Sullivan County's oldest Masonic Lodge suffered a great loss on March 19, when flames destroyed Callicoon Lodge's Temple which had served as a meeting place for Masons in the vicinity of Jeffersonville since the Fall of 1886.
Callicoon Lodge No. 521 has experienced difficult times since it was established in the Civil War days in the hamlet of Thumansville (now known as Callicoon Center). But despite its many ups and downs none was quite as shocking as the devastation it has just experienced.
The Lodge records, jewels and other important records, some yellowed with age and others of more recent date with their stories of great brotherly love, sacrifice and devotion throughout the years are now but a memory. The Lodge Charter which was kept in the altar was among the valuable documents destroyed.
Monticello Lodge was indeed grieved to learn of this great catastrophe and as a thoughtul child to its mother the sum of $100 has been voted as an initial sum with which to assist our brethren in Callicoon Lodge to rebuild.
Shortly after 2 a.m. last Friday morning a torrent of flames destroyed the Masonic Building and Post Office at Jeffersonville. Loss was estimated at $75,000 and insurance carried was about $8,000. The building was a 60 foot square frame structure which housed the village post office and a dress shop on the street floor and the Lodge rooms of the Callicoon Lodge on the second floor. The cause of the fire has not been definitely determined, although it is believed by some to have started in the dress shop.
The rear of the building and the upper story were on fire when the fire fighters arrived and, although the fire was spreading rapidly, firemen from Jeffersonville and Youngsville were doing a good job of controlling it when suddenly a terrific explosion hurled the flames throughout the entire building and within a few minutes they were raging beyond any hope of control. The explosion, which one report attributed to a barrel of cleaning fluid in the dress shop, was believed by firemen to be an explosion of coal gas. The dress shop on the ground floor was operated by Mr, and Mrs, Thomas J. Swords, Mrs. Swords had died at 6:30 the evening before of a cerebral hemmorage after an operation at the Callicoon hospital. The dress shop was also a manufacturing plant or blouse factory and contained some thirty sewing machines, an unopened shipment of new cloth, and eighteen cartons of finished blouses ready to be sent away. The factory normally employed about 25 people.
After the explosion took place, the building was quickly reduced to a mass of charred wood and the two companies of firemen had all they could do to protect the Hotel Jefferson, the Presbyterian parsonage, and the dwelling of Mrs. Minni Holmes. One fireman was reportedly thrown all the way across the street by the explosion and fire chief Paul Schwartz was hospitalized. Three other men received medical treatment. The firemen used 6 lines of hose which were constantly threatened by the intense heat. Four hydrants were tapped and two lines of hose were run to a nearby brook. The firemen fought the flames from behind temporary barricades. Two of the men injured were attempting to rescue post office records at the time of the explosion when they were hurled violently backward. At the home of Mrs. James Holmes across the street from the burned building, artificial brick siding melted on the walls and windows were shattered by the explosion. Some damage from charring was done to the Jefferson Hotel some 50 feet to the west.
The fire seems to have been reported simultaneously by a Pennsylvania motorist, who was driving through, and by Rev. Kovach who lives in the Presbyterian parsonage nearby. The electric wires had been broken by the fire so that the Youngsville fire truck had to drive back and forth through the town blowing its siren to arouse the firemen.
The post office, which suffered a complete loss of equipment and loss of overnight mail, is now operating temporarily in a fish market. Two postal inspectors are on hand to make determination of future action. Mail service was resumed at 9:30 the morning of the fire in spite of the fact that everything was destroyed except the records which are kept in the safe. The safe was the only item that came through the fire undamaged.
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