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Church burns, snow hampers firement
St. Patrick's Catholic Church was destroyed by fire about 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 1, 1903. The McCook Tribune of Friday, March 6 told how quickly the fire spread. "The alarm was sounded shortly before that hour while high mass was in progress and by half past eleven the entire structure with much of the furniture and furnishings were in ruins." The paper reported that there was no panic. The worshippers got out of the burning church and removed quite a few of the sacred furnishings on their way.
The indications were that the fire had started between the ceiling and the roof relating to a defective flue in the northeastern part of the building. It had smoldered for some time. "This would explain why the building burned so fiercely so soon after the flames burned through the roof and a draft was created."
"The fire department responded as rapidly as possible, but the long run up the hill through the snow pulling the heavy cart made progress slow and by the time the boys had arrived on the scene it was not possible to save the church and the attention was directed to saving the parsonage adjoining, in which they were entirely successful, although the wind at times made the outlook discouraging."
This St. Patrick's church was built in 1885 and cost around $4,000, of which $1,800 was covered by insurance. The furniture and furnishings of the church cost about $2,000, of which $1,200 was covered by insurance. While some of the furnishings from the church were saved, the furniture was almost a complete loss. The parsonage adjoined the church to the east and was slightly damaged. The $1,200 in insurance coverage would easily cover the furniture that was damaged in the removal.
"The Tribune is pleased to learn that the official members of the church and members of the congregation met on Monday evening and decided to rebuild at once. The new structure will be of brick and will be more commodious and better appointed than the one destroyed by fire." A little later in the article they speak of it being a "stone and brick church to cost about $6,000.00. They hoped to have it finished by September 2003.
Work on the new church would begin as soon as plans and specifications could be prepared and in the meantime St. Patrick's services would be held in the Red Willow County Courthouse every Sunday at the usual time.
Father J.J. Loughran put a note of gratitude in that sane issue of the Tribune thanking all "who so nobly and heroically assisted us". For the firemen, he had a special gift: "As a personal mark of appreciation of their noble work among the flames and burning cinders, I wish to give them a smoke of a better flavor. I have placed with Chief Tartsch a box of cigars and he will see that all the fire-fighters get a smoke out of it."