Our people, and especially those on the east side of the square, were given a genuine scare on last Monday morning.  At about three o’clock the family of Mr. Thomas Perrigan, who occupy rooms in W.P. Goodall’s building, were aroused from their slumbers by the presence of smoke in their apartments.  They were not long to discovering that the house was ablaze in the closet under the steps in the front part of the building. The fire was making considerable headway and had it not been discovered when it was the entire block of wooden buildings on the east side must have gone up in smoke.  There was considerable rubbish in the closet where the fire was discovered and that furnished first class material for a starter.  The general supposition is, we believe, that the building was fired by an incendiary.  A fire could not break out in a place in town where so much property would be liable to destruction as in this block, and the thought that any one would supply the torch to it is too terrible to contemplate.

(Extracted from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us/ )