By Reverend Peter Pernin
Rev. Pernin was the parish priest for Peshtigo and nearby Marinette, whose churches burned to the ground. He published his ac-count of the fire in 1874. The late William Converse Haygood served as editor of the Wisconsin Magazine of History from 1957 to 1975. He prepared this version of Father Pernin’s account on the occasion of the Peshtigo Fire’s centennial in 1971.