The Suspicious GREAT Chicago Fire, Freemasons & a Murder (Untold History of 1871)

Let's say you wanted to burn a down a city so you could take it over... hypothetically, of course…

The newspapers reported the Chicago fire of October 1871 was unlike any other fire of the time. Firefighters were helpless against the blaze as it rushed through the city, killing hundreds and quickly incinerating block after block. The news reported the fire was so strong, quote, “The vessels in the river are catching fire in every direction”. Even after burning through 60 entire blocks, the blaze continued to rage. By the 9th of October, the city was in ashes. The fire had taken with it almost all of the beautiful buildings which would have been seemingly unexplainable based on the history you and I have been taught. During this fire, the buildings that burnt to rubble included “splendid hotels of the city, all the banks, the courthouse, the waterworks” as well as castles, chapels, churches and cathedrals. To coincide with the demolished buildings, records offices, the Chamber of Commerce, libraries, museums and other places in which historical documents and artifacts were stored, were all gone. In total, over 17,000 structures were demolished and Chicago history was a blank slate.

Horrific damage sent families and businesses into immediate bankruptcy. More than 100,000 people were instantly homeless, starving and thirsty. Being that the 1870 census reported 289,977 total citizens in Chicago, a huge portion of the population was impacted.

Prisoners, locked in jail cells, all perished during the fire. The media quickly reported over 300 additional citizens had been burned to death. In one instance, crowds of people were led into the Historical Society Building to seek shelter. This building was known for being stable and fireproof but it too went up in flames. It is said, the original copy of the Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation perished along with the crowds.

At quick glance, this fire seems like any other tragedy, but upon closer inspection, it is eyebrow raising to say the least. Let’s check it out, starting with the aftermath photos…

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Wanna listen to this 11-minute article instead of read? You’ll miss all of the fire photos, but here you go:

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Just a quick note: people like to blame old electrical lines as the cause of the old fires, however, according to history, Chicago did not receive electricity until 1882, which is over a decade after the fire.

As you scroll through these photos, look closely and you will notice the incredible detail in these buildings which, even in a state of ruin, are still amazing:

Also notice, these are stone and brick buildings which the fire unexplainably burnt to, quite literally, nothing in most cases.

Equally interesting, many of these photos are labeled “before and after the fire”, however the before photo is nowhere to be found as it has been detached from the after image. Why is that? Why can I only see the aftermath images?

To quote another paper, “Nothing can be said that would describe adequately the unparalleled intensity of the fire. A building seemingly fireproof would catch fire, and in 10 minutes time the roof, with a fearful crash, would fall in…”. They wrote that the firmament glowed from the immense volume of flames.

Another paper further detailed the incineration of the fireproof buildings. These structures were clad with iron plates for walls, yet the fire quickly consumed them “like pasteboard” (cardboard). In the media, this was blamed on the interior of these buildings having wooden floors.

At least the trees were still standing!

According to eyewitness accounts, during the horrific blaze a man was screaming, “Where is God now? Where is God now? Show us the angels!”. A police officer ran over, handcuffed him and threw him into a basement so people could no longer hear him.

Further report state, as citizens tried to escape, the blaze began pouring down all of the exits to safety. It quickly became clear that the fire was not coming from one direction, it was coming from all sides, meaning there were multiple fire locations. In fact, there were no less than four other fires in the city on the same day.

Although it is reported that all banks were demolished, this is not true. Factually, there was one bank left standing. This single bank happened to be The First National Bank, located at State and Washington Streets. It was reported this bank stood because it was fireproof. I wonder who this bank belonged to?

It would turn out there was a man named Samuel P. Johnston who was a politician, lawyer, slave holder and Grand Master Freemason. He served as the sixth Governor of North Carolina and represented the state in both the Continental Congress and the United States Senate. Another man, also named Samuel P. Johnston, was the first president of The First National Bank of West Greenville, which later became First National Bank. I believe it is likely the two are father and son. Perhaps this is why Wikipedia will not link the bank page to the slave-owning Freemason despite the pages for both existing? Regardless, this was the one bank left standing after the blaze because it was a fireproof building, apparently more fireproof than all of the other fireproof buildings. It is reported the bank reopened within the week and resumed business as usual.

BOSTON

On the third day of the Chicago blaze, in Boston, preparations were underway for Freemason President Ulysses S. Grant to arrive for a ceremony. Quote, “preparations are in progress at the post office for the ceremonies… President Grant and State, the members of his cabinet, the Masonic officials, and the United States, state and municipal officers will alight at the third opening from Water Street, and be received by Postmaster Bert and Mr. Bryant, the superintending architect, and conducted through the reception room to a private apartment directly in the rear of the cornerstone.”. The event featured a 100-foot-long stage. I am unable to locate exactly what President Grant and so many members of government, alongside Masonic officials, could have been celebrating but it sounds like they were elated about building something of a large scale. There is no mention of this grandiose event on the internet today. What they were celebrating, your guess is as good as mine. Could it be this?

What is really interesting is, the year following this extravagant celebration, the Great Boston Fire of 1872 would occur. Not only was it Boston's largest fire, but it still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. This fire would leave Boston looking identical to Chicago:

It even incinerated granite buildings, just like Chicago:

As the Freemason’s were getting ready to celebrate in Boston, nationwide newspapers reported the following story: In Chicago, the O’Leary’s cow kicked over a kerosene lamp, the fire spread like never before, before anyone knew it the vessels in the rivers were of flame, allowing the fire to spread across water. Once it reached the other side of the river, it burned down the businesses there. The escape bridge was destroyed. Next, the lumber yards were incinerated, that wood kindled the fire. Quickly, a “large coal yard containing thousands of tons of soft coal” was impacted by the flames, that too went up in a blaze which quickly spread. Then the “immense grain elevator” caught fire. Next, the river itself was ablaze. Isolated fires were everywhere and there was no escape. Come morning, all that was left of some streets was just the embankment. Even the sidewalks had been destroyed.

The blaze was so severe that the Chicago (freemason) Postmaster stated the steel safes had been reached and the contents inside of them “scorched”. $3,500 in money, $8,000 worth of postage stamps, the cash receipt records, money orders… it was all destroyed. The United States district attorney general then said he lost all of his paperwork. But not everyone was as “unlucky”. The Second National Bank, which had just opened prior to the blaze, was able to rush and pack $660,000 of greenbacks into a trunk. These monies were then sent by rail to a tugboat where they ultimately made their way to Milwaukee where they were deposited safely. YAY. Fun Fact: The “Old Second National Bank” address was 333 West Wacker.

Although newspapers rushed to publish that one of the O’Leary’s cows had kicked over a lantern, this would later be debated, and eventually city officials would ultimately say they were unable to determine the cause of the GREAT fire. Here was the location of the O’Leary’s property:

I was able to locate a photo series that had not become detached. Here it is:

Before:

After:

I was also able to locate some before photos with no after image attached to them. Here they are:

Here was the Chicago Court House. By the way, this was said to have been built in 1852. According to the Chicago census of 1850, there were less than 30,000 total inhabitants of the city.

On October 9th (the second day of the blaze), the Mayor of Chicago, Mr. Mason, made a proclamation to save the people… from themselves. He demanded no liquor be sold and tasked the police with hunting down alcohol sellers because, yeah, that seems like an excellent use of mayoral powers and police resources during a tragedy of this magnitude.

Immediately after the fire, the Committee for Relief - Knights Templar was established to, quote, “look after the interests of Templars, and Scottish Rite Masons”:

The Supreme Council of Boston oversaw the efforts. I guess it was convenient President Grant was already there for the ceremony.

The Boston location organized fundraising. Donations poured in from all across the nation. Here are a few examples:

In total, the Masons quickly raised the equivalent of over $2 million in today’s currency value. These monies were deposited into the National Bank of New York (which I believe is a branch of the First and Second National Banks discussed previously, but I could be wrong). It was at this time that it was decided a “charity fund” should be held by each lodge.

Next, martial law was imposed by governor Mason, thus handing control of the city over to the (freemasonic) Army. General Philip Sheridan, who just so happened to already be present in Chicago, summoned his troops into the city. The Chicago Evening Press called this a “bold step” which could “set a dangerous precedent” but went on to state it was a necessary step to stop “thieves and ruffians”. It would later be discovered that the news reports of robbery and murders ranged from blatantly false to embellished to completely unfounded.

As soon as the Army descended upon Chicago, General Sheridan secretly authorized a civilian, Frank Sherman, to “raise troops, organize them into a regiment, and after organization assume the command”. Now there was a secret militia, working for the Army, patrolling the city alongside the Army, all under the guise of “keeping peace” which was based on the erroneous news reports of citizens causing chaos.

One of the members of the secret militia was Thomas Treat. Under the direction of General Sheridan, Treat shot and killed the city law officer, Colonel Grosvenor. This was accomplished by cornering him as he was walking down the street at night. The governor of Illinois then demanded Sheridan “and others implicated in the killing” be charged with murder. I have been unsuccessful at uncovering why General Sheridan would order the killing of the city law officer, as this event has been scrubbed from history and only exists in news archives.

Propositions were rushed to Illinois legislature to issue multiple $20 million twenty-year bonds. Meanwhile, the banks were happy to loan money.

Come November of 1871, proceedings to force the Chicago Insurance Companies into bankruptcy had begun. This would ultimately wipe out many of the smaller insurance companies, leaving only the elite’s businesses left standing.

History reports “the GREAT Rebuilding” of the city began right away, and tells us “Within a few years, the city was not only rebuilt but also transformed into a modern metropolis with innovative architecture”, however, history also tells us two events stopped reconstruction. “The first was the failure of a bank, Jay Cooke and Company, in September 1873. The bank’s failure triggered a nationwide depression that halted much of the Chicago construction.”. Regardless of which version of history you would like to choose, something very interesting was about to happen, right in Chicago in only a handful of years; the Chicago Exposition. What was the Chicago Exposition? None other than the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.

NEXT READ: The Unbelievable & Illogical Story of the Columbian Exposition (Part 1)

But first, bringing you truth you haven’t seen elsewhere so real history can be documented before it’s forever scrubbed, takes a lot of time and energy. If you want to support my efforts please consider keeping me hydrated:

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SOURCES, NOTES & OTHER STUFF

https://chicagology.com/rebuilding/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1058197041/?match=1&terms=Thomas%20Grosvenor%20chicago

Grant put Marion under martial law https://www.newspapers.com/image/215169400/?match=1&terms=martial%20law%20chicago

https://www.newspapers.com/image/215169400/?match=1&terms=martial%20law%20chicago killing of general Grosvenor

https://www.newspapers.com/image/666858935/?match=1&terms=martial%20law%20chicago

2 days after no alcohol https://archive.org/details/GR_679

https://www.newspapers.com/image/623342329/?match=1&terms=colonel%20Grosvenor%20killed

Was given orders to shoot by Sheridan!

Shierdan Indicted https://www.newspapers.com/image/762203557/?match=1&terms=Thomas%20Grosvenor%20chicago

https://www.newspapers.com/image/762203557/?match=1&terms=Thomas%20Grosvenor%20chicago

Relief aid society https://archive.org/details/afk0502.0001.001.umich.edu/page/4/mode/2up

https://archive.org/search?query=1871+Chicago+fire&page=2

the Fire Commissioner stated it was O’Leary’s fault https://www.newspapers.com/image/72176951/?match=1&terms=great%20fire%20chicago

https://www.newspapers.com/image/926674448/?match=1&terms=great%20fire%20chicago

https://www.newspapers.com/search/results/?date=1871&keyword=Chicago+fire

Chicago deserved the fire https://www.newspapers.com/image/145488675/?match=1&terms=Chicago%20fire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire

https://archive.org/search?query=1871+Chicago+fire&page=2

Why would the gov spell the title like this?