Newspaper Clipping of the Day

via Newspapers.com

This red-hot little mystery was reported in the "Anderson Intelligencer," May 20, 1880. It was a reprint from the "Cincinnati Gazette":

Cleveland, April 28.--German residents of the Sixteenth Ward, in the vicinity of Lincoln and Lussenden avenues, have been wrought up to a high pitch of excitement for several days on acconnt of the strange happenings in the house and to the family of John Busch.

A short lime ago Busch moved to the city from North Amherst, O., where he had been for a number of years in the employ of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company. Busch had not been in his new home very long when he began to be troubled by fires breaking out in various parts of the house, for which no cause could be assigned, and he finally became so impressed with the belief that the house was haunted that he removed from 1177 Lincoln avenue to 77 Lussenden avenue. But his troubles did not end here. The affair had so mysterious an aspect, and created so much excitement in the neighborhood, that a Gazette man concluded to investigate, as he did yesterday and to-day, with the following results:

The house which Busch occupied on Lincoln avenue is a two story frame, formerly used as a bakery, the oven still remaining in the back part of the house. The front room was occupied as a bedroom, and in it were three beds and a child's crib, side by side, with just room enough to pass between, the bed nearest the wall being close against it and shutting off entrance to a closet. 

A week ago Sunday, while the family and one or two friends were sitting in this room, smoke was seen issuing from the closet, which contained nothing but a suit of cast off clothing. This was discovered to be on fire, and was hastily put out, while the family was astounded, as no one had been in the closet that day. 

A brother-in-law and one or two friends were told of the singular occurrence, but paid no attention to it until a child came running to tell him, Monday afternoon, that the fire had broken out again, this time in the pantry, where it had burned the paper off the shelves. The brother in-law, who is an intelligent German, hastened to the house in company with some friends, and while they were in the kitchen discussing the event the crib in the front room began smoking, and before they could put the fire out the tick was burned through. 

Monday afternoon seven fires occurred in various parts of the house. Tuesday afternoon a bed in the front room was destroyed; some wadding that was behind a door caught fire, and the contents of an old kettle in the kitchen suffered a similar fate. This was too much for them, and the next morning, with what goods the fire left them, they moved out of the house and into a story and a half frame building at No. 77 Lussenden avenue. 

That night the eleven members of the family slept on the floor. A family living next door to the Lincoln avenue house also took fright, and left the neighborhood. On the afternoon of Thursday the smell of smoke spread through the new house, and they rushed up stairs to find one of the beds, which had just been put up that morning, almost consumed. A chicken coop adjoins the shed kitchen, in which a hen's nest in a barrel took fire Friday. Saturday a coat hanging in the shed kitchen began burning in the middle of the back, and was ruined before it could be extinguished. Sunday was an exciting day for the poor people. A sister in-law laid her hat on the bed while she went to speak to a neighbor at the gate, and while there the bed began smoking and destroyed the feather on her hat. The bed seemed hot, but there was no fire visible. In a short time the bed caught fire and was burned through before it could be put out. Monday the last straw bed was consumed. This left two feather pillows, a husk bolster, and a feather-tick for eleven persons to sleep upon.

Tuesday forenoon the Gazette correspondent visited the house and found the family in a state bordering on frenzy. The mother, with twins at her breast, wandered aimlessly around a room, in which was a cookstove, two or three chairs, a feather-bed, and two pillows. A few religious prints bung on the walls.

Two hours after your correspondent left the husk bolster was consumed and he returned again to the scene of the mysteries. There is now absolutely nothing left to burn. In connection with the affair, the causes of which your correspondent does not pretend to understand, it may be said that the family are very superstitious, and one incident, which sounds more like fiction than fact, is vouched for by outsiders. Some person told them to look among the feathers, and if they found a wreath to boil it, and then burn the feathers of which it was composed, and the "spell" would be broken. They looked and found a wreath of feathers about two inches thick, and eight inches in diameter. They boiled and burned it on Monday, but the fires continued Tuesday all the same. The father, who bears a good name for sobriety and industry, is completely broken down and unable to work, and the mother and daughter keep moving from room to room, in which are vessels filled with water, looking for incipient fires.

I was unable to find any later stories about this unfortunate family, so I cannot say when these Fortean Flames finally ceased.

[Note: some newspapers gave the family name as "Bush."]