# Mathias (Matthias) Schaffer (Court House tower watchman) -- CONDENSED (reported-speech) summary of testimony before the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners, Chicago, Nov. 1871
# Source: Sheahan & Upton, The Great Conflagration: Chicago (1871), Appendix 'The Origin of the Fire', pp. 419-439 (testimony 'thus far (Nov. 27) taken').
# Internet Archive item greatconflagrati0000shea, OCR lines 16552-16619 of greatconflagrati0000shea_djvu.txt (https://archive.org/download/greatconflagrati0000shea/greatconflagrati0000shea_djvu.txt). Uncorrected OCR. Fetched 2026-09-14T06:03Z; written 2026-09-14T06:26:37Z.
# STATUS: extract/summary in reported speech (not verbatim transcript), with a few direct quotations.

Th& Court Souse Watchman.

Matthias Schaffer, watchman in the court house,
corroborated the statement of Mr. Brown m regard
to the alarms given. After he told Brown to strike
Box No. 342, he took another look at the fire, and
was satisfied that he had located it about a mile
south of where it really was, and he informed the
operator of it. He was relieved at eleven o’clock
by Dennis Denene, but he remained in the cupola
Sparks in large numbers and burning material o
different kinds were blown over the court house
within half an hour after he had given the first
alarm. The wind was “ terribly strong ” He con¬
tinued watching the fire until twelve o clock. Twice
before that hour the cupola of the court house
caught fire, and he got on the roof and stamped out
the fire with his feet. This occurred before the fire
fiend had crossed to the South Division. Some men
had been fixing up the clock in the cupola and left
a lot of shavings on the floor. The glass m the win¬
dow had been broken, and the sparks went throug
the openings. There was a window on the south side
of the cupola that never had any glass m it since
he had been on duty in the tower, and sparks were
blown into the cupola there and set fire to the woo -
work. He crawled in and tried to stop the spread
of the flames, but was driven out by the smoke, t e

422 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO:

had no way of putting it out, and had to let it burn.
Between ten and eleven o’clock, he could not tell
the exact time, but thought it was ten o’clock, he
descried what appeared to be a new fire, four or five
blocks north of the one he had given an alarm for ;
about twelve o’clock he left the court house, and
went to look at the south side fire. The wind was
so strong that he could hardly stand up. He returned
to the court house, and helped put out twTo more fires
in the roof. His clothes caught fire several times,
and he was obliged to keep constant watch to pre¬
vent being burned up himself. He and the other
men thought they could save the court house, but
after the sparks went through the open window al¬
luded to and set the under side of the roof on fire,
he knew it could not be done. He halloed to Denene,
who was then on watch in the tower, to come down
or he would be cut off. He could not get down the
stairs, but had to slide down the banisters, his
whiskers being scorched, and his hands and face
badly burned during his progress. Every one had
to leave the building then to save their lives. When
he was driven out of the building he notified the
jailor in the basement that the court house was
going “ sure,” and that he must take care of the
prisoners, and not let them burn up. From seven to
ten minutes after this the cupola fell in.

APPENDIX.

423