George Robson Distillery Fire
Cincinnati Enquirer, 25 January 1907, page 9
NEWPORT
The old "76" Distilling Company plant on the Licking pike, just
south of Newport was almost completely destroyed by fire last night. The blaze
was discovered shortly after 9 o'clock by Watchman Henry Hampton while he was in
the boiler room of the milling house. He sent in an alarm to the Newport
department and all of the companies responded.
The mill house was located on the west side of Licking pike, at the south end of the plant. It was a four story brick building about 100 feet square and contained the engines, boiler and milling machinery. It is thought that the fire started in the elevator shaft from spontaneous combustion of granite dust. Adjoining the mill n the north was a two story brick occupied as a saloon by Wm Mittenmiller and adjoining this was the well house, a three story building containing about 500 barrels of whiskey.
As soon as he reached the scene Acting Chief Thomasson of the Newport Fire Department called for aid from Covington and Cincinnati. One hose wagon and a steamer from Covington and the Sixes and Tens of this city with Marshall Bunker, responded.
The officers of the organization are George W Robson Jr. President; William Sanders, Vice President; and A V Stegman, Secretary and Chemist. Mr. Sanders said that he was unable to place an estimate on the loss but stated that the company's property was always kept well insured. A low estimate of the amount of whisky that the company had on hand, would be 28,000 barrels. It costs about $9 a barrel to produce, outside of the Government tax, which alone would make a loss of $252,000 on whisky and spirits.
Mr. Robson, who lives in Bellevue, when notified of the progress the flames had made, said that he estimated that the loss would be in the neighborhood of $250,000. As near as he could estimate there was at least two thirds of this value in insurance.