|
According to his daughter Ada in her 1924 fire memoir, as former mayor Julian
Rumsey and his family fled their home on Huron Street, her father entrusted a
tin box of receipts for $60,000 worth of grain, which was
"all the wealth he then posessed," to loyal family servant
Christian Larson. Rumsey then retrieved from a safe "some little
accumulation of interest on government bonds which he had given us children."
He also took down a treasured painting and offered a passing stranger half
the money in his pocket, which turned out to be twenty-five dollars, to carry it
to a place of safety. The Rumseys were in many respects very fortunate. They
got away unharmed, and while Larson was separated from the family he encountered
the man with the painting, who was "only too glad to be relieved of it." The
grain was insured by a solvent company, so the receipts proved to be of great
value. "Also the insurance for our house was held by an English company and so
was paid," Ada noted, adding, "Many American Insurance Companies were made
bankrupt by the fire and were unable to meet their obligations."
The watch fared less well. "Among other things found in the ruins of our house was
Father's watch," Ada recalled. "While preparing for bed before he knew of the
fire, he had put the watch under his pillow and had then forgotten it. When
found, the hands were melted into the face at the hour when the heat became too
intense for the works to run any longer. This was at 1:15 A.M. The blackened
watch and chain are still preserved, but the hands have broken off."
|
Pieces of the Past 