ON THIS DAY IN GE HISTORY - NOVEMBER 26, 1889 – THE GREAT LYNN (MA) FIRE DESTROYS CHARLES COFFIN’S (GE’S FIRST PRESIDENT) SHOE COMPANY –

Charles Coffin, GE’s first president, developed his executive skills in the shoe business, moving from his birthplace of Fairfield, Maine to Lynn, Massachusetts in 1871 as Clerk for Micajah C. Pratt, a shoe manufacturer on Broad Street for which his uncle, Charles E. Coffin, also worked. By 1876 the firm had been renamed Coffin and Clough, and continued to operate at the Broad Street location until the factory was lost in the Great Lynn Fire of 1889. Most of the Lynn business district, including many shoe factories like Coffin’s, were completely destroyed in the fire, which started November 26, 1889.

November 26, 1889, was a dry, windy day in Lynn. Around 1pm, someone in a building at Oxford & Almont streets knocked over a small stove, causing its contents to ignite an oil-soaked floor. The fire quickly spread to Mulberry Street, and within 15 minutes, Central Square was in flames, the fire fed by the many wooden structures in the area. The fire eventually consumed 31 acres of Lynn’s business district, destroying 384 building with a total value of $5 million at the time. Four banks, 80 shoe companies, 158 factories, 128 houses, and three newspapers were lost. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured or killed. About 17,000 people took the Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad to gaze on the fire, which eventually ran out of fuel once its’ path reached the sea.

Despite the setback, Coffin re-established his shoe company in nearby Brockton. However, this venture was to be short-lived, as he left the company in 1891 when he was named vice-president and treasurer of the Thomson Houston Electric Company.

In 1883, recognized for his management skills, Coffin was approached by another Lynn businessman, Silas Barton, to bring the struggling American Electric Company from New Britain, Connecticut to Lynn, and for Coffin to finance and lead it. American Electric Company at the time was headed by technical wizard Professor Elihu Thomson. Coffin accepted the role, and established the new company in a factory on Western Avenue. Coffin brought in Professor Edwin Houston (Thomson was a former student) to help lead the technical development of the business, and renamed the company the Thomson Houston Electric Company. Another early executive of Thomson Houston was Edwin W. Rice, Jr. It was on April 15, 1892, that the Thomson Houston Electric Company merged with the Edison General Electric Company (led by Thomas Edison) to form the General Electric Company. Financier J. P. Morgan brokered the deal, and upon closing the transaction immediately fired Edison and named Coffin as president.

Charles A. Coffin, Elihu Thomson, and Edwin W. Rice, Jr, are often recognized as the founders of the General Electric Company. Coffin led GE as president for 21 years, when he handed the president’s role to Edwin Rice in 1913. Coffin remained as GE’s Chairman of the Board until 1922, when he stepped down and was replaced by Owen D. Young. Upon his death in 1926, Coffin was one of the wealthiest men in the world.

In one of the few interviews Mr. Coffin granted, he spoke of the value of electricity for the people in future years:

"The next great social change as I see it is decentralization. Electricity made the big city. Now it may be expected to unmake it. All the advantages of the city will soon be possible on the farm without having to put up with the unendurable iniquities of city life." "Electricity is not only the cleanest and most efficient servant that mankind has ever had, it is also the cheapest. It works for less than a coolie's wage, and its wages are going down every day, while its efficiency is being constantly increased. In addition to this, it does its own travelling at the rate of 186,000 miles a second, and doesn't have to be transported." "Of one thing I am certain, —that is, that we are just at the beginning of the electric age."

Ironically, 92 years almost to the day of the first Great Lynn Fire, on November 28, 1981, the second great Lynn fire occurred, when an arsonist ignited a fire at the Oxford Shoe Company. The first call to the Lynn Fire Department came at 2:35am. The Oxford Shoe Company was quickly engulfed in flames, and within 20 minutes the fire had spread to 3 other buildings. According to one firefighter, the fire was so strong it was creating its own wind to propagate itself.

By sunrise, seventeen buildings had been destroyed and nine others seriously damaged. (Most of these buildings had been built following the 1889 fire. Nearly 800 Lynn residents were homeless, and thousands more were without jobs. Only 3 firefighters were injured, the most serious a broken leg due to a roof collapse. In all, 94 fire departments from three states were either directly involved in fighting the fire, or provided backup to empty firehouses fighting the fire. Damage exceeded $80 million in 1981 dollars.

My sincere thanks to Joseph Bourgeois for source data for this post.

https://www.celebrateboston.com/disasters/great-lynn-fire-1889.htm