3-034-762 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Chicago after the Fire: recovering valuables from the bank vaults, 1871. 'The total amount of losses to the insurance companies was reckoned at sixty million dollars...The quantity of grain burnt was 1,600,000 bushels, leaving 5,000,000 bushels, in eleven warehouses, still intact. Half the stocks of pork and flour were destroyed, and a large quantity of lumber, coal, leather, groceries, and clothing stuffs. It is estimated that "the city has suffered a loss altogether of not less than 20 per cent, or more than 25 per cent, on her total assets, real and personal." The energetic and enterprising people of Chicago are undaunted by this great disaster. They have set to work in a most courageous spirit. The railroads and shipping are again active; the Chamber of Commerce has been reorganised; the post office and custom house are to a great extent re-established; the banks have resumed business, and the number of depositors exceeds the number of drawers..."Thus, in a single fortnight," says the Chicago Tribune, "the foundations of the new Chicago have been laid, and building is commencing on them, stronger, better, and more lasting than before".' From "Illustrated London News", 1871.