The grocery store of Hester Davis at 1005 East Main Street was totally destroyed by fire at 4 am Friday. Firemen who arrived at the scene of the fire during the cold of an eight above zero temperature were handicapped in fighting the blaze by a delay of nearly ten minutes in opening a frozen and rusted fire plug.

In the meantime the fire which was rapidly enveloping the building when the fire department arrived reached a point at which the firemen could not get it under control before it had almost completed its work of destruction. Because of the early hour and severe temperature only a few persons were attracted by the fire and the firemen had no assistance.

The fire according to a report given the firemen, started in the attic of the store. The first fire it was reported was early in the night, and that blaze was extinguished by boys in the employ of Mr. Davis who remained in the store the remainder of the night to guard against a recurrence of the blaze.

Early Friday morning, it was said, the boys discovered the fire had broken out again, when they discovered they could not cope with the flames, they said, they called Mr. Davis who lives next door, and when he determined the fire was too serious for them to fight alone the fire department was summoned.

The fire destroyed the frame building, leaving only the hull of the walls standing, and burned or ruined the stock of groceries and meats and the store and meat market equipment including meat cutter, coffee grinder and refrigerator.

Returning to the fire station at 7:30 the firemen were called immediately to the home of A. Ozment, 1407 N. Garfield. A small blaze on the roof caused by a flying spark was extinguished before the firemen arrived but the ride through the cold in their wet clothing added to the discomfiture suffered in the early fire.

(Extracted from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at  http://www.marionfire.us/ )