Elder House Burned

The Elder House, one of the leading hotels at Indian Spring was totally destroyed by fire last Monday afternoon.  Some lamps were being filled and lighted by a servant when one of them exploded and thus the fire was started.   The large building was falling in  30 minutes later, and very little of the furniture and other contents were saved.  Manny of the guest, about 100 in number, lost all their baggage.  One lady is reported to have lost 400 in cash besides diamonds, and other jewelry and baggage.

The hotel was a very large building built of good pine timber and was in shape to burn very rapidly.  The loss falls heavily upon the owner as there was no insurance.

It was with much effort that the fire was prevented from spreading to the Calument.

Jackson Argus - Butts County
Week of June 30, 1899

Submitted by Don Bankston