Hemingray Glass Company - 1892 Fire

Charles H. Over, a glass manufacturer of Muncie, Ind., and a score of insurance companies sued the Lake Erie & Western Railroad Co. in the Delaware Circuit Court for $75,000 damages for the burning of his glass plant, June 18, 1892, the loss on which was $71,295.85. The charge was that the railroad company had neglected its switches and spurs in the vicinity of the glass plant, and that weeds, grass, and other combustible material had grown up around the tracks, which, during the dry, hot weather, was easily ignited by fire from the engines, and that the conflagration which destroyed the glass plant in question was so caused. Upon petition of the railroad company the case was transferred to the federal court.