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Note: [Antoine 3.22.2000.FTW] Witness for Will of Jesse Carson Parr[Providence (ca 1801- bef. 1860). ****** This William Mounts had a son named Providence, who became a lawyer in Oklahoma. He corresponded with the Mounts descendants of Warren County, Ohio. It was he, Providence, who located the names of three of Colonel Providence Mounts' daughters and he is the person who claimed that the Mounts family was of French descent. ******* Baines & Mounts store of the courthouse square in Denton The 1860 census shows him partners in a store. Later in 1860 there was a horrible fire and it burned. ******* We have tried to find some stories about the Moounts family. Only found one in the Bridges book about Denton. It was about when the west side of the Square , where he Mounts store was ,burned July 21, 1860. They had 25 kegs of gun powder stored in the store. There was a tremendous explosion which blew debris completely across the Square and set buildings on fire on the east side. e-mail 6-5-2000 Wilma & Bill Lynch ****** Billy Mounts house in still standing on Mounts Street in Denton, TX. This area was once his farm. (source: Denton County Historical Museum)[Revised.ftw] [Antoine 3.22.2000.FTW] Witness for Will of Jesse Carson Parr[Providence (ca 1801- bef. 1860). ****** This William Mounts had a son named Providence, who became a lawyer in Oklahoma. He corresponded with the Mounts descendants of Warren County, Ohio. It was he, Providence, who located the names of three of Colonel Providence Mounts' daughters and he is the person who claimed that the Mounts family was of French descent. ******* Baines & Mounts store of the courthouse square in Denton The 1860 census shows him partners in a store. Later in 1860 there was a horrible fire and it burned. ******* We have tried to find some stories about the Moounts family. Only found one in the Bridges book about Denton. It was about when the west side of the Square , where he Mounts store was ,burned July 21, 1860. They had 25 kegs of gun powder stored in the store. There was a tremendous explosion which blew debris completely across the Square and set buildings on fire on the east side. e-mail 6-5-2000 Wilma & Bill Lynch ****** Billy Mounts house in still standing on Mounts Street in Denton, TX. This area was once his farm. (source: Denton County Historical Museum) Taken from book in Denton Courthouse Museum 2-2001 forebodings, there came an event that seemed to justify their worst fears. On Sunday afternoon, July 8, 1860, a series of fires broke out in North Texas that seemed to supply positive proof that the whispered charges of planned arson and Negro revolts were true. The suddenness and widespread similarity of cases seemed too strong for refutation. The first fire reported was at Dallas at about two o'clock." This fire caused a loss of about $400,000. Other fires on the same afternoon occurred at Denton, Pilot Point, Ladonia, Milford, Honey Grove, Black Jack Grove, Millwood (Collin County), Waxahachie, Jefferson, and Austin. Other fires on the next day?the ninth?and on through the summer months which followed. Much evidence was gathered, including a number of so?called confessions. Some of this evidence was true; some probably was false; but the effect upon the people was the same as if all of the rumors were positively true. The fire at Denton 20 started only an hour and a half after the one at Dallas, and about the same hour as the one at Pilot Point. James M. Smoot's loss at Denton was $50,000 and at Pilot Point, $10,000. A large quantity of powder was destroyed at Dallas and Denton. The following account of the fire at Denton appeared in the Houston Telegraph of July 21, 1860: About half?past 3 o'clock p.m., on the 8th inst., a fire was discovered in the counting room of the store of James M. Smoot, situated on the corner of Elm and Hickory streets, at the southwest corner of the public square in the town of Denton ... A stiff breeze at the same time sprang up from, the southwest, and in a few seconds the stores of Messrs. S. & H. Jacobs, and Messrs. Baines & Mounts, were wrapped in flames. There were twenty?five kegs of powder in a hogshed in the latter store, which in a few moments exploded with tremendous force, scattering fragments of the buildings and goods in every direction; pieces of burning timber, fragments of chains and casting were scattered for hundreds of yards, penetrating the buildings on the 92 other side of the square, and setting several of them on fire, and it was only by the utmost exertions of the few people that happened to be in town that the remaining business portion of our thriving village was saved .... As it is, the whole west side of the public square, with the solitary exception of Messrs. Blount & Scrugg's store on the extreme northwest corner, is in ashes. The losses are as follows: Mr. Smoot saved comparatively nothing; books and all were burned. $50,000 will not cover his loss. Messrs. Jacobs' total loss, $7,000; Messrs. Baines & Mounts saved their books and a portion of their goods; their loss is estimated at $20,000. A building belonging to Ed Row, partly finished, and a store house belonging to the Aldridge estate, were also destroyed; valued at some $1,200. Messrs. B. & S.'s store was in great danger, and was probably only saved by the explosion spoken of above. The loss at Denton was over $80,000.21 On July 27,1860, a public meeting of citizens of Denton and vicinity was held at Denton. The mass assembly adopted resolutions and set up a?committee for five members, called the Central Committee of Safety for the County, and laid plans for the detection, arrest, and eradication of abolition agents, horse thieves, and suspicious characters. Thus, a local vigilante committee was set up in Denton in July, 1860.22 Sometime later it was suggested that the fires might have been caused by a sort of automatic combustion of the so?called "prairie matches" set off by the exceedingly hot sun of that Sunday afternoon .23 These matches had only recently been offered for sale in this area, and no one seemed to suspect that they were dangerous. The match stems were made of compressed paper and the match head was made by dipping it into a sulphur preparation. It is difficult for some people even today to accept this simple explanation for more than a few of the fires, and virtually no one at that time entertained any such idea. The fact that a presidential election was approaching 93
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