Forty-six Cows Die in Mysterious Fire in Barn On the Scotchtown Road
(Middletown Times Herald, 8 January 1932)

Forty-six head of cattle died in the midst of roaring flames when fire destroyed large barns on the farm owned by D. Winfield Lee and operated by Charles R. Cudak between Circleville and Scotchtown shortly after one o’clock this morning.

Origin of the blaze is undetermined. Mr. Cudak says he was in the barn last at seven o’clock last night. He was awakened early this morning by the continuous barking of his dog and saw the glow of flames. The structure was blazing and cows bellowing in terror.

Officials sought to establish the identity of two men who were seen in an automobile in the vicinity shortly after Mr. Cudak discovered the blaze. The men inquired the way to a main road, Mr. Cudak said.

The Waalkill Engine Company with Fire Chief W. M. Seeley answered a telephone request for aid. When they reach the farm all of the cattle were dead. They constructed a dam across a small brook to form a water supply with which they saved an adjoining ice house and milk house after three hours efforts.

Mr. Cudak estimated the total loss at $15,000 which was only partly insured. The barn was built two or three years ago to replace a structure which burned on the same site. The main building was eighty by forty feet with an “L” thirty by eighty feet and a sixty foot shed, all of which were burned.

The loss included 150 tons of hay, fifteen to twenty tons of feed, and all farming implements. The blaze had not started at 12:30 a neighbor who passed the place on the way home at that hour said.

The farm is situated on a hill on the Bloomingburg-Goshen turnpike. Glow from the blaze was plainly visible in Middletown and for many miles in almost every direction throughout the county.