Burning Barns

About 5:00 a.m. on July 25, 1918, an auto party on its way to Kankakee was passing the Ed Cole farm three miles south of Ainsworth. One of the motorists noticed that the Cole barn was on fire. The driver stopped the car and they all spilled out, some running to the house to pound on the doors and rouse the family, others rushing into the barn to save whatever they could.

They managed to get the only livestock — a pony and a pig — out of the barn before it became completely engulfed in flame. Nothing more could be saved. Ten tons of hay went up in smoke, along with tools, binder twine and other miscellaneous articles.

The Coles suspected that the fire had been started by a tramp, who reportedly had been "tracked some distance from the barn," but he or she was never found.

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On August 5, Lena Mankey and her ten-year-old son Johnny were turning the cows out of the barn after the evening milking when they noticed that a separate barn holding some 60 tons of hay was on fire.

The hay barn was only 30 feet from the cow barn, which itself was attached to a horse barn, a machinery shed and a windmill. The growing fire threatened them all, and perhaps even the house should the wind shift. Lena and her husband William tried to fight the fire, with the help of dozens of neighbors who now came streaming in from the countryside, alerted either by the rising smoke or quick phone calls. But the hay barn fire outpaced all their efforts and spread to the cow barn. By the time the Hobart fire department came on the scene, both barns were blazing. There was little anyone could do but try to protect the house.

When it was all over, William and Lena had lost both barns, all their hay, their farm machinery and tools, harnesses, etc. But the wind had stayed favorable, and so their house was safe, as well as all their livestock. William estimated the loss at about $5,000; eventually his insurance paid out $2,017 on the claim. It was a severe blow, but the Mankeys intended to rebuild.

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In its report, the Gazette referred to the Mankey farm as the "old John Springman farm," and the 1890 Plat Book shows 40 acres of it owned by "John Sprinkman." I suppose that's why the part of Randolph Street north of Route 30 was called the Springman road into the 1930s or perhaps even later.


Sources:
♦ "Barn and Hay Burns." Hobart Gazette 9 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Barn on Ed Cole Farm South of Ainsworth Burns Sunday Morning." Hobart News 25 July 1917.
♦ "Ed Cole's Barn Burns." Hobart Gazette 26 July 1918.
♦ "Large Barn on Wm. Mankey Farm Destroyed by Fire Monday." Hobart News 8 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 16 Aug. 1918.