The Precious Blood Church Fire of 1875 is well described in several places. Stories are found in newspaper accounts and on the internet. There is a fine summary of the stories HERE.
A current project of mine is to find all the vital records of the 70 people that died from that fire. That means the birth, marriage, and death records for all the victims. I am almost done and as of 2025 have 4 more birth records and 3 more marriage records. Those that are left are very hard so I will keep trying.
Photographs of over 60 of the 70 people that died are known to exist.
A) Narcisse St Germaine will collect into one album the photographs of all 69 who were burned in the church fire. [The 70th would die the next day.]
B) J N Prew a photographer on High Street had negatives of over 60 of the victims. All the rest may be collected from other photographers.
C) William A Judd will be writing a history of the victims.
D) Milton Bradley (toy maker from Springfield) is to make wood vignette engravings from the photographs.
E) The weekly newspaper Le Jean Baptiste (of Northampton and Springfield) now has all the photographs engraved and will publish them in installments. Le Jean Baptiste has editors and owners of P C Chatel and Le Moyne Burleigh. Burleigh also was editor of the Free Press. Chatel would buy out the interests of Burleigh after only a few months. From April 1 1876 onward the newspaper would be printed in Holyoke. Chatel is found at FINDGRAVE. After a thorough review by the University of Maine, the Le Jean Baptiste is thought not to exist. See EXTERNAL LINK and EXTERNAL LINK.
Wed, Jun 02, 1875 ·Page 6
I have written a history and tour of the campus and also a tour of the cemetery.
William A Judd was an almoner with the Oversees of the Poor department.
The list of the dead appeared in the Holyoke, Springfield Massachusetts, New York City, and Hartford Connecticut newspapers. Other newspapers had lists that were copies of these papers.
Also the list appears in the death register for Holyoke and the state edition of the deaths that Holyoke sent in that year.
Lastly, it appears in the list of the Burial of the Dead that appears in the Oversees of the Poor in the 1876 city register of Holyoke. LIST
Holyoke Fire Department statement about the church fire – HERE.
