of it, but I probably handed out what the doctor gave me.

Margaret, Charlotte Brown, Mrs. Kugle, and Temple Thorne, the Fowle’s adopted daughter…

Mr. Fowle said the house would not burn but Mrs. Fowle was worried over losing her china and linen, so we packed the china and linen in clothes baskets and took the baskets to the Mance, corner of Respess and Second Streets. No a piece was broken and some of that china is now in the possession of Mary and Annie Fowle.

Half of the block was burned and one negro lost his life when the wall of Hoyt’s Hardware store collapsed.

When the fire was under control, someone came to Temple and said, “Make coffee and take it to the negroes who are pumping the engine on the wharf. If they get liquor it will be bad.” The Fowle kitchen was damaged but there was a gas plate in the basement pantry. Temple made coffee and each of us took a pot or pitcher full and as many cups as we could hand on our fingers and sallied down to the wharf.

It was a sight –  the reflection of the fire on the water and the swarthy bodies of the negroes as they pumped up and down in time to their singing. They would reach out, get a cup of coffee and fall in again. The coffee worked and so did the colored folks until the fire was out.

The elevator was never rebuilt. The fire and “progress” have removed all of the old buildings except Fowle’s store – Sears Roebuck.

Fire of 1900

You’ve all read Gone With the Wind and the burning of Atlanta. It reminded me somewhat of the fire of 1900 which, at one time, threatened the entire town, and did burn almost four blocks of Market and Water Streets.

I’ve never seen such a sight. Two-wheeled carts, buggies, people on foot, rushing on Market Street toward the cemetery.

Dr. Payne, the Presbyterian minister, had died suddenly the morning of September 13^th. [Dr. Charles M. Payne, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, was a respected clergyman in Washington. The town was still in mourning on Friday, September 14 when the fire stated on Water Street and the alarm was passed by word of mouth].

The Payne children were at our house with our mother, their aunt. I was at the Mance [clergy house of the Presbyterian minister], corner of Second and Respess Streets. About noon, noticing the smoke, I went to [the] front gate and met Captain Ellsworth and asked where the fire was. [Captain William Ellsworth was conductor of the first Atlantic Coast Line train into Washington in 1892. In 1900 he was a familiar figure on the streets of Washington and served as the Coast Line conductor for another 20 years.]

"If you expect to get home, Miss Annie, you’d better hurry. The fire has burned almost to the corner of Main and Market."

I told the nurse that I was leaving, and hurried home. At the corner of Second and Market I’ve never seen such a sight. Two-wheeled carts, buggies, people on foot, rushing on Market Street toward the cemetery. I met Miss Addie Rodman, William’s mother. She said, “I’ve got to get to Aunt Marcia and you are trying to get home. Let’s try.”

So, taking hold of hands, we pushed our way against the outgoing crowd and intense smoke and reached Main Street. The heat was almost unbearable, but she crossed Main and I Market, she making Aunt Marcia’s – site of Small’s Book Store – and I reaching home.

People from the stores with arms full of goods, putting them anywhere they could. The Episcopal Church yard was full and the homes on the block of Main from Market to Bonner. Much of the furniture from the Jarvis home across the street was stuffed in our house.

Jane and Penny Myers had a hat shop where Reid Mitchell’s now is. In front of this shop was a wooden shed. The two posts supporting this shed were cut and th shed roof dropped, making a shield.

[We] joined a bucket brigade, talking turns pumping (no water works) and passing the water to the men on the roofs.

When I reached home, I found only mother. Grandmother had been taken to a grandson’s and Margaret and Celia Bridgeman, “Bridgie’s” aunt, had been told to get the Payne children home and tell them to be prepared to move Dr. Payne’s body if the fire crossed Main Street.

To get to Second Street, the girls had to go through our garden, knock a board of the fence out, and crawl through. The heat was intense. Market Street corner could not be rounded.

Margaret and Celia managed to get back and with mother, we went next door to Bragaw’s – now Patrician Inn – and joined a bucket brigade, talking turns pumping (no water works) and passing the water to the men on the roofs.

While we were busy at this, someone came and said, “Get in the house and stay util after the explosion. Mr. Fowle is going to dynamite the Jarvis house. If the fire can be brought low it can probably be kept from crossing the street.”

We waited in the Bragaw dining room until it was safe to go out. The dynamiting was successful. The house laid low and the fire did not cross the street.

An attempt was made to blow up Miss Marcia Rodman’s house but was not successful.

[The  Rodman house was lifted from its foundation by the explosion but settled back in place.]

Dr. Ed Brown and his first wife, Jessie Burbank, were living in the old Martin house, Welch’s now. Dorothy Willis was a wee frail baby and it was a question as to moving Jessie and the baby, but they were carried to her mother’s where Mami Sugg now lives.

The fire originated on Water Street, near [the] present Maola Plant, burned both sides of the street to the ice plant and both sides of Market to Main. It was an awful thing, but the wooden buildings were replaced by brick, which was an improvement.

[For further information on Washington's 1900 fire, see A Surging Holocaust.]

Credit: Annie Jarvis’s memoir was provided courtesy of the George H. & Laura E. Brown Library.