Recalling Jackson's Great Fire Of 1913

In Story & Photos

Eyewitness Story of the "Big" Fire of 1913

Photos of the "Big" Fire of 1913

1. Photo 1 - Along Broadway Street

2. Photo 2 - Ruins Along Main Street

3. Photo 3 - Looking At Smoking Ruins

4. Photo 4 - A Barber Carries On

5. Photo 5 - The Redwine House Escapes

6. Photo 6 - West Corner of Main & Broadway

7. Photo 7 - A Church Falls To The Flames

8. Photo 8 - Sorting Out Ruined Goods

9. Photo 9 -Standing Around

10. Photo 10 - Cleaning Up Broadway Street

11. Photo 11 - The Way It Was Before The Fire

You will notice many of these views were taken by Charles Oelze. After working on this story many years ago (about 1975), I tried to trace Mr. Oelze down. Here is what took place. I located his son, who at the time lived in Los Angeles, California. I learned Mr. Oelze had had a studio in Jackson for a short while before he moved to Hazard. He had also been at the time a traveling photographer who not only made still photos, but silent movies of scenes he made all through Eastern Kentucky. According to his son, he often stopped in coal camps, lumber camps, and small settlements setting up a one-night movie house showing these scenes. I was very excited to hear this. However, nothing of his huge collection seems to survive today (except a few postcard scenes) as it was destoyed by fire years ago. Mr. Oelze was from Germany and once lived in Cloverport, Kentucky. A later mountain photographer, Astor Dobson, worked as a young man for Oelze at the Hazard Studio. He once related that Charles Oelze was the best photographer he had ever met. Sadly, when World War One broke out, the people of Hazard and Perry County, more or less, ran Mr. Oelze out of town because he had been born in Germany and spoke in broken English. (The post cards used here were owned by the late Lilly Frasure who lived on Washington Ave. in Jackson. Since her death some years ago I do not know what has become of the old scenes.)