Back in the 1960s, when I was attending school in Russell, there still was a palpable sense of before-the-big-fire and after-the-big-fire on Main (Shaw) Street --- even though the blaze had occurred 40 years earlier --- on Sunday, March 24, 1929. That's 90 years ago now.
Before that date, as the photo above, looking west, suggests, both sides of the street were filled with buildings. The two-story one behind the bandstand was the Hasselquist Building, which survived the fire and was partially rebuilt --- the facade was preserved but the roof sloped back to cover a one-story retail space that I think housed Chester Produce (someone will correct me if I'm wrong about that).
Barely visible at the other end of the block is the other survivor, a two-story brick that in my day housed the Hess Drug Store downstairs and the Russell telephone exchange upstairs. Nothing between the two had been rebuilt, but trees had been planted and a new bandstand constructed and this was where we gathered sometimes as a community. Eventually, the water tower was located here, too.
It's still the Russell City Park, the Hasselquist Building has been replaced with a new structure and the old Hess Drug Store has been taken down. But a new bandstand now is in place and the area continues to serve as a community focal point.
Here's the story, published in The Chariton Leader of March 26, 1929, that describes the fire that changed the face of Russell forever.
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Most of the block on the south side of Shaw street, in the business section of Russell, today is a mass of charred ruins. There are a few chimneys standing like sentinels guarding the debris, and calling attention to the devastation that has been wrought by the consuming flames, a small blaze of which started in a restaurant, gaining momentum from a lack of means at hand to extinguish. It leaped in billows, bursting to the open and, from housetop to housetop, until, leaving only the brick building at the west end of the block and the two story frame Hasselquist building on the east next to the street, which is now a mere shell, the interior being charred and burned out. The amount of the loss is yet merely conjecture, but will mount up to probably $75,000, and the inconvenience to the tradesmen, aside from their losses, is a staggering blow that it will take a long time to grow from under.
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This is the first disastrous fire that Russell has ever had and illustrates what hazards may occur from small causes and temporary defective means to cope with them. It is said a small blaze started in the flue of the Stacy restaurant at about 3:30 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, which could have been extinguished without much damage had their fire apparatus not proven recalcitrant at the moment of hazard and refused to play a stream upon the blaze, owing to some defective bearing or valve, and thus it was rendered impotent, and the fire gained headway with the result as mentioned. The Chariton fire department was appealed to, but before the fire truck, manned with a corps of firemen, could reach Russell the dangers had so increased that it was imminent that all of the frame buildings on the south side of the street would be consumed.
Some little time was consumed in getting located, minutes but it seemed longer, (before) a line of hose was strung from the old mill pond, and almost suddenly three streams of water began to play on the menaced buildings on the north side, which soon would have crumbled and burst into flame. These were brick structures mainly, and were slower to ignite than the frame structures directly to the south. The awnings were swept off by the flames, and the windows were falling out and the smoke and heat were driven to the interior. The damage here was great but repairs and adjustments will be easier. But had the flames spread across the street and to the east there would surely have been a general conflagration, and no telling where it would have stopped, the wind being in the south.
As soon as the menace on the north side was arrested, the work of checking the flames to the east was fully centered on, a stream of water playing in that direction all the time for this purpose, but the frame buildings were too far along in the wreck to save when the firemen reached the scene. Careful watch was kept on the two story Hasselquist building on the corner, and the fire kept down as much as dividing the force would permit, or was wise, because had it taken fire on the roof, owing to its height, the flames would have escaped across to the Turbot building and the oil stations and would have wildly swept down the block to the east. Certainly these were anxious moments.
To the north there was a rain of embers and time and again the roof of the McKinley building was on fire, in which is the Ewald & Brewer general store, and even a half block north of this, flying missiles of flames menaced, and had to receive attention from the force of the pumps. Also, falling electric wires had to be reckoned with.
Soon after the truth dawned that the conflagration would be general, the crowd began to unload the stores and shops of their equipment and merchandise, and for a block or more in various directions the streets looked like a ship's wharf with the cargoes distributed promiscuously for the loading. Of course much of this was damaged by breakage and the disarrangement and in the main was salvage, yet there was some rescue not salvage. Before the sun had set and darkness had closed over the scene the disheartened shop keepers and tradesmen were gathering the fragments of their equipment and wares in trucks, and storing in improvised headquarters and warehouses until they could get their bearings and improvise places of business.
Lloyd LaFavre, who had recently purchased the W.L. Werts grocery store in the Hasselquist building, was ill upstairs when the fire broke out, and with great effort got from the building. And certainly this is disheartening. Asa Price has also had a tragic introduction to business. He recently purchased the Linville hardware stock in the same building, and it was scattered almost to the four winds. These were some of the incidents of the conflagration.
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stacy had worked hard in their restaurant, and Mrs. Stacy was frantic when she saw their holdings thus consumed and the fruits of their efforts fed into the maw of the flames. The restaurant of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McKinley and the shoe and harness establishment of John Thomas represented effort and toil to no purpose in the overwhelming rage of fire, as well as the others in the ill-fated row, who are equally worthy.
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Many years ago, the writer took an excursion through a section of the late confederacy which had been run over by the armies during the Civil War, and in spite of the fact that this was two or more decades after the conflict, many of the evidences of destruction by the flames and sword were still there. Old walls protruded from cellar excavations and chimneys were yet standing, having escaped the shells from the mortars and destroying missiles hurled from the guns of the enemy. So the south side of Russell's business section appeared on Monday morning, with the theatre covered with charred fragments of destruction. And also on the north side of the street there were marked evidences that there had barely been a rescue from the overwhelming fate.
The row of buildings, of frame construction, that was destroyed began just east of the Willits wall paper store, a brick structure, and extended to the street line to the east, leaving the two story double room building owned by Senator R. A. Hasselquist a mere shell. He lost a building west of this, having two in the burned district. He had no insurance, nor probably had any of the others who owned buildings, as this was a frame row, and the rate was practically prohibitory.
Other buildings in the row destroyed were that belonging to E.J. Pyle, occupied by the Stacy restaurant; another by the Lockridge estate and others by John Thomas, R.A. Plotts, and maybe one other.
Lloyd LaFavre had a grocery store in the east room of the big Hasselquist building and the family resided above. He was pretty well protected by insurance.
In the next room, Asa Price conducted a hardware store, and he had reasonable insurance. The Stacys lost pretty nearly everything with partial insurance. They will open a restaurant in the brick building belonging to Eugene Smith, just across the street.
The shoe and harness store of John Thomas was practically consumed with the building. He probably had some insurance, but the inconvenience of getting established in business again is a big loss within itself. Thomas McKinley's restaurant went up in smoke, and just what he will do is not yet known. Granville Carpenter, the barber, also suffered his share of loss, as well as others.
On the other side of the street the hardware and furniture house belonging to the Woodman estate suffered considerable damage, both inside and out, and a new front will have to be put in the Smith building. The building of Miss Emma Ewald was badly menaced and the Citizens bank, as well as the other north side buildings, ran narrow risks. For a time it seemed as though the market of Kells & Wright would be ill fated and Rex Moore's barber shop had a "close shave."
There were probably others who suffered direct loss, but this is a loss for the entire town. Monday the rooms and sheds about town were full of the bric-a-brac of what the fire did not get, and it is hoped that everybody in business will soon get squared away and into the game again. Mr. Hasselquist was looking over his building Monday, and probably will soon begin reconstruction. There are a few vacant rooms in town and these, no doubt, will be filled at once.
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