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During the winter of 1868 the Emmert house, situated on Bench street
near Wabasha, was destroyed by fire. The Emmert house was built in
territorial times by Fred Emmert, who for some time kept a hotel and
boarding house at that place. It had not been used for hotel purposes
for some time, but was occupied by a colored family and used as a
boarding-house for colored people. While the flames were rapidly
consuming the old building the discovery was made that a man and
his wife were sick in one of the rooms with smallpox. The crowd of
onlookers fled in terror, and they would have been burned alive had
not two courageous firemen carried them out of the building. It was
an unusually cold night and the colored people were dumped into the
middle of the street and there allowed to remain. They were provided
with clothing and some of the more venturesome even built a fire for
them, but no one would volunteer to take them to a place of shelter.
About 10 o'clock on the following day the late W.L. Wilson learned
of the unfortunate situation of the two colored people, and he
immediately procured a vehicle and took them to a place of safety, and
also saw that they were thereafter properly cared for.
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