The Kewaunee Fire and the Wing Law Library

Friday, February 13, 2015

One night, long ago, thirty buildings burned to the ground in downtown Kewaunee. 

The fire started on May 19, 1898 in Ignatz Gunter’s hotel barn behind the Wing law office. 

Kewaunee County Historical Society Heritage sign

An area bounded by Kilbourn, Harrison, Milwaukee and Main Streets was heavily damaged.  Aided by a strong northeast wind, two blocks of businesses were turned to ash in a matter of minutes.  Destroyed in the fire were: the Ganter Hotel; the law office; Charles Metzner Clothing; a barber shop; Klemish Saloon; Gotstein Millinery; and the Putman and Dillon Meat Market. 

All was not a total loss; some buildings did survive including: Bach, Kieweg and Poser Store; Commercial Hotel; Bitzan Saloon; Mashak’s Hardware Store and the Bank of Kewaunee.

Attorney George W. Wing was particularly devastated by the loss.  He had been in law practice previously with his father, Rufus L. Wing, in Kewaunee and was, in 1898, in partnership with Charles Wattawa since 1894.  Wing’s stone block, which was built in 1892 at a cost of $5,000, was entirely destroyed.  With it went his library and his most valuable papers.  He had especially valued the law library because it had been his father’s.  Among its contents were many books from the library of his grandmother Wing’s relative, General B. J. “Jeff” Sweet of Camp Douglas fame.  Nearly 700 volumes were destroyed. Also burned in the fire was his certificate to practice law.

Attorney George W. Wing

 

According to G.W. Wing’s personal diary, after the fire, undaunted, he immediately moved into Grimmer’s block nearby and the next day ordered a new library.

Although Wing was disturbed by the loss, not everyone considered the fire to have been a terrible thing.  A newspaper article soon after said “Kewaunee business men are beginning to realize that the recent fire which destroyed a considerable section of the business part of that city may in the long run prove to be one of the best things that has ever happened for the place.”

Shortly after the fire, nearly $60,000 in cash was paid out by insurance companies.  It was noted that while a few of the lost buildings were good looking, substantial structures, most of them were old wooden buildings “worth just enough to prevent their owners from tearing them down.”  In some cases, the real estate, along with the insurance proceeds, was worth more than the entire property before the fire. 

It turned out that these statements were prophetic.  Within a few decades, the old was replaced with new brick and stone buildings and business was booming in the City of Kewaunee. 

In fact, at least until the Great Depression of the 1930s negated much of Kewaunee’s business boom following the fire of 1898, the blaze was actually a “blessing in disguise.”