As the good people of Bridgewater prepare for the up coming sesquicentennial celebrations this summer, I thought you may enjoy a look back at some of Bridgewater’s historic moments.

Here are two newspaper accounts of the same horrific fire that so greatly impacted the people of Bridgewater in the spring of 1894.

Submitted by Toby Hall
BHA Historian

Aroostook Pioneer
May 15, 1894

A very disastrous fire took place at Bridgewater Corner, Friday about noon. It caught from a chopping that was set for the purpose of clearing by Hon. George W. Collins, who anticipated no danger, but owing to the strong wind that blew and increased in violence, the whole village, consisting of some twenty two buildings, was destroyed in very short time. Not a building was left standing where a few moments before had been pretty and in some cases elegant homes.

The telephone man got there as quickly as possible and the losses as near as could be ascertained are as follows. Farm buildings of Joshua Fulton $1,200.00 insured, building occupied by Samuel Murphy loss $500.00 no insurance, store residence and stock of goods John E. Pryor loss $3,000.00 insured for $1,000.00, Collin’s Hotel and stable with contents loss $4,000.00 no insurance, R. H. Perkins residence with jewelry shop, post office, town clerk office etc. $4,000.00 loss $1,500.00 insured, Hotel North Hume stand occupied by S. H. Powers with stock of furniture caskets etc. loss $3,000.00 insured for $1,300.00, two barns owned by J. E. Pryor loss $600.00 no insurance, residence of John F. Ketchum and contents loss $2,500.00 insured for $1,500.00, residence of Allen Boon stable and barn loss $2,000.00 with $1,300.00 insurance on building and contents, Moses Clough residence and stable loss $800.00 no insurance, School building loss $500.00 insured for $300.00.

The burning of the towns records is a very serious loss and can not be replaced, the loss to R. H. Perking is quite heavy he had one of the finest residences in the village and a large part of his jewelry and carpenter tools were destroyed also about $600.00 worth of watches and stock that had just arrived the day before and had not been unpacked. Geo. W. Collins having no safe lost all his books, papers, notes, etc. and a valuable mare burned in the hotel stable, in his efforts to save her Mr. Collins had his hair and beard considerably scorched and barely escaped from the building.

The fire came upon the village so quickly that there was no time to save anything the whole village burned at once. Household goods and valuable property that was carried out burned in the streets. A valuable organ taken from R. H. Perkins house burned in the field and losses are difficult to determine on personal property.

Mr. Collins feels very keenly the position he is in and while fully conscious of the fact that it was not intentional on his part he feels however that he is to quite an extent the cause of the calamity that it brought about. It is thoughtful if Bridgewater Corner will ever be re-built.

Star Herald
May 17 1894

The fine calamity at Bridgewater Corner


One familiar with the localities on the Main Road between Presque Isle and Houlton should he make the trip now would find one old familiar locality utterly transformed. This locality is what was once Bridgewater Corner and the transformation has been effected by a fire which occurred Friday and which swept the little village entirely smooth and flat. As one approaches the site of the vanished settlement from the north, and looks down upon it, he sees a completely new picture and the landscape without the familiar group of buildings one has seen there unchanged for the past twenty years, is not, to all appearances the same landscape at all. The only objects left to assist the eye in recalling the old relations of the spot, as regards to buildings and their locations is the charred stump of S. H. Powers sign post, where “ Hotel North” went down and a little further on a ragged cinder, attached by iron rods to the blackened skeleton of a tree shows where the “Bridgewater Hotel” owned by G. W. Collins sank into the the peaceful bosom of mother earth. Between the main road and Mr. Fred Whited’s farm buildings on the Boundary Line road a distance of perhaps a quarter of a mile nothing remains standing but a few trees a fragment of a picket fence near the site of John Ketchum’s house. The hens that escaped have appropriated the fence for roost, while a flock of turkeys have taken to the trees these hens and turkeys, with one or two stray cats are the sole tenants of the place. This is all that is left of Bridgewater Corner, and so it will probably remain, it is doubtful if it will ever be rebuilt, and in a year or two, it is quite likely that the spot will be reclaimed from its present desolation by the plow and harrow and be absorbed into green fields of grain and potatoes.

The disaster of Friday was caused by the firing of a chopping of several acres, lying perhaps a mile to the south west of the corner. When the piece was set the wind was blowing from the south east, but very shortly afterwards it changed carrying the fire in the direction of the settlement. A burning cinder fell in a straw pile near the barn of Mr. J. B. Fulton. This building soon caught and burned like tinder, and the wind was almost instantly full of burning shingles and other combustibles fragments which fell in a shower on the other buildings of the place so that the entire village was in flames almost at once. The rapid spread of the flames, and the compactness of the cluster of burning buildings made it not only impossible in most cases to remove furniture and other effects to places of safety, but rendered efforts in this direction extremely perilous, and occasioned several very narrow escapes from loss of life, for instance, Mrs. J. B. Fulton, who went upstairs for some articles, found herself enveloped in a dense smoke, which suddenly poured into the room and was nearly suffocated, and overcome before she could escape. Mrs. S. H. Powers remained a moment too long in her dwelling and found her escape cut- off by surrounding building on fire, and had great difficulty in running the gauntlet of fire and smoke to a place of safety, Mr. Geo W. Collins also very narrowly escaped burning while in his stable trying to get out a horse, having his face quite severely burned.

The result of the fire was the destruction of some twenty two buildings together with in most cases the entire contents including clothing. In the stable of G. W. Collins a horse and nine hogs were burned, in that of Moses Clough a colt and in Allen Boones two heifers.

The burned property embraced the following dwellings with their adjacent buildings, J. B. Fulton, S. Murphy, John Pryor dwelling and store, G. W. Collins Hotel, Richard Perkins dwellings, S. H. Powers Hotel and store, dwellings of John Ketchum, Allen Boone, Moses Clough, also the school house.

There was an aggregate insurance of about $9,000.00 with losses exceeding $20,,000.00 George W. Collins, Moses Clough, and S. Murphy were not insured, and Mr. Collins in addition to buildings and contents lost heavily in notes and accounts.

The victims of the fire, while they are being kindly cared for by their neighbors, those generous hospitality obviates any series hardship or discomfort, are entitled to much sympathy for the calamity they have sustained in the loss of their homes and property.