This Oct. 8, marks the 155th anniversary of the Peshtigo Fire of 1871, a fire that swallowed the town of Peshtigo and even jumped the bay to Door County. It was a tragedy that took the lives of more than 1,200 people, except many people outside Wisconsin are unaware it ever happened.
Susan M. Gordon wrote “Conflagration” with hopes of changing that.
It was the most devastating forest fire in American history, according to the National Weather Service. However, attention was drawn to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which started the very same night and gained attention across the country.
Gordon has always had a deep interest in the Peshtigo fire. She grew up in Shawano and learned about the fire in first grade. Since then, the story has never left her mind.
“A fire that lost somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 people, how does this not get noticed in the world?” Gordon said. “How does this escape everybody’s attention?”
After many years, Gordon finally put her research and passion to paper to share this story. She began writing in August 2025 and completed the book in late April. It was published May 19.
This came after a career in the medical field where she worked for Bellin Hospital as a registered nurse until she moved to Milwaukee and became a medical device representative. She said research has been ingrained in her throughout her medical career, making the research needed for her book something that came naturally.
“I’m kind of like a mule with the carrot in front of them,” Gordon said. “I want that carrot and I want it bad. So once I start doing something, I just really get down to work.”
Gordon lived in Green Bay until her early 40s and then moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s and now resides in Olympia, Washington, with her husband.
During her time in Los Angeles, she began collecting information about the Peshtigo fire. Gordon said she would always tell people someone should write a book or make a movie about what happened that night, but “they would just look at me and say, ‘No, you have to tell the story. It’s your story. This is something that resonates with you.'”
After retiring from the medical device industry, Gordon had to time to write.
Through her research she came across the couple John and Jennie Mulligan, who are the focus of her historical fiction romance.
“They were an integral part of getting the victims help, and they were badly burned themselves,” Gordon said.
She visited Jennie’s grave on a book tour she did at the end of July.
The book takes the reader through the their move to Peshtigo and how the fire changed and affected them. As the story was developed, Gordon researched the songs of that era, the way people spoke, the Menominee Indian heritage and what life looked like in Peshtigo in 1871.
Gordon wanted to highlight the Menominee people, their knowledge of the land, the roles they had in the community and how their “overlooked heroism” in the aftermath of the fire.
“I wanted it to have some more feeling to it and make these people as real as possible,” Gordon said.
Her choice to make the book romance was one that came after choosing to start the story out with John and Jennie getting married and moving to Peshtigo. However she did not want it to be pure romance.
“I wanted to see what was the community like, what were the people like, and how did they live,” Gordon said.
She hopes people that read the book take away the message to be kind to those around you.
“You never know when that person might be the one who saves your behind in a tragedy,” Gordon said.
To read more about Conflagration visit susanmgordonauthor.com
Kathryn Byrnes is a reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at kbyrnes@gannett.com or 920-431-8526.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: A new book based on Peshtigo Fire of 1871 combines history, romance
Reporting by Kathryn Byrnes, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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By Kathryn Byrnes, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
