The disaster prompted an outbreak of looting and lawlessness. Companies of soldiers were summoned to Chicago and martial law was declared on October 11, ending three days of chaos.
Martial law was lifted several weeks later. The month after the fire, Joseph Medill was elected mayor after promising to institute stricter building and fire codes, a pledge that may have helped him win the office. By , the city was a major economic and transportation hub with an estimated population of more than 1 million people.
In America, only New York City had a larger population at the time. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable—most of the victims died as a result of It is the duty of the government of Chicago to set a good and pure example, not only before its own citizens, but before the other municipal governments of the Union.
The perpetuity of the nation itself depends upon the character of the municipalities. If they break down by vice and dishonesty, the national edifice will crumble to the dust. No more important questions can engage your attention than those of the future fire limits and a reliable supply of water for the extinguishment of fires. The first is in the nature of prevention, and the second of cure; and I shall briefly discuss them in the order of their importance.
On the 9th of October more than 20, habitations and business places were destroyed by fire in a single day. So enormous a loss of property in so incredibly short a space of time finds no parallel in the history of conflagrations. It is not difficult to explain the cause of this sudden and tremendous destruction of property. There was no other city upon the face of the earth where all the conditions for such a disaster could be found in equal perfection.
To begin with, the city of Chicago is situated on the lake border of a boundless prairie, swept continually by high winds.
It contained 60, pine-built structures, and a few thousand of brick or stone. The prevailing winds of the autumn are invariably from the west and southwest. The solidly built parts of the city, and containing the most values, lay to the eastward of the combustible portions and were completely flanked and commanded by them. Each year the wooden parts of the city had filled up thicker and thicker with the most inflammable of all building materials, viz: pine.
For miles square there was little but pine structures, pine sidewalks, pine planing mills, manufactures of pine and pine lumber yards. A hot, parching, southwestern gale of many days duration had absorbed every particle of moisture from the vast aggregation of pine, of which the city was mainly constructed, and reduced it to the condition of tinder. A fire broke out in the night in the heart of this combustible material; the furious wind spread it quickly and swept it onward resistlessly.
When the storm of fire reached the South Branch it had acquired such strength and volume as to leap over it as though it were a tiny rivulet. It fed on the dry pine tenements on its line of march, and spreading right and left, swept everything before it with the besom of destruction, until it died out for lack of more pine to devour. What lesson should this cruel visitation teach us? Shall we regard it as one of fortuitous occurrence which only happens at long intervals and is beyond human foresight or control?
Such a conclusion constitutes our great future danger. A blind, unreasoning infatuation in favor of pine for outside walls, and pine covered with paper and tar for roofs, has possession of many of our people.
It is thought to be cheaper than any other building material, when, in point of fact, it is the dearest stuff, all things considered, that can be used. It is short-lived; rots out in a few years; rapidly becomes shabby in appearance, and of all building substances is the most incendiary.
There is no economy whatever in erecting tenements of pine. The difference in first cost between it and brick is not to exceed 15 or 20 per cent. The value of real property is reduced, and its advance retarded by the presence of unsightly, decaying, and combustible wooden structures, and the owners are unable to procure loans on such property on terms satisfactory, either as to time, amount, or rates of interest. If we rebuild the city with this dangerous material, we have a moral certainty, at no distant day, of a recurrence of the late catastrophe.
The chances of future destruction increase exactly in proportion to the multiplication of combustible structures on a given space. The sirocco blast from the southwest visits us every year. We have strong winds at nearly all times from the west. All the conditions for great fires are, therefore, constantly present in the dry season. With our present mode of supplying water, there is never an adequate quantity at the point of need to combat and promptly overcome a great fire.
Can there be any doubt as to our duty in view of these conditions and considerations? It seems to me it is obvious and imperative. Those who are entrusted with the management of public affairs should take such measures as shall render the recurrence of a like calamity morally impossible.
The outside walls and the roof of every building, to be hereafter erected within the limits of Chicago, should be composed of materials as incombustible as brick, stone, iron, concrete or slate. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, so the self-preservation of the city is the highest duty of its rulers. Except for the most temporary uses, I am unalterably opposed, from this time forward, to the erection of a single wooden building within the limits of Chicago. The fire-limits, in my opinion, should be made co-extensive with the boundaries of the city, and when the latter are extended, so should be the former.
There is no line that can be drawn with safety within those limits. Any inner fire-line will occasion endless discontent, and will forever be assailed and broken. Draw it anywhere inside of the city limits, and it will be continually forced inward, and shrink back toward its old and useless boundaries.
No satisfactory or logical reason can ever be given to interested persons why those next to and within the line should be prohibited from erecting incendiary structures, while their neighbors on the opposite side of the street or alley are permitted to indulge in that dangerous luxury.
Either let us forbid the construction of those buildings which tend to jeopardize the city, or allow all citizens an equal privilege to burn down their neighbors. This is a land of equal rights and privileges, and the rule in regard to incendiary structures should also be equal and uniform. I can see no other way of securing the safety of the city and satisfying the citizens, than by treating all alike, and extending the fire limits to the city boundaries.
Special privileges are odious in a republican country. In view of all the circumstances, I recommend that your honorable body proceed to frame and perfect a fire ordinance that will give security and permanence to the future city. The existing wooden structures will gradually disappear by the ravages of fire and decay, and the desire to replace them with permanent edifices. In a few years we can have a city solid and safe, durable and beautiful. The enactment of a fire-limits ordinance, comprehending the entire city, will add tens of millions to its credit abroad, and greatly appreciate the value of its realty at home.
It is the wisest financial measure that can be enacted. The future safety of the city demands a better and more reliable supply of water for the extinguishment of fires than is afforded by the existing system. This fact was painfully demonstrated in the late calamity. When the pumping works succumbed, not a gallon of water could be procured by the Fire Department or the citizens with which to fight the fire, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of houses perished in consequence thereof.
The city should not be left wholly dependent on those machines, because they are subject to many contingencies in addition to that which disabled them. Boilers may explode and ruin the engines, or cut off the supply of steam; some of the machinery may give way while the other engines are idle, awaiting repairs; valves may fail; a main may burst from over-pressure, or other cause; fire may again invade the works, or something else may happen at the critical moment, which may again leave the Fire Department helpless and the city a prey to the unpitying element.
The topography of the city forbids an elevated reservoir of capacity and pressure sufficient for the extinguishment of serious fires, such as they have in Montreal, New York, Pittsburgh and other cities. But a simple, cheap and reliable substitute can be found in the construction of a system of subterranean reservoirs, one at every street crossing in the densely-built portions of the city, and at greater distances apart in the more sparsely built parts thereof; these reservoirs may be connected by earthen pipes such as are used for sewerage purposes, of adequate diameter, and supplied with water by artesian wells placed at proper distances apart.
The water from all the wells in each division of the city would thus be connected and made to flow into any reservoir from which the fire engines might be drawing water. A dozen artesian wells in either division of the city would supply water faster than the whole department in action could consume it. The stock of water in the reservoirs themselves would be invaluable in great emergencies.
Only one engine can draw water from a fire-hydrant, and the others usually have to go long distances to find hydrants, and their delivery-power us greatly diminished by distance and friction of water in the hose, while the hose itself is burst and destroyed in great quantities at every severe combat with fire. But from each of the proposed reservoirs several engines could draw water, and thus, at short range, concentrate an irresistible discharge upon the fire and quickly master it.
Artesian water is so warm that it would never freeze in the pipes, however shallow they were laid, nor in the reservoirs, because the perpetual influx of the warm water would always keep the temperature above the freezing point.
A mayor who accepted campaign funds from Al Capone and enriched himself from politics, Big Bill was a far cry from the civic-minded founding fathers and economic titans who ran the office in the nineteenth century. After Thompson came a succession of plebes or former plebes such as a tanner's son, William Dever — , who became a judicial careerist; the city's only foreign-born mayor, Anton Cermak — , a coal miner and former firewood seller; sanitary district ax-man Edward Kelly, who built the Kelly-Nash machine; Martin Kennelly, a self-made moving and storage company owner; and Richard J.
Daley, a former stockyards cowboy out of working-class Bridgeport. Mayors began to resemble the voters more than had been the case in the nineteenth century. Whereas in the nineteenth century politics had often been a civic avocation, after the Great Fire it became a profession and a way of making of a living. Some did exceedingly well on the job. Mayor Daley's death in broke a logjam of history that had slowed change in the city's governance.
In Chicago picked its first non- Irish mayor since , Michael Bilandic of Croatian ancestry; in its first female mayor, Jane Byrne; in its first African American mayor, Harold Washington. Many of these changes have brought Chicago closer to the statutorily prescribed weak-mayor model. The last mayor elected in the twentieth century, Richard M. A major issue during his administration was the question of city ownership or control of rail lines, gas, telephone and other utilities.
His building commissioner was Joseph Medill Patterson, then an avowed socialist, who later founded the New York Daily News while continuing as co-owner with Col. Robert R. McCormick of the Chicago Tribune. Fred Busse b. March 3, d. July 9, He is buried in Graceland Cemetery.
He attempted to reform Chicago by appointing a vice commission, but Busse's mayoral tenure is noted for its extensive corruption and presence of organized crime in the city. The present city hall, highly praised as efficient at the time, was constructed during his administration. He died a pauper and bequeathed to his widow the life of a charwoman scrubbing floors to pay the rent.
William Hale Thompson b. May 14, , Boston, Mass. March 18, A mayor who accepted campaign funds from Al Capone and enriched himself from politics, Big Bill was a far cry from the civic-minded founding fathers and economic titans who ran the office in the nineteenth century. Known also as "Big Bill the Builder," his campaign included attacks on the Kind of England for alleged interference in Chicago affairs and help at the precinct level from henchmen of Al Capone.
At Thompson's death, several million dollars in cash were found stuffed in his desk drawers. He is not among those listed as Chicago's reform mayors.
William Emmett Dever b. March 13, Woburn, Mass. September 3, ; buried in Calvary Cemetery. A tanner's son who became a judicial careerist, he was responsible for many improvements to the city's infrastructure, including the completion of Wacker Drive, the extension of Ogden Avenue, the straightening of the Chicago River and the building of the city's first airport, Municipal Airport.
After losing re-election, he served as a vice-president of the Bank of America, dying of cancer in For his efforts Dever failed to win re-election.
Anton Joseph Cermak b. May 9, d, March 6, buried Bohemian National Cemetery. The city's only foreign-born mayor, Anton Cermak, was a coal miner and former firewood seller.
At age 13 he worked in an Illinois coal mine and later moved to the Pilsen and Lawndale areas of the city. He served as secretary of the United Societies, an organization of various ethnic groups enraged by reformers seeking to close down their saloons. He began his political career as a precinct captain and in was elected to the Illinois state legislature.
His main problem as mayor was finding enough money to pay teachers, policemen and other city employees. While shaking hands with President-elect Franklin D. Cermak's son-in-law, Otto Kerner, Jr. Frank J. Corr b. January 12, d. June 3, buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
Corr is probably Chicago's least remembered mayor. Elected by his fellow members of the city council to succeed Cermak, he served 30 days in and then resigned so Edward J.
Kelly, the Democratic Party's choice, could run for the office in a general election. Edward Joseph Kelly b. May 1, d. October 20, buried in Calvary Cemetery. Served as chief engineer of the Chicago sanitary district in the s Following the assassination of Mayor Cermak, Kelly was hand picked by his friend, Patrick Nash, Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, for the mayoralty election of Together, Kelly and Nash built one of the most powerful, and most corrupt, big city political organizations, called the "Kelly-Nash Machine.
Martin H. Kennelly b. August 11, d. November 29, buried in Calvary Cemetery. Born in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, the son of a packing house worker. He served in the U. Army during World War I with the rank of Captain. After the war he returned to Chicago and became a self-made moving and storage company owner; Espousing "reform" once again, Chicago's Democrats got Kennelly elected as mayor in The office, however proved too big for Kennelly, and it was the city council that actually ran the city.
Among other things, the council successfully blocked the efforts of Elizabeth Wood, chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority, to put CHA house projects in all, not just in all-black wards. The result was later to earn Chicago the dubious distinction of being the "most segregated city in the U. Mayors began to resemble the voters more than had been the case in the nineteenth century. Whereas in the nineteenth century politics had often been a civic avocation, after the Great Fire it became a profession and a way of making of a living.
Some did exceedingly well on the job. In addition, Daley took control of the city's budget from the city council, considerably enhancing his office's powers over those of the council.
Richard Joseph Daley b. May 15, d. A former stockyards cowboy out of working-class Bridgeport, as well as a leader of the "Hamburgers", a politicized street gang. He served as Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee from and mayor of Chicago from , retaining both positions until his death in Throughout his many years in office he attended mass daily and was a father figure whose slogan was "Good government is good politics" He was regarded as personally honest, but a number of his lieutenants were found guilty of various misdeeds.
A militant Democrat, he found support not only among his well-rewarded precinct captains and other party workers but also, ironically enough, from the generally Republican leaders of the city's business community.
Michael Anthony Bilandic b. February 13, d. January 16, buried in St. Mary Cemetery. Its first non-Irish mayor since , Michael Bilandic was of Croatian ancestry.
He oversaw the creation of ChicagoFest, a food and music festival held on Navy Pier. The Chicago Marathon had its first running in , in which he ran. He was a businesslike mayor, but did not have the warm personal touch with the voters that characterized Daley, Kelly, Thompson, Harrison I or Long John Wentworth.
Considered unbeatable when he came up for re-election in , he was done in by his administration's mishandling of a bad winter and record snowstorm, a situation that was aggravated by revelations of expensive but seemingly worthless consulting contracts awarded to political cronies and the failure of the city's transit system to meet the needs of riders during the difficult days of that winter.
He was elected to the Illinois State Supreme Court in and served until From to he was the Illinois Chief Justice. Jane Margaret Byrne b. First and only female mayor of Chicago She was appointed head of consumer affairs by Mayor Daley and held that post until fired by mayor Michael Bilandic in After her firing, Byrne launched a campaign to unseat Bilandic in the mayoral primary.
A series of freak snowstorms in January paralyzed the city and caused Bilandic to be seen as ineffective at running the city. She was the first Mayor to recognize the gay community. Byrne was narrowly defeated in the Democratic primary for Mayor by Harold Washington.
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