September 1, 1894: The Great Hinckley Fire

September 1, 1894: The Great Hinckley Fire breaks out. Over the next 5 days, it burns over 250,000 acres of forest in eastern Minnesota, around the town of Hinckley. The official death toll was 418, and the actual toll was probably a bit higher.

It was the biggest wildfire in America since the one centered on Peshtigo, Wisconsin in 1871, the result of a very dry Summer. The Great Chicago Fire was on the same day as Peshtigo's.

The Summer of 1894 was also very dry, and especially hot. The fires' spread apparently was due to the then-common method of lumber harvesting, wherein trees were stripped of their branches in place; these branches littered the ground with flammable debris. Also contributing was a temperature inversion that trapped the gases from the fires. The scattered blazes united into a firestorm. The temperature rose to at least 2,000 °F. Barrels of nails melted into one mass, and in the yards of the Eastern Minnesota Railroad, the wheels of the cars fused with the rails. 

Some residents escaped by climbing into wells, ponds, or the Grindstone River. Others clambered aboard two crowded trains that pulled out of the threatened town minutes ahead of the fire.

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September 1, 1894 was a Saturday. Baseball was then the only team sport in America that dared to be openly professional, and the 12-team National League was the only major league. These games were played on that day:

* The New York Giants split a doubleheader with the Cincinnati Reds at the Polo Grounds. The Reds won the opener, and the Giants won the nightcap. Each game ended 8-6.

* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms swept a doubleheader from the Louisville Colonels, 6-5 and 20-7 at Eastern Park in Brooklyn. Still using the name they got when several of their players got married before the 1887 season, the Grooms would officially be the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Chicago Colts beat the Boston Beaneaters, 17-7 at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Colts became the Cubs in 1903. The Beaneaters became the Braves in 1912.

* A doubleheader was split at the Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds. The St. Louis Browns beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-6 in the 1st game. The Phillies won the 2nd game, 19-9. The Browns became the St. Louis Cardinals in 1900.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Spiders, 5-2 at Union Park in Baltimore.

* A doubleheader was split at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. The Washington Senators won the 1st game, 11-4. The Pittsburgh Pirates was the 2nd game, 15-6.

Baltimore, Washington, Cleveland and Louisville would be contracted out of the NL after the 1899 season.

And in English soccer, Woolwich Arsenal, the team that would one day become Arsenal Football Club, the North London team I would support, lost to Lincoln City, 5-2 at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, now part of South-East London.