- Mary Ellen perished in the Brechin Hotel fire:
About 1:30 am, on March 17, 1914, Charles McNarney, a bartender of the Brechin Hotel was awaken by smoke , and he gave alarm to the fifteen people in the hotel. By that time the whole basement of the hotel had been burnt away. Some made their escape through windows, and some by a back stair. Their rescue was effected by Victor Adair, Charles McNarney and Patrick McLean, boarders in the hotel.
The Orillia Times newspaper account of the fire tells of three maids sleeping in a room on the third floor, Miss Maggie McNarney, Miss Etta Crosby and Miss Josie Callaghan. The former two jumped from the window and were more or less injured by the fall. Miss Callaghan seemed to lack the nerve to follow their example, and while she hesitated it is supposed she was overcome by smoke and fell back into the burning building. The McCauley family attempted their escape by the back stairs. Mrs. Mary Ellen McCauley (nee McDonnell) was carried out of the building, but had died from suffocation. It was several hours later that the injured Mr. Thomas McCauley regained consciousness, to learn of the death of his wife, and two of his children, John William, age 5, and a 10 month old infant son, Dennis Thomas. Two other children did survive, a son, Patrick Michael, age 7 and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, age 2.
An inquest into the four deaths in the burning of the Brechin Hotel was held, the jury brought in a verdict of accidental death, for which blame was attached to no person. The Orillia Times declared it was One of the most shocking causalities ever recorded in this district.
a copy of the Orillia Times article, dated 19 March 1914, appears on page 360 of the book...they came to mara...
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