O.J. deLendrecie was born in Canada and worked all around the world before coming to Fargo in 1879. He built the Chicago Dry Goods House, which did an amazing business. He owned a good amount of land around the city. On the night of November 24th, 1893 a blaze started in Holzer’s Cigar store in the back of the Park Hotel. One of the townsfolk was walking by when he discovered the flames in the back of the store. He proceeded to kick in the door to alert everyone and sent word for the fire department. They were able to remove most of the stock from the cigar store and hotel, but the flames did a lot of damage. The firemen moved on to protect Ehrman’s Candy Palace, which was next door. The firemen thought that they had protected the building, until flames started to come out of the roof. The belief is that a few of the embers started it and it went unnoticed. In a few moments the Candy Palace was worse off than the hotel in which the fire started. O.J. deLendrecie owned both of the properties the fire affected; he did not have insurance on either of the properties. Both of the buildings were burned past repair.
– Mathias Zastrow, Digital History, 2012.
