  The Whitewright Sun
Sunday, June 11, 1911 pg. 1 The Grayson County Weekly Advisor THE GREAT WHITEWRIGHT FIRE of June 11, 1911 Courageous Rebuilding from Ashes of Distaster On June 11, 1911, the city of Whitewright, Texas, had one of the most disastrous fires in the history of Grayson County. In addition to the news media account of the tragic fire carried at the time, the Grayson County Advisor felt that an interview with a person who had actually witnessed the fire would give a more personal and vivid account of the fire. It is not an easy task to find someone to interview for an event happening as far back as 1911, but such a person was found, a Mr. Bryan Weber of Whitewright, a longtime resident of the area..... On that long ago afternoon of June 11, 1911, Mr. Weber, a young man, was assisting his father shock wheat in the field of their farm near Whitewright, about 2 or 3 miles from town. A strong north wind had started to blow early on that day, and as they were shocking wheat, they saw a pillar of smoke and a great blaze in Whitewright's direction of such magnitude that they realized the city was ablaze. The great fire burned all day and into the night. The fire fighting equipment in those days was by means of horse drawn wagons, and was inadequate to cope with a fire of this size; however, Mr. Weber recalls that equipment was rushed from surrounding cities such as Leonard, Bonham, Sherman, Trenton, etc., and were of great help in containing the blaze. Some of the residential area burned as well as the town itself, and the people of that day were hard pressed to contain it at all.  Mr. Weber remembers the fire as having started by burning trash at a store called Lively's, and the rising north wind carried sparks and cinders to other buildings, until there was a blaze raging out of control through Whitewright. When the fire had run its course, the city resembled some of the World War II pictures of a bombed out Europe. But Whitewright rebuilt and survived the great fire of 1911. Mr. Weber related that someone his family knew well purchased a large sorrell horse that had drawn the fire wagon and used it on their farm after the fire. At that time, Mr. Weber said, "The only way the ladies had to let the men folks know that dinner was ready was to summon them from the field by ringing a bell. That old horse, long trained to react to a fire bell, would still react whenever he heard a dinner bell ring." From the files of the Whitewright Sun newspaper, five years after the tragedy, is an official recounting of the fire and its aftermath: June 12, 1916 issue of the Sun: "Yes, we were in the great conflagration five years ago today - we lost heavily in that disaster, but fate has dealt kindly with us and the intervening five years has brought us to a place in commercial affairs that we have just reason to be proud of. "We (the bank) known we have been of material service to the business interests of this city since the great fire in helping them to replace their buildings and stocks and regain their losses."   Whitewright History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |