Pin Hook

Swept by the Fire Fiend

Fifteen thousand dollars worth of Property Destroyed.

About 3 o’clock on Wednesday morning a small tongue of flame was seen by some early risers of Crittenden, peeping out from the windows of the cellar under the drugstore of F. M. Robinson.  An alarm of fire was wrung out on the night air and the denizens of that old town quickly gathered at the scene of the threatening conflagration.  Everything was wet and water was plentiful and there were willing hands to throw it on the flames, but their steady march could not be stopped.  The flames enveloped the drugstore and reached out to the left and laid hold of Crutcher & Vallandinham’s hardware store, and George Caldwell’s livery stable and to the right it took hold of  of the Hudson Hall building, a three story brick in which were numerous tenants. It burned out Dean, Richards & Co. and the Tobacco Growers Deposit Bank, and as brought to a halt by fire fighters with slight damage to Hogsett and Ratcliff. 

The Williamstown Courier  April 15, 1897.  The Courier used the headline "Pin Hook," referring to an earlier name for the town of Crittenden.