Another beautiful day and it is the first day of Autumn. I finished edging the trees today and just kept busy the rest of the day puttering around.

We leave early for our tour to Peshtigo. I found the information about my great grandfather, who survived the fire there. This is the paragraph in the family history.

Peter Uelmen was working for the Stevenson Lumber Company at the time of the Peshtigo Fire on October 18, 1871. The whole city was destroyed, with a loss of over 1500 lives. Some of the people tried to escape the fire by huddling in hollow tree stumps, but they died. Others jumped into the river but the flames swept over them and caused them to drown. This fire occured the same time as the Cicago fire, which is told was caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over the lantern. There was a loss of 250 lives, but Peshtigo was a small northen city so there wasn't much publicity until later. Peter Uelmen was in Kewaskum on the anniversary of the fire, and a reporter heard him tell about it and printed a detailed description in the local newspaper, the Kewaskum Statesman. This forest fire was the greatest loss of life in peace time in the United States.

Later

Mary