Source: North Manchester Journal, August 3, 1905

MILLINERY STORE BURNED

Wood Sisters' Stock Quickly Wiped Out, Loss Total

The first fire in the business quarter of town in some time occurred in the millinery store of the Wood Sisters between 8 and 9 o'clock Friday morning and wiped their stock out of existence in about as quick a time as it takes to tell the story. The fire started from a heating stove in the back part of the room. Miss Mattie Wood came to the store about 8 o'clock and the morning being damp and rainy she built a fire in the stove after which she went to the store of Humbert & Shaw to make a purchase of some kind. Evidently she had built more of a fire than she had intended for it was only a few minutes until smoke was seen issuing from the room and the whole inside was a mass of flames. The light inflammable millinery goods having caught fire, the stock was burned like a flash.

The fire department was soon at work and in a comparatively short time had the fire extinguished. The fire did not get out of the room in which the stock was but everything in the room was a complete wreck, not a single thing having been saved. The stock was insured in one of the companies in the A.C. Shively agency for $400 which, it is thought, will nearly or quite cover the loss. No adjustment has been made at this writing.

The building is the property of the Hopkins estate. It is a frame structure and one of the oldest in town. The damage is such as to render it beyond repair and the building will be taken down in a short time. It is one of the few remaining "land marks" of early days and the last but two of the frame buildings in the business section of town.