Project Scroll Research Note 2026-51: The Studebaker fires of 17 June 1872 and 24 August 1874 in the reports of their day

The two fires that destroyed the Studebaker works at South Bend are usually given from C. A. Carlisle's account of 1907: a loss of $80,000 in 1872, and in 1874 a loss of $350,000 "including 2,400 wagons." The reports of the time give other figures. The South Bend Union of 19 June 1872 put the fire "Shortly before six o'clock Monday evening" (17 June), traced it to "friction engendered in the journals of the fans used in carrying the dust and shavings to the engine room," and put the company's loss at $70,000. On 24 August 1874 the fire was first seen at 4:45 in the morning, by the South Bend Tribune, and destroyed "over 2,000 finished wagons stored in the basement"; the Associated Press itemized the loss at a total of $300,000, "thought to be rather under the loss." The $350,000 is already in the county atlas of 1875. The "fire of 1872" in Anderson's history of 1901, and the great fire of 5 September 1872 in Howard's of 1907, are Mishawaka's fire, not Studebaker's. Project Scroll Research Note 2026-51, version 1. The note sets out the record quoted, where it is held, what it changes, its limits, and what was searched before calling it new. Web version: projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-51/.