Manuscripts
Bales, Richard. The Cause of the Great
Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow. (Available
October 2002 from McFarland
Publishing Company).
Behrend,
Alice Judy. Burning Bush.
Peshtigo, Wis: Times Printing and Publishing (1988). [An
account of life in the Sugar Bush at the time of the fire
and retelling of stories from people who survived. Available for sale from the
Peshtigo Times.]
Benchley, Elizabeth D. The Sky Was Brass,
the Earth Was Ashes: The Williamsonville Site and the
Peshtigo Fire of 1871. (University
of Wisconsin - Milwaukee) [from Society for Historical
Archaeology]
Casson, John J. Letter dated July 1927.
Account of cleaning up after the fire. State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, Archives and Manuscripts Division.
Gess, Denise and William Lutz. Firestorm
at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in
American History. Henry Holt & Company (August 2002).
320 pp. ISBN 0805067809.
Goodspeed, E.J. The great fires in Chicago
and the West: history and incidents, losses and sufferings,
benevolence of the nations, etc., etc. / by a Chicago clergyman;
to which is appended a record of the great conflagrations of the
past. LaCrosse, Wis.: Brookhaven Press, 2000. (Reprint)
Original publication Chicago: J.W. Goodspeed, 1871.
Holbrook,
Stewart H. Burning an Empire: The Story of American Forest Fires. New
York: Macmillan Co., 1943.
Holmes, Fred L. Old World Wisconsin. Around
Europe in the Badger State. Minocqua, Wis.: Heartland Press
(2nd ed., 1990) Originally published in 1944. [Describes the
experiences of the Belgian community in Door County, including
Williamsonville.]
Leschak, Peter M. Ghosts of
the Fireground: Echoes of the Great Peshtigo Fire and the
Calling of a Wildland Firefighter. San Francisco: Harper
(July 2002). 288 pp. ISBN 0062517775.
Pernin, the Rev. Peter, "The Great
Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account."
Madison, Wis.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
1971. Reprinted from the Wisconsin Magazine of History,
54:246-272 (Summer, 1971). [New 2nd Edition
(1999)]
Pyne, Stephen J. Fire in America: A Cultural
History of Wildland and Rural Fire. Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1997. [Pyne integrates the history of fire with
ecology, agriculture, logging, and resource management. He includes a
vivid description of the Peshtigo fire and the other fires of 1871.]
Sewell, Alfred L. "The Great
Calamity!": Scenes, incidents and lessons of the great
Chicago fire of the 8th and 9th of October, 1871. Also some
account of other great conflagrations of modern time, and the
burning of Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Chicago: A.L. Sewell, 1871.
Tilton, Frank. Sketches of the Great Fires
in Wisconsin: Sketch of the Great Fires in
Wisconsin at Peshtigo, the Sugar Bush, Menekaunee, Williamsonville, and Generally on the Shores of Green
Bay; with Thrilling and Truthful Incidents by Eye
Witnesses. Green Bay Historical Bulletin (1931). Reprint of 1871 ed. published by Robinson &
Kusterman.
Vogel, Carole Garbuny. Nature's Fury:
Eyewitness Reports of Natural Disasters. New York:
Scholastic, 2000 (juvenile literature).
Waskin, Mel. Mrs. O'Leary's Comet: Cosmic Causes
of the Great Chicago Fire. Chicago, IL:
Academy Chicago Publishers, 1985. [Theorizes that
fires in Chicago, Peshtigo, and Manistee, Mich. were caused
by an "impact event."]
Wells, Robert W. Embers of
October. Peshtigo, Wis.: Peshtigo Historical Society (1995).
Original copyright 1968, Prentice-Hall. [This is a special
reprint of Fire at Peshtigo, the original editions of which are
out of print.]
_____. Fire at Peshtigo.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Out of print.
_____. Fire at Peshtigo
(in Fire and Ice: Two Deadly
Wisconsin Disasters).
Madison, Wis.: Northword, Inc. (1983). [Out of print.]
Whitney, Eugene C.. "The Great
Fire of 1871, October 8." LaCrosse Small
Collection 63, U.W. LaCrosse Area Research Center.
Wisconsin Legislature, Journal of Proceedings of
the 26th Annual Session, 1873. Archives of the
State Historical Society of Wisconsin. [Selected
transcript]
