"Shortly after two o'clock this morning the dread fire alarm…was sounded by the clamorous tongue of the old Town Hall bell.... A light was soon seen from all parts of the village, in the direction of Halseys’ Mill....That the fire was caused by an incendiary, there is no doubt. The mill had not been in operation for two or three months, and no light or fire had been about it for ten days. The flames were first discovered under the shed at the entrance to the plaster ware house on the east side of the mill, and the wind being from the southeast, they spread rapidly to the main building.... The firemen were on hand with their engines in good season, but the building being of tinder-like material was enveloped in flames before the engines could begin to throw water. The two rotary steamers were placed at the cistern, corner of State and Aurora streets, Sprague steamer, with her suction in Six Mile Creek at the rear of the mill, and one of the hand engines on the hill at the cistern corner of Seneca and Spring streets. All did what they could but that was little, except to confine the flames to the mill and store house adjoining it on the west. The heat was intense, and the pipemen were obliged, in order to get near enough to reach the building, to put up artificial protection in the shape of old barrels, doors and boards….
The history of the Halseys’ mill and mill property must be of interest to residents of Ithaca. Six Mile Creek, upon which it is situated was originally known as Hinepaugh’s creek, and it is believed that Hinepaugh built the mill, as it was called ‘Hinepaugh’s Mill.’ In 1818 Phineas Bennett owned the property and in 1829 he sold it to Jacob M. McCormick, who in 1836(?) sold it to R. & W. Halsey for $25,000. When McCormick bought it the property was in two parcels. James Raymond in 1818 had a carding mill, the frame of which is the large double house first west of the burned mill, and McCormick purchased Raymond’s interest and added it to the mill property. In the spring of 1845 Halseys’ mill was burned and rebuilt the same year. In 1854 steam was put in to insure [sic] continuous running as the stream at times failed. In 1857, the old dam, about 150 feet up the stream from where the remains of the present one are, went out in the great freshet of the 17th June. Then the south-east part of the structure used as a plaster mill was washed out, the engine house undermined, and the smoke stack overthrown. The dam built in 1857 went out in the spring of 1873 and has not been repaired. The rich soil accumulating from 1858 to 1873 in the pond, is used as a garden and chicken yard; the dam is broken down and swept out, and the mill building has succumbed to fire. It is doubtful whether it will ever be rebuilt upon the present location....
Truly, misfortunes seldom come singly. The Halseys were just beginning to look forward to a recovery from their embarrassing failure of last fall, and now they are less able to meet their liabilities by $25,000 to $30,000.”