/52
March 7th Sunday It has been a beautiful day and we
have all been to meeting except Frank
When we came from meeting we rode down to
the ruins. They have cleared away a great deal
but it looks dismal enough Mr & Mrs William
Reed spent the evening Mrs Witherell & Mrs
S Ames came in awhile & Father Ames
No work was done today at the site of the shovel factory fire, for it was Sunday, a day of rest – a day of rest that everyone in town must have welcomed after the shock of the fire and the subsequent hard work of clearing the debris.
The Ames family rode down Centre Street to church, the weather “beautiful.” At the intermission between sermons, they must have been approached by fellow parishioners expressing concern and curiosity about the fire. In a town of 2,500 citizens, such a huge event would have been on everyone’s mind. Is it too far-fetched to imagine that Reverend Whitwell might have alluded to it from the pulpit?
After the services, the family drove by the factory site on their way home. The wintry sunlight hid nothing; the “ruins” were “dismal.” Later in the day, several family members gathered at Evelina’s and Oakes’; even Old Oliver came over from the other part of the house, which he seldom did, perhaps to greet guests William and Abigail Reed or to discuss the plans for rebuilding, to begin the next day.
evelinaames 
2500 people in North Easton in 1852? Wow, that really surprises me. A much bigger place than I realized. We have a population of 90 in Nogal where I live, and the two nearest towns are 973 and 1457!!
I should clarify: it was 2,500 people in the entire town of Easton, not just the village of North Easton. So the village was only a portion of that population. Many, if not most, people lived on farms, but there were other clusters, too, like Furnace Village and Easton Center.