Hemingray Glass Company - Muncie, Indiana

OVER AND HEMINGRAY'S

TWO BIG GLASS FACTORIES QUICKLY

GO UP IN FLAMES.

A Spark From a Railroad Engine Does

The Fatal Work,

Causing Over

$340,000 Damage.

THE DELAY IN GETTING WATER

FOR PROTECTION TOO LONG

And Two of Muncie's Big Industries

Are in Ashes - Three Hundred

Persons Out of Employment.

THE LONG EXPECTED

CONFLAGRATION

COMES AT LAST.

*The Losses And How It Happened.* Not one, but two of Muncie's big industries are in ruins and nearly 300 persons are out of employment. The Hemingray Flint Glass Factory, and the Over Window Glass Works are in ruins from fire. The total loss is estimated as $340,000 with about $116,000 insurance in companies principally represented by E. W. Bishop.

At about 9:45 a.m., the L. E. & W. Ry., belt switching crew were locating some cars for the Hemingray and Over glass works, on the switch that runs directly between the two factories, and by the side of the warehouse owned by the Hemingray factory.

One of the cars was loaded with a kind of straw used in packing glass ware, and a spark from the engine ignited it. The car was soon discovered on fire and the employees in the vicinity attempted to move it from near the sheds. The switch engine having gone, it was impossible to move the car and the flames soon caught in the warehouse building on the south side of the track. At this juncture the alarm was given and Frank Ball, of the Ball Bros.'s factory telephoned to the city department. Ball Bros. have an organized fire brigade which was called out and soon had their line of hose strung to the fire. The Babcock chemical engine and the hose reel soon arrived but they were powerless with such a blaze raging and the short supply of water.

There was a strong north-east wind blowing and with the big Over factory on a direct line and but a hundred feet distant and the Hemingray factory immediately south, it was evident from the start that both concerns would be wiped out. When the fire department arrived the warehouse near the burning box car was enveloped in flames which were reaching out as if anxious to get hold of the two big factories. It was not long until the heat was too great for the wooden and sheet iron structures, and both began to burn at the same time. The big buildings burned like tinder and soon an avalanche of black smoke was soaring high into the air quickly followed by flames that soon laid low both factories and all their valuable contents. With the assistance from the water power at Ball Bros. factory one line of hose was strung and succeeded in saving the office and one ware room building on the east side of the Hemingray factory, but the Over buildings were all destroyed and with them about all of the large amount of stock on hand.

The Hemingray works, which came from Covington, Ky., to this city, was one of the finest factories of the kind in the United States. Their machinery was of the very best, and their patterns the latest inventions. They manufactured principally, bottles, telegraph insulators, and fancy glass globes. Very fortunately for them they had but a comparatively small amount of stock on hand. The following is the estimated detailed loss of Hemingray: on buildings, machinery and furnaces, $90,000; on stock, $20,000. Total: $110,000. Insurance about $40,000. The loss to Over roughly estimated, as follows: factory, buildings, machinery and furnaces, $70,000; stock, $60,000. Total loss, $130,000, with but $45,000 insurance.

It is poor policy to lock the door after the horse has been stolen, and it has been poor policy to wait until the city has sustained a loss of two or three hundred thousand dollars on this one and the Ball Bros., before the water mains are extended.

The city council and the water works company seem to be the ones most censured. Had there been available water for use as should have been, the two big concerns would have been saved. There was plenty time for action had there been anything to fight the blaze with. But there was not. The fire did not originate in a factory, but in a box car, then an old shed, and it took some time for the fire to reach the main building.

For a year or more the big factories of Industry have howled long and loud for protection against fire. That part of the town as not been inside the corporate limits of the city and of course were not entitled to the protection of the city until a few weeks since. The gentlemen owning the big concerns objected to paying city taxes and that caused a division in the council as to extending the water mains for their own special benefit at the expense of the tax payers of Muncie. After the destruction of the stamp works about the last thing done by the old city council was to take Industry and the factory district into the city limits for protection, and the contract was made with the water Works Company to lay a ten-inch pipe line south on Macedonia avenue past the factories. The two factories burned were to have five hydrants, two each in their factories and one between the two.

The man sent here by the company to make the extensions was urged to first build the Macedonia line to the factories by the factory people, and work was begun there first. The ground is very low in that locality and the constant rain last month caused work to be stopped before completed to Industry, and since then the men were at work in another locality, when, it is claimed, that the Macedonia line should have been pushed to completion. Superintendent Walling of the Water Works Company stated that he had nothing to do with the extension work. The company is under contract to have the extension made and completed by August 1st and had a man here in charge of the work, and if the recent heavy rains had not interfered the Macedonia line would have turned water into the line and saved the building.

The city fire department had about all their hose at the scene and did good work so far as possible with the one line of hose.

The Over factory is one of the oldest glass concerns in the city, and it was a well established factory. Two weeks hence the factory was to close down for the summer season. The establishment manufacturers window glass, a large supply of which is always on hand at this time of the season and this is no exception, making that gentleman's loss very serious.

The insurance on the Hemingray building and stock distributed among the following companies: Norwich Union, $2,000; Manchester, $2,750; Lancashire, $3,000; British America, $1,500; St. Paul Fire & Marine, $2,500; North British Mercantile, $1,250; Springfield, $1,000; Michigan Fire & Marine, $1,500; Imperial, $2,000; Hamburg-Bremen, $1,100; Traders, $2,500; Sun Fire Office, $2,500; Evansville, $2,000; State Investment, $1,000; Western, $2,000.   Total: $31,500.

Over's property was insured as follows: British America, $2,000; Niagara, $1,500; Sun Fire Office, $2,750; Manchester, $2,000; Norwich Union, $2,000; Michigan Fire & Marine, $1,500; North British Mercantile, $2,000; Fireman of Baltimore, $1,200; Western of Toronto, $1,500; Traders, $2,000; German of Peoria, $1,000; St. Paul Fire & Marine, $1,250; Lancashire, $2,500; Imperial, $2,000; Home, $2,000; Imperial, $2,000; Evansville, $2,000; Calidonia, $1,000; Springfield Fire & Marine, $1,000; Indiana Underwriters, $2,000; Indiana Ft. Wayne, $1,000; Scottish Union, $1,500; Hamburg-Bremen, $1,100; State Investment, $1,000.   Total: $43,300.

NOTES

It was a close call for some of the dwelling houses in the vicinity of the fire.

Rush the water works extension and give us one or two more fire stations at once.

The furnaces at the Over factory are not a total wreck, one of them is but slightly damaged.

Over's factory was employing about 125 hands and the Hemingray 's a larger number.

Hundreds of people from the city were soon on the ground, viewing the progress of destruction.

While the losses will greatly aggregate the insurance both the factories will be rebuilt and in running order in a few months.

The men employed in the factories and many of them at Ball Bros. braved the heat and worked nobly to save what they did.

Messrs. Over and Hemingray wish the Times to thank the gentlemen who worked so faithfully in the effort to save the stock.

Five loaded box cars burned, two were loaded with sand consigned to Hemingray, two with lumber for Over, and one car with straw for Hemingray which caused the fire.

The insurance on the Hemingray glass factory was increased $3,000 last week by K. W. Bishop, who controls the insurance in Muncie on nearly all the companies interested.

Walter, son of Hon. R. S. Gregory, organized about fifty boys who did noble relief work carrying drinking water in fruit cans to the men who were fighting the flames. It was a novel idea for the little boy.

The Hemingray glass people have begun clearing away the debris and will at once rebuild. A shed will be constructed over the large furnace which is not injured and the bowers have been instructed to report for work Monday morning.