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Speaker Series- Mattie Phillips: Survivor of the Pestigo Fire
October 2, 2025 @ 6:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Diane Nichols will be the evening’s program presenter. The Peshtigo Fire occurring on the same day, October 8, 1871, as the more famous Great Chicago Fire, killed at least five times as many people. The Peshtigo Fire burned 1,200,000 acres, and an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 lives were lost. Mattie Phillips was a survivor of the horrific fire and lived to tell her story of the event.
When Diane Nichols found a booklet of the Peshtigo fire survivor stories in the archives of the Oconto County Historical Society, she wondered how much area people really knew about the disaster and if they realized how people lived and died. The result was Diane’s creation of two stories of real women who survived the fire: the first Amanda Stewart, newly married with a baby, living in Peshtigo, and the second, Mattie Phillips, living in the rural Sugar Bush area. Program attendees on October 2 will hear the story of Mattie Phillips.
Diane Nichols is a life-long resident of Oconto County, growing up in the Oconto Falls area. A graduate of UW-Madison, she returned to rural Oconto with her husband, Lyle, in the late 1980s. They raised their two children, while Diane ran a small business that served museum gift shops around the country. While serving the Oconto County Historical Society in the 1990’s as President, she became an enthusiast of local history and created a number of area histories including: A History of Oconto Falls Vol. I & II, The Oconto River Sackers, John and Almira Volk: Pioneers of Northeast Wisconsin, The Mills at the Falls, and A Wisconsin Farm Woman.
Light refreshments will be served
Who is invited?
This program is free and open to the publicRelated Events
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