THE 
 
 AND THE 
 
 nsnrance ipioinpames, 
 
 AN EXHIHIT OF THE 
 
 CAPITAL, ASSETS, AND LOSSES 
 
 OF THE COMPANIES, TOOETHEK WITH 
 
 / <//////> Account #/ the (fireat jjji 
 
 NEW YORK AND CHICAGO: 
 
 J. H. AND C. M. GOODSELL, 
 
 l'i nr.TMiKi;-; DI THK Si-i-.c PATOK. 
 TH SPKCTATOR Piuira, .i-rly St., N. Y.
 
 THE CHICAGO FIRE 
 
 FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES. 
 
 AN EXII I DIT OK THE 
 
 CAPITAL, ASSETS, AND IOSSES OF THE COMPANIES, 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 A Graphic Account of the Great Disaster, 
 
 ACCOMPANIED BY 
 
 7 
 
 MAPS OF CHICAGO SHOWING THE BURNED DISTRICT. 
 
 NEW YORK AND CHICAGO: 
 
 J.H. and C. M. GOODSELL, 
 
 PUBLISHERS OK THE SPECTATOR. 
 1871.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 
 
 J. H. AND C. M. GOODSELL, 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington. 
 
 WITHDRAWN
 
 THE INSURANCE COMPANIES AND THE 
 CHICAGO FIRE. 
 
 OUR FIRE INSURANCE SYSTEM. 
 
 THE tremendous losses, resulting from the Chicago fire, sus- 
 tained by the insurance interest of the country, and the prompt 
 settlement of those losses so far as the companies have been 
 able to meet their liabilities, while they bear testimony to the 
 beneficent mission and great usefulness of this interest, must 
 necessarily lead to greater caution and conservatism in its future 
 management. 
 
 It is a mere truism to say, that the benefits of both fire and 
 life insurance should be more widely distributed. But in order 
 to accomplish this, it will be necessary to proceed upon a basis 
 which shall attract capital to the business of insurance, and ren- 
 der it profitable to the insurer as well as the insured. It is use- 
 less to expect that capital will flow into this channel from mere 
 considerations of public utility and general benevolence. The 
 men who own or represent capital are noted for their caution, 
 and do not embark their merans in extra hazardous enterprises, 
 unless their profits are commensurate with their risks. 
 
 Though cheap insurance is certainly a desideratum for the 
 general welfare, there is such a thing as making it too cheap for 
 the safety and advantage of all concerned. This is just what 
 has been done for the last few years, during which we have had 
 the maximum of risks with minimum of rates ; and the result 
 has been, (as the history and statistics of fire insurance since the 
 war will show), that the business has become unremunerative, 
 and has been gradually transferred from the strong companies, 
 which had nothing to gain and everything to lose, to the weak 
 ones, which had everything to gain and but little to lose. 
 
 While the former have been steadily curtailing their risks,
 
 4 The Insurance Companies 
 
 and limiting their operations to the best property of their own 
 immediate surroundings, the latter, through their agents, have 
 been scattering their policies broadcast throughout the country, 
 without proper discrimination as to the character of their risks. 
 Many of these expanded companies, with small capital and no 
 surplus, have been swept away by this great calamity, while the 
 solid ones, which refused to enter into cheap competition with 
 them, for the most part stand firm as a rock. 
 
 The dear-bought experience of hundreds of ruined policy- 
 holders, upon this occasion, will probably teach them that " the 
 cheapest is not always the best," and that our fire insurance 
 system, in order to be efficient, and to practically afford that 
 protection to the community which it professes to guaranty, 
 must be established on a sound and strong foundation. Prop- 
 ertyholders cannot expect such sure protection unless they are 
 willing to pay a fair price for it ; and by encouraging that cheap 
 competition among insurance agents which is manifestly incom- 
 patible with a safe and legitimate business, they only repel and 
 restrict the sphere of those conservative and prudent institutions, 
 which alone are trustworthy, and capable of performing what 
 they promise in such emergencies as the present. 
 
 THE DUTY OF THE HOUR. 
 
 WHATEVER other effects rnay follow the recent disaster at Chi- 
 cago, there is one result which MUST come from this calamity, 
 as matter of vital necessity both for the agents and for th'c com- 
 panies they represent. The rates of premium must be advanced 
 at once to a paying point, and by means of concerted action GJI 
 the part of all agents everywhere. We doubt not the agents' 
 recognition of this necessity, nor their disposition to meet it ; 
 but action, not theory, is what is wanted, and they should not 
 lose a moment in profiting, by the public engrossment with 
 insurance matters, to organize themselves in a solid phalanx 
 against a relapse of insurance interests into the old channels of 
 ruinous competition. 
 
 Widespread as is this disaster, and seriously as it has crippled 
 a number of companies, it is a subject of pride that in the great
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 5 
 
 majority of cases losses will be promptly settled. And when 
 the facts and figures are finally spread out in authentic form, we 
 may expect a reaction in favor of insurance and its promoters 
 such as will astonish even its most ardent friends. Few compa- 
 nies have failed as regards their policyholders, and those which 
 have suffered heavy loss will reorganize at once, with less 
 financial capital, perhaps, but with a reserve of moral capital 
 and honorable prestige which will make their policies worth 
 more than ever before. 
 
 It is the duty of agents as men who, in prosperous times, have 
 reaped the largest share of the harvest, to come promptly to the 
 help of the companies at this juncture, and this they can do by 
 immediately taking steps to make the public realize the value of 
 insurance, and the difference between sound and cheap policies. 
 Already, in many cities and towns the rates have been advanced 
 to an adequate standard. 
 
 Rates should be immediately doubled everywhere in the 
 United States. 
 
 THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY. 
 
 NEVER, was there a better opportunity for earnest agents and 
 sound companies to push their fortunes. By striking while the 
 iron is hot, while the ruins still smoke, a live company may 
 accomplish in the next six months more than it could in ten 
 years, under ordinary circumstances. 
 
 Active agents, energetic officers, solvent companies, will now 
 come to the front and carry all before them. 
 
 The public is alive to the value of insurance policies which 
 mean indemnity, and will not higgle about rates in the light of 
 the Chicago fire and its crushing testimony against cheap and 
 worthless policies. 
 
 Now is your chance to enter in and possess the land, gentle- 
 men, officers and agents ! The people are running to meet you 
 more than halfway. They are anxious for once to pay full cost 
 for insurance, if it only be insurance. Let none of you stand 
 back, while a few live men rush in and gather a harvest in 
 which you should have a share. Advertise, circulate your docu- 
 ments, let your rivalry be only that of getting the best risks at
 
 6 The Insurance Companies 
 
 the highest rates, and thus present the insurance companies of 
 the country as a spectacle of bounding elasticity and vitality. 
 
 Great as have been the losses at Chicago, there is not a com- 
 pany whose assets justify continuance in business, but can turn 
 this seeming disaster into a positive and permanent benefit. 
 The prestige of a company passing through this fiery trial, 
 without succumbing, will be (or should be made) equal, in 
 moral power, to a doubling of its cash capital. See to it that 
 this shall be the result to your own company ! 
 
 A CORRESPONDENT writing from Hartford discusses as follows the 
 altered condition of fire insurance and fire insurance rates : This 
 disaster will also bring its lesson, for, good and unpalatable as it may be, 
 nevertheless it will be one notonly for the benefit, immediate and direct, of 
 the insurance companies themselves, but also, indirectly and eventually, 
 of the people at large. It will learn us to put underwriting on a more 
 lasting and enduring foundation, to set aside the petty jealousies and 
 private rivalries which have hitherto existed much to the detriment of 
 the business, and while there will be, as there must, a general competi- 
 tion, yet it will be based upon system, founded in principle, and tend in 
 no way to lead insurance interests into the paths of recklessness and 
 ruin. As a matter of course this fire will affect the subject of insurance 
 rates, and they will no doubt be advanced. The low rate system which 
 some of our smaller companies have followed has proved disastrous, 
 and the experiment will not probably be tried again. And this we do 
 not regret. A man is always willing to pay a good price for a good 
 article; and, if in future policyholders are charged a larger amount for 
 their insurance, they will not be disposed to grumble at the advance if 
 they know the concern in which they place their risks is pursuing a 
 course which is not experimental and adventurous, but which on the 
 contrary is founded in security and safety, and is dictated by all the 
 reasons which human precaution and foresight can invent to guarantee 
 prosperity and success. 
 
 ONE of the newspaper reporters, describing the great fire, says : 
 ' Huge blocks of stone were crumbled to dust. The foundations disap- 
 peared almost to the bottom stone. The walls were licked up as though 
 of pasteboard, and the huge beams of iron were warped and disappeare<| 
 like straw. The vaunted fire-proof structures offered also as little 
 resistance as the humblest shanty and went in the common ruin." It 
 may be that this statement requires to be accepted with considerable 
 allowance. But the fact remains, proven incontestibly for the first time,
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 7 
 
 that a conflagration may rise to that degree of intensity which will 
 seriously endanger the most massive structures that man is capable of 
 building. Just as the eternal rocks are swept away by fierce volcanic 
 eruptions. Yet AVC should not depreciate the value of the so-called 
 "fire-proof" methods of building. A fire-proof building is at worst a 
 barrier to the extension of fire. It checks a conflagration by staying the 
 progress of flame, and, if there be only a sufficient number of these 
 barriers, the duration of the fire cannot be long. Who can doubt, for a 
 moment, that the northern division of Chicago would have been entirely 
 unharmed if in that ill-fated business district in the south side there had 
 been a hundred " fire-proof" buildings, instead merely of two or 
 three ? 
 
 THE three great conflagrations of modern history have been the great 
 London fire of 1666, burning of Moscow, and burning of Chicago. It 
 is remarkable that the magnitude of these conflagrations was not very 
 far from equal in the number of buildings destroyed. The fire in 
 London consumed 13,200 houses. The Moscow conflagration consumed 
 11,400 houses. The conflagration in Chicago consumed not far from 
 15,000 houses. The Chicago conflagration was- much more extensive 
 than either of its prototypes in the extent of territory devastated. The 
 burnt district includes nearly four square miles; that of London less 
 than one square mile; that of Moscow considerably more. In the 
 destruction of property, also, the Chicago conflagration has taken the 
 first place in history, the loss amounting in round numbers to 
 $150,000,000. In the rapidity of the conflagration, the Chicago fire is 
 without a parallel. It required sixteen days to burn a square mile of 
 London, and several days and nights to burn a somewhat greater area 
 in Moscow. Twenty hours sufficed to consume four square miles of 
 Chicago, a rate of combustion averaging a square mile every five hours. 
 
 THE pluck exhibited by almost all the companies, with reference to the 
 great fire, has been something which falls little short of being sublime. 
 It is not every man who, suddenly cut down from wealth to poverty, 
 will instantly resume active operations and push forward with even 
 greater energy than before. But here are. many companies which have 
 lost money by the million, we might almost say, rising out of the ruins, 
 and as eager for the fray as ever. It would be invidious to mention 
 names, even were it worth while, in illustration of the wonderful 
 elasticity and vital force of the companies in this severe ordeal. The 
 country has reason to rejoice that its underwriters are of the nyielding 
 sort, and that, both in spirit and in act, they stretch out the helping 
 hand towards Chicago, although it may seem like the dividing up of 
 their last crust.
 
 8 The Insurance Companies 
 
 The Hartford Courant says, that when New York suffered under the 
 great fire of 1835, the Hartford, ^Etna and Protection fire insurance 
 companies were weak, in comparison with the great corporations of these 
 days. At the first word they went to the front and, with the personal 
 credit of their directors backing them, paid promptly every dollar. 
 James G. Bolles was secretary of the Hartford in those days. The stock 
 was only partially paid in. The directors pledged their own means for 
 the remainder, and sent Mr. Bolles to New York to open an agency near 
 the fire. There he settled the claims as fast as possible and gave out 
 that he was still ready to insure. All the New York insurance compa- 
 nies but one had failed. Before all the claims had matured, Mr. Bolles 
 had received enough in premiums to pay them! Mr. Bolles was a man 
 to do his duty if it bankrupted him. But it made the fortune of the 
 company. 
 
 IT is within bounds to say that in almost every large town in the 
 country insurance rates are, to-day, not more than half what they should 
 be. In all the cities, this is absolutely the fact, without qualifications. 
 The volume of average loss makes up the main element in the cost of 
 insurance; and, now that the companies are called upon to pay forty or 
 fifty millions on account of Chicago, it is obvious that the cost of insur- 
 ing has increased by just the ratio thus added to the loss ratio of former 
 years. If the $3,500,000 paid to Portland justified doubling the rates in 
 1866, what shall be said now when rates have again touched bottom and 
 the cost of insurance has actually been quadrupled? The simple test 
 will be to add the cost of the Chicago fire to the average cost of insur- 
 ance for twenty years past, and then tell us what the rates ought to be? 
 
 AND now from all parts of the country comes the gratifying intelli- 
 gence that an universal advance in fire insurance rates has followed the 
 Chicago disaster. The companies which will be able to continue busi- 
 ness are none too many, and are none to strong to satisfy the require- 
 ments of the business public without this advance in rates.
 
 THE GREAT FIRE. 
 
 A COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT OF THE CON- 
 FLAGRATION. 
 
 IT was at 9.45 o'clock on Sunday night, October S, when the bell sounded 
 the alarm from box 342, for a fire which proved to be the most disastrous 
 in the world's history. Flames were discovered in a small stable in the 
 rear of a house on the corner of De Koven and Jefferson streets. 
 
 Hardly had the first alarm sounded when it was followed by another 
 from the same box, and this in turn by a third, or general alarm, which 
 summoned to that vicinity every available steam engine in the city. 
 
 THE WIND 
 
 was blowing a perfect gale from the south-southwest. With terrible 
 effect the flames leaped around in mad delight, and seized upon every- 
 thing combustible. Shed after shed went down, and dwelling houses 
 followed in rapid succession. Block after block gave way, and family 
 after family were driven from their homes. The fire department were 
 powerless to prevent the spreading of the calamity. 
 
 At first it was one structure on fire; then another and another were 
 swallowed up in a whirlpool of flames, until finally it was blocks and 
 blocks of buildings which were going down, like grass before the 
 scythe. For upward of fifteen weeks there had been no heavy 
 rains, and the wooden walls were dry like unto tinder in that portion 
 of the doomed city. In vain the firemen fiercely fought the- 
 approach of the conflagration. In vain were fences and small houses 
 hurled to the ground. In vain did the vast crowd rush hither and thither 
 trying to save the entire west side. Onward stalked the fiery flame and 
 red-hot air which caused all to flee from before its scorching blasts. 
 
 With the heat increased the wind, which came- howling across the 
 prairie, until at last there arose a perfect hurricane. Mighty flakes of 
 fire, hot cinders, black, stifling smoke, were driven fiercely at the people, 
 and amid the terrible excitement hundreds of them had their very clothes 
 burned off their backs, as they stood there watching with tearful eyes the 
 going down of so many houses. 
 
 When the flames had crossed over to Clinton street, between Ewing 
 and Forquar streets, there were left probably half-a-dozen houses which
 
 lo The Insurance Companies 
 
 seemed lo have been forgotten in the excitement of the moment. But 
 they were not permitted to escape the awful flames. Backward swept 
 the red demon, silently and softly, but swift enough to elude all pursuit, 
 and before the terror-stricken multitude could prevent, all these frame 
 buildings were burned to the ground. 
 
 The wind continued its roaring fierceness, and house after house was 
 burned. To the left the fire spread forth its heat like the leaves of a fan 
 until all of the eastern side of Jefferson street was enveloped in the furnace. 
 To the right it had been driven with great fierceness, and Clinton street 
 and Canal street and Beach street, and then the railroads which run 
 along the western shore of the south branch were in its grasp. Now 
 was the fire at its fiercest. Upward of 20 blocks were burning. Up- 
 ward of 1,500 buildings, including outhouses, were on fire. Upward. of 
 500 families were fleeing from the seeming wrath to come. The streets 
 were almost impassable. Carriages, and wagons, and drays and carts, 
 and all sorts of vehicles were brought into requisition, and were speedily 
 loaded with household goods. Empty wagons were filled with freight, 
 and where there were no beasts of burden to draw the load, human 
 hands sprang to the rescue and dragged the property toward the north. 
 Then the fire reached over the street, and while that terrible south- 
 western wind howled onward, it forced its way into the planing mills 
 and the chair factories, and all the other shops which skirted the creek 
 in that portion of west Chicago. Then it got into the lumber yards and 
 into the railroad shops, and the round houses were soon wrapped ia its 
 dead embrace. The bricks themselves seemed only additional fuel. 
 The rolling stock in the railroad yards seemed but a bit of kindling 
 which helped along a fire already fiercely intense. 
 
 But worst of all the elevators were next in danger. For a few moments 
 it seemed as though one or two of the largest would resist the flames 
 .and pass through the fire ordeal unscathed. But this thought was not 
 of long duration, for an instant later and the immense piles were in 
 flames from top to bottom. 
 
 Like the advance of a great army the fire moved forward in several 
 columns, and like a powerless but unconquered foe the fire department 
 slowly retreated. But th ey stubbornly contested every foot of ground and 
 would not surrender, although often almost entirely surrounded by the 
 dread enemy. Then they would cut their way out and retreat for a 
 short distance, only to turn again and hurl their charges of thousands 
 of gallons of water full into the face of the enemy. But no power on 
 earth could stem the torrent. Never did firemen fight more fiercely to 
 conquer, and never before did their heroic efforts sejem so utterly in 
 vain. 
 
 Suddenly away to the north and east, fully five blocks distant, a small 
 flame broke forth and lighted up the already brilliant heavens. The 
 sight sent an awful shudder to the soul of every man, woman and child 
 who saw it. For a moment every one was spellbound and speechless.
 
 And the Chicago Fire. il 
 
 Just where it was, the newly discovered fire, was as yet unknown, 
 but it seemed to be in the neighborhood of the South Side gas works, 
 and there was no one in all that vast concourse of people, but 
 who knew the great danger which was already threatening the other 
 side of the river. Every moment witnessed an increase in the blaze, 
 and presently the outlines of the immense reservoir told the story 
 of its immediate vicinity. The fire marshal at once sent every avail- 
 able engine to the south side, and prepared to follow with the remainder 
 immediately. But the flames mounted higher and the fire grew fiercer, 
 and spread itself out in all directions, until it was impossible to stay it r 
 1'tirther progress. 
 
 SOUTH DIVISION. 
 
 As early as twelve o'clock, the air of the extreme south division was 
 hot with the fierce breath of the conflagration. The gale blew savagely, 
 and upon its wings were borne pelting cinders, black driving smoke, 
 blazing bits of timber, and glowing coals. These swept thickly 
 over the river, drifting upon house-tops and drying the wooden build- 
 ings along the southern terminus of Market, Franklin, Adams, 
 Monroe and Madison streets still closer to the combustion point for which 
 they were already too well prepared. 
 
 The housetops were covered with anxious workers, and cistern streams, 
 tubs and buckets were in constant use to subdue the flying bits of fire 
 (.hat were constantly clinging to shingles and cornices. 
 
 THE FIRST FOOTHOLD 
 
 obtained by the destroying angel in the south division was in the tr.r 
 works adjacent to the gas works, just south of Adams street, and nearly 
 opposite the armory. Almost instantaneously the structure was one 
 livid sheet of flame, emitting a dense volume of thick black smoke that 
 curtained this portion of the city as with the pall of doom. Faster than. 
 a man could walk, the flames leaped from house to house until fifth 
 avenue (Wells street) was reached. A steamer or two were sent thither, 
 but their previous experiences were only repeated, and no perceptible 
 check was given to the onward progress of the flames. From the gas 
 works to the point it had now reached, nearly the entire space was filled 
 with small wooden structures, and their demolition was the work of but 
 a few minutes. 
 
 THE FIRST GREAT DANGER 
 
 apprehended from the ignition of the tar was of its communication to the 
 gas works, and in less than ten minutes the entire establishment was on 
 fire, the immense gasometer being completely surrounded by a wall of 
 flame. The danger from its explosion drove the crowds away, and other 
 scenes of equally absorbing interest occupying their attention, when the 
 explosion came, it was witnessed by comparatively a few people, and was,
 
 12 The Insurance Companies 
 
 it is believed, unaccompanied with any fatal results. The grand metre 
 was apparently filled to about half its capacity. Its destruction did not 
 occur until some three hours later. 
 
 Apparently but a few minutes subsequent to the ignition of the gas 
 works, the wooden buildings south of the armory were found to be on 
 fire, forming the apex of another widening track of desolation, and very 
 soon joining with the other, the two unitinglike twin demons of destruc- 
 tion, the armory helping to glut their fiendish cravings. 
 
 It may be of interest here to note the peculiarities of the wind cur- 
 rents and their strange effects. During all this time, as during 
 the entire continuance of the fire, the wind was blowing a gale 
 from a southwesterly direction; and above the tops of the buildings its 
 course from midnight until 4 or 5 o'clock, varied but little, not veering 
 more than one or two points of the compass. To the observer on the 
 street, however, traversing the main thoroughfares and the alleys, the 
 wind would seem to come from every direction. This is easily explained. 
 New centres of intense heat were being continually formed, and the sud- 
 den rarification of the air in the different localities and its consequent 
 displacement caused continually artificial currents, which swept around 
 the corners and through the alleys in every direction, often with the 
 fury of a tornado. This will account partly for the rapid widening of 
 the tracks of devastation from their apex to the lake, as well as the 
 phenomenon of the fire to use a nautical phrase, "eating into the 
 wind." 
 
 THE GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL, 
 
 upon which the roof had but just been placed, and which, like the still- 
 born child, was created only for the grave, was among the first of the 
 better class of structures assaulted by the fire. Angered at its imposing 
 front, and scorning the implied durability of its superb dimensions, the 
 flames stormed relentlessly in, above, and around it, until, assured that 
 it was at their absolute mercy, they left it tottering to the earth, and 
 crawled luridly along the street in search of further prey. It was now 
 that the waves of fire began to take upon themselves the mightiest of 
 proportions. 
 
 How it was that, while even a hundred buildings might be blazing, 
 others, far in advance of the track of the storm, could not be protected, 
 has not been understood by those who were not despairingly following 
 the course of destruction. It was partly on account of the artificial 
 currents already mentioned, and because the huge tongues of flame 
 actually stretched themselves out upon the pinions of the wind, for acres. 
 Sheets of fire would reach over entire blocks, wrapping in every 
 building inclosed by the four streets bounding them, and scarcely 
 allowing the dwellers in the houses time to dash away unscorched. 
 Hardly twenty minutes had elapsed from the burning of the Pacific 
 hotel before the fire had cut its hot swath through every one of the
 
 And the Chicago J^irc. 13 
 
 magnificent buildings intervening, upon La Salle street, and had fallen 
 mercilessly upon the Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 The few heroic workers of the police and fire departments who had not 
 already dropped out of the ranks of fighters from sheer exhaustion, 
 rought to once more check the progress of devastation by the aid of pow- 
 der. A number of kegs were thrown into the basement of the grand 
 business palace of the Merchants' Insurance company. A slow match 
 was applied, and as the crowd drew back the explosion ensued. A 
 broad, black chasm was opened in the face of the street, but with as 
 little attention to the space intervening as though it had only been 
 across an ordinary alley, the arms of flame swung over the gap, and 
 tcre lustily at the rows of banking houses and insurance structures 
 beyond. 
 
 THE COURT HOUSE 
 
 was now faced with a swaying front of fire on the south and west sides. 
 But as the building was in the centre of an open square, and solidly 
 constructed, it was taken as a matter of course that it would be able to 
 survive, if nothing else should be left standing around it. 
 
 "Talk about the Court House," said a leading banker, among the 
 spectators, whose own establishment had already been melted to the 
 very foundations, " it will show to be about the only sound building on 
 the south side to-morrow." 
 
 And yet, in another five minutes, a great burning timber, wrenched 
 from the tumbling ruins of a La Salle street edifice, had been hurled i:: 
 wild fury at the wooden dome of the Court House. As if a thousand 
 .slaves of the fire-king had hidden within the fatal structure, awaiting 
 this signal, the flames seemed to leap to simultaneous life in every part 
 cf the building, and soon the hot, scorched walls alone remained. 
 
 The course of the fire was now directed almost due cast for a fcv.- 
 minutes, and Ilooley's opera house, The Republican office and I': : 
 whole of Washington street to Dearborn was consumed. 
 
 CROSBY'S OPERA HOUSE 
 
 came r.cxt ia order. Renovations to the extent of $So,oco had just been 
 instituted in this edifice, and the place was to have been re-dedicated 
 that same night by the Thomas orchestra. The combustible nature cf 
 the building caused it to burn with astonishing rapidity, and soon it J 
 walls surged in, carrying with them, among other treasures, the con- 
 tents of three mammoth piano houses and a number of art treasures, 
 including paintings by some of the leading masters of the old and new 
 worlds. 
 
 The St. James hotel was next fired, and here, at the corner of State 
 and Madison etrcets, the two savage currentsoffircth.it had parted 
 company near the Chamber of Commerce joined hideous issue once 
 inorc. The course of one of these currents has been indicated. The 
 other had swept down Franklin, Wells and La Salle streets to the main
 
 14. The Insurance Companies 
 
 banks of the river, swallowing elevators, banks, trade palaces, the 
 Briggs, Sherman, Tremont and other large hotels, Wood's museum, 
 the beautiful structures of Lake and Randolph streets, and the entire 
 surface comprised between Market, South Water, Washington and 
 State streets. 
 
 Many lives were known to have been lost up to this time. 
 But in the infernal furnace into which Chicago had been turned, 
 it was impossible to conjecture or dare to imagine how many. The 
 heat, more intense than anything that had ever been described in 
 the annals of broadspread conflagrations of the past, had fairly 
 crumbled to hot dust and ashes the heaviest of building stone. Of 
 what chance was there then of ever finding the remains of lost 
 humanity by those who were already inquiring, with mad anxiety, for 
 the missing ones? But all thoughts of others soon began to vanish in 
 fears for the safety of the living. The stoutest of masonry and thickest 
 of iron had disappeared like wax before the blast. 
 
 Field & Leiter's magnificent store, second only in size and value of 
 contents to one dry-goods house in the land, was already in flames. 
 The streets were now crammed with vehicles conveying away valuables, 
 and the sidewalks were running over with jostling men and women, 
 all in a dazed, wild strife for the salvation of self, friends and property. 
 The thieving horror had not yet broken out, and up to this time there 
 had been a common, noble striving to aid the sufferers and stay the 
 inarch of the furious flames. 
 
 Crackling and howling demoniacally at the ruin and misery left 
 behind, eager for more valuable prey, the flames sped on, taking in their 
 course the track continually widening from the causes mentioned 
 above Farwell hall and the elegant stone structures surrounding it, 
 and all the newspaper offices except that of The Tribune, leaving noth- 
 ing behind but the grandest ruins the world ever saw. 
 
 The block bounded by Dearborn, Washington, State and Madison 
 streets was some little time in burning. Indeed, after the corner occu- 
 pied by the Union Trust and Savings institution had burned, it was 
 believed that the large vacant lot created a short time before by 
 the tearing down of the old Dearborn school, would save Mayo's corner 
 and t^e St. Denis hotel. But the fire, in spite of the terrible strength of 
 the wind in the other direction, eventually contrived to beat up against 
 the gale, and, by devouring the stores of Gossage and others, on the 
 west side of State, and the book houses of Griggs, Keen & Cooke, and 
 the Western News company, on the east side, to blister the St. J)enis 
 to the igniting point, and then McVicker's theatre and The Tribune 
 building formed the northern boundary of the south division. 
 
 It was here that the few workers now left with courage enough to con- 
 test with miserable fortune made their final stand. The Tribune building 
 was believed to be fire-proof if any structure devised by man could be 
 proof against such a combination of the elements as was now raging.
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 15 
 
 THE POST-OFFICE 
 
 had yielded to the assault and was only a smouldering ruin, and from 
 away down to the devastated depot of the Illinois Central the flames had 
 pushed back until they interlocked once more at the custom-house with 
 the fire that had torn its way from the Michigan Central depot. Sur- 
 rounded by 
 
 THE ENEMY ON EVERY QUARTER, 
 
 and having held proudly up against the attack till long after daybreak, 
 there was the same sad capitulations enacted here that had been the 
 story of the entire night. McVicker's yielded first and was instantly a 
 heap of brick and ashes, and The Tribune structure was not long in fol- 
 lowing, the walls of this latter structure, with those of the Custom House, 
 First National bank, and Court House proving the most stubborn evi- 
 dences of the worth of the architect's skill remaining in Chicago. Up 
 to this time, the elegant and costly row of buildings on Dearborn street 
 north of the Postoflfice had escaped. They included the two Honore 
 structures, the Bigelow house, which was $oon to have been opened, 
 and the DeHaven block, the latter extending from Quincy to Jackson, 
 street. The two blocks bounded by Monroe, State, Jackson and Dear^ 
 born streets, that resting on Jackson street, including the Palmer house 
 and the Academy of Design, were also intact. A new line of flame, how- 
 ever, had been formed some distance to the southward of the armory 
 and west of the Michigan Southern depot, and was sweeping on in its 
 mad, resistless career, and it was felt that the above mentioned property 
 was in the greatest peril. 
 
 THE DEPOT, 
 
 a noble stone structure, upon which great reliance was placed for the 
 safety of the adjacent property to the eastward, made but a feeble resist- 
 ance, and soon, with a large number of passenger cars inside, was in 
 ruins. The large row of wooden tenements on Griswold street, fronting 
 the depot on the east, succumbed at once, presenting a wall of fire of the 
 length of the depot. It burned rapidly through to Third avenue, but af 
 that point the wind, which had begun to show a changeabieness it had 
 not previously exhibited, veered to a point considerably east of south, in 
 which quarter it remained for some time. Encouraged by this, 
 
 A DESPERATE FIGHT. 
 
 was made on Third avenue, and for some minutes, minutes that seemed 
 hours in the torturing alternations of hope and fear, the fiery monster 
 was held at bay. The stone yards on La Salle street also temporarily 
 checked the progress of the fire south. Thousands of people occupying 
 the large tract from Third avenue and Dearborn street to the lake 
 watched, with anxious countenances and bated breath, the result of the 
 battle that was to decide the fate of their homes. The wind benignly 
 continued to blow from the same quarter, and the hopes that had been 
 raised, slight at first, grew stronger, It was
 
 l6 The Insurance Companies 
 
 AN AWFUL CRISIS. 
 
 At no period in the history of that terrible day were more momentous 
 interests trembling in the balance. The occupants of the Michgan av- 
 enue palaces and the humble cottagers were there side by side, breath- 
 ing supplications and agonizing prayers that their hearthstones might 
 be spared. 
 
 The Christian Brothers' school, at the corner of Van Buren street 
 r.nd Third avenue, a massive brick structure, was soon ignited, but its 
 walls proved sound and strong, and the interior was almost entirely 
 burned before they fell. New hopes were born of this, but only to be 
 succeeded by the blankest despair. 
 
 And the suspense was not for long. Making a clean skip over the 
 Dellaven block, a shower of fire-brands, hurled thither by a treacherous 
 gust of wind, alighted on the roof of the Bigelow house, and that mag- 
 nificent building was soon a seething furnace of flame, quickly followed 
 by the two Honore buildings. 
 
 The one nearest the Bigelow hotel was unfinished, but was rapidly 
 approaching completion, and as a model of architectural beauty wr.s 
 hardly rivaled in the city. 
 
 From these buildings, as if maddened at their slight detention, the 
 flames spread to the standing buildings west and southwest with re- 
 doubled fury, enwrapping the block containing the Palmer house and 
 Academy of Design, and that directly north, in an inconceivably short 
 time. 
 
 The Palmer house was the tallest building in the city, eight stories 
 high, three of which were in its mansard roof, and the scene of its 
 demolition, which was more rapid than the account can be transmitted 
 to paper, was inexpressibly grand. The march of the devouring element 
 from this point to the lake was uninterrupted, the intervening buildings, 
 including many of the finest private residences in the city, melting away 
 like the dry stubble of the prairie. 
 
 For some time after the ignition of the Bigelow house, the Dellaven 
 block stood unscathed, but at last, it, too, was forced to yield to the in- 
 evitable. It was a long three-story building, the opposite side of Dear- 
 born street being occupied by a row of small wooden tenements. A 
 stream was brought to bear upon these, and in the blistering heat three 
 firemen, heroes every one, fully conscious of the tremendous interests 
 committed to them, stood manfully at their posts. They did their work 
 nob!y and successfully. The DeHaven block was levelled to the ground 
 and the whole row of wooden buildings had been perfectly protected. 
 From a thousand parched throats the thankful ejaculation went up; 
 '' We are saved !" Delusive hope! One danger was averted only to be 
 succeeded by others beyond the power of man to avert. The wind again 
 suddenly turned to the southwest carrying with it a baptism of fire 
 v/hich made it apparent that the whole remaining portion of the city 
 north of Harrison street was doomed. Churches, palatial residences,
 
 And the Chicago Fire. l^ 
 
 everything was swept by the besom of destruction, an irresistible ava- 
 lanche of flame. 
 
 In concert with the work of devastation just described, from the track 
 of flame several blocks below, which had iong before cut its way to the 
 lake, as if executing a well-devised military manoeuvre, the fire had been 
 steadily eating its way against the wind, the point of junction being at, 
 or near Adams street. From this it was evident that, even with the wind 
 blowing a gale from the south, the entire south division was in danger. 
 The supply of water had long before failed, except from the basin. 
 
 A MORE HEROIC TREATMENT 
 
 alone could save what remained of the city. It was at once and unhesi- 
 tatingly determined upon, and then commenced the first systematic and 
 thorough use of gunpowder as the only means of preventingthe continu- 
 ance of the work of ruin. It was conducted under the personal super- 
 vision of Gen. Sheridan. Building after building was demolished, the 
 reports of the successive explosions coming at intervals of a very few 
 moments, and being plainly audible above the continuous din, each 
 discharge announcing that at last the battle was being fought and won. 
 The great fire which was to render Chicago forever memorable in the 
 annals of history was ended in the south division. 
 
 THE LAST BUILDING TO BURN 
 
 was " Terrace row," a palatial block of private residences on Michigan 
 avenue, extending northward from Harrison street. Its destruction re- 
 quired two or three hours, as nothing remained in its rear to accelerate 
 the work. About eighteen hours from the first discovery of the fire on 
 De Koven street, the last wall of "Terrace row" fell. In the south 
 division, north of a diagonal line, reaching from the 2ast end of Harri- 
 son street to Polk street bridge, there remained two buildings unharmed, 
 one the large business block immediately north of Randolph street 
 bridge, and the other an unfinished stone structure at the corner of Mon- 
 roe and La Salle streets. The entire business portion of the city was 
 obliterated. Two-thirds of the territorial area of the city was unscathed, 
 but Chicago, as a great business mart, the proud commercial centre of 
 the growing west, was no more. Was ever devastation more complete! 
 Immense as is the burnt area in the south division, for a single for- 
 tunate circumstance it might, and probably would, have been doubled. 
 Immediately south of the Michigan Southern passenger depot was a 
 long, fire-proof warehouse; on the side fronting the fire, there were but 
 two windows, which afforded the only possible opportunity for the fire 
 fiend to effect a lodgment. These were successfully guarded by a small 
 corps of men with pails. The building was saved, and with it, undoubt- 
 edly, the entire tract north of Twelfth street.
 
 i8 The Insurance Companies 
 
 NORTH DIVISION. 
 
 The north side, in proportion to its size, perhaps suffered more than 
 both of the other divisions united. Practicallj', with the exception of a 
 few streets, which were occupied by retail stores to a certain extent, as 
 Clark and Weils streets, and also North Water and Kinzie streets, which 
 were occupied by wholesale stores, commission merchants, wholesale 
 butchers, manufactories, etc., and a narrow strip along the north branch 
 occupied by lumber and coal yards, the north side was almost 
 exclusively a residence portion of the city. In the extent of territory 
 burned, north Chicago was also the most unfortunate. Doubly unfor- 
 tunate, also, was it in the fact that when the fire once started north of 
 the river its progress was entirely unchecked, all the fire engines being- 
 at work on the south side, from whence they could not reach the north 
 side, even if they would, except by a long detour around by Twelfth 
 street and the west division, a raging barrier of flame making it im- 
 possible for the engines to pass over either the Lake street, Randolph 
 street, Madison street, or Adams street bridges to the west side, and so 
 from that side over the Kinzie street bridge and other bridges north of 
 that bridge. In addition to this, the north side was unfortunate in that 
 its population, moving almost block by block as the flames progressed 
 north, were at last compelled, with the exception of a comparatively few 
 families, to sleep out all night on the open prairie, which environs the 
 north division on the west and north; the fire not ceasing its march of 
 desolation until it had devoured all but a narrow strip of houses on the 
 \vest side of that portion of the north division which lies north of 
 Division street. 
 
 THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 of the fire on the north side seems to have been at the Galena elevator, 
 which is located on the north side of the main branch between State 
 street and Rush street, the time when it first crossed over being about 
 20 minutes to 6 o'clock in the morning. Having once got a start to the 
 north of the river, the fire rapidly progressed north, east, and west, the 
 back-fire west being unusually rapid. The corner of Rush aud Illinois 
 streets, three blocks beyond the elevator, where Judge Grant Goodrich 
 resided, was soon reached. 
 
 BUSINESS PORTION BURNED. 
 
 The fire then, as above intimated, progressed rapidly west, as well as 
 north and east, first burning down the old Lake house, one of the oldest, 
 if not the oldest, brick hotel in Chicago. In its course west, it also 
 burned down, in addition to the other buildings, old St. James' church, 
 the oldest brick church in Chicago, which was occupied as a storehouse. 
 About this time, other portions of the north side adjoining the river 
 caught fire, and soon all North Water street, which was occupied by 
 wholesale stores and large wholesale markets, was in flames, the
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 19 
 
 Galena depot, the Hough house, on Wells street, and the Wheeler 
 elevator, -west of Wells street, being also burned down. 
 
 THE NORTH SIDE BRIDGES 
 
 also were rapidly burned up, the flames from them helping to communi- 
 cate the fire rapidly all along the north shore of the main branch. Not 
 11 bridge connecting the north side with the south side was left; Wells 
 street bridge, Clark street bridge, State street bridge, Rush street bridge, 
 nil were burned. 
 
 Between Kinzie street and the river all was laid low and buried in a 
 mass of undistinguishable ruins. Uhlich's hall, the Ewing block, the 
 Galena depot, the offices of the Northwestern company, at the corner 
 of Wells and Kinzie streets, the Galena elevator, all were burned down 
 in a miraculously short space of time. 
 
 Between Kinzie street and Illinois street, from the north branch to the 
 lake, nearly all was burned; among the prominent buildings consumed 
 being the Revere house, on the northeast corner of Kinzie and Clark, 
 the North Market hall, one of the oldest buildings in Chicago, the Lake 
 house, one of the oldest brick structures in the city, the mammoth reaper 
 factory of McCormick & Co., a large sugar refinery, and an extensive 
 coal yard ; the last three establishments being located east of Rush 
 
 street. 
 
 A FEW FORTUNATE BUILDINGS 
 
 were left standing, but they only seemed to emphasize the ruins abound 
 them. These exceptions were about a block of buildings extending west 
 from Market street to the north branch, on the north side of Kinzie 
 street, and a large brick building, occupied as a stove warehouse by 
 Rathbone & Co., located to the south of Ogden slip on the land which 
 has been made between it and the slip, and which extends out into the 
 lake several hundred feet. 
 
 Between Illinois street and Chicago avenue the fire progressed with 
 irrepressible fury and rapidity, soon enveloping the whole section^ 
 including in it both the most beautiful and the most forbidding portions 
 of the north division. On the west of Clark street and south of Chicago 
 avenue was a section of the city densely populated ; filled with buildings 
 occupied, many of them, by two and three families; a region which in 
 years gone by was noted for the disorderly character of its elections. 
 Its only prominent features were a few churches, including the German 
 Lutheran church, on the corner of La Salic and Ohio streets, and a 
 Norwegian Lutheran church, built in 1855, on tne corner of Superior 
 and Franklin streets; the Kinzie school, a four story brick building, on 
 Ohio street, between La Salle and Wells ; the fine large structure known 
 as the German house, dedicated last year, and containing one of the 
 finest and best proportioned halls in the city. This portion of the city 
 had, in fact, just begun to renovate itself; its streets were being raised 
 and graded, and new buildings erected.
 
 3O The Insurance Companies 
 
 East of Clark street to the lake, between Illinois street and Chicagj 
 avenue, was the pride of the north division. Its streets were bordered 
 with rows of magnificent trees, beautiful gardens, elegant mansions, 
 noble churches, all of which fell before the destroyer. Among the 
 churches were the North Presbyterian church, an immense brick struct- 
 ure, on the corner of Indiana and Cass streets; a couple of frame 
 churches on Dearborn street; the new St. James church, a beautiful 
 gothic stone structure, on the corner of Huron and Cass streets, and 
 the vast structure of the cathedral of the Holy Name, on the corner 
 of State and Superior streets. Among the other prominent public 
 buildings were the Catholic college of St. Mary of the Lake, occupying 
 the whole block north of the cathedral of the Holy Name ; the Orphans 
 home, conducted by Sisters of Mercy; the Historical society's building 
 on Ontario street, east of Clark, in which were kept among many other 
 valuable historical records, the original proclamation of emancipation 
 by President L ncoln, and the north-side police station on Huron street, 
 between Clark and Dearborn streets, a substantial and well-arranged 
 building. Among the prominent residnces were those of Mrs. Walter 
 L. Newberry, whose grounds occupied the whole block bounded by 
 Ontario, Rush, Pine and Erie streets ; that of Isaac N. Arnold, occupy- 
 ing the block north ; that of McGee, occupying the block southwest of 
 the Ogden block, etc. In short, this section of the north division was 
 full of beautiful residences and gardens. 
 
 In the northeast corner of this section was the vast building of LilPs 
 ale and lager beer brewery, occupying the two blocks bounded on the 
 south by Superior street, on the north by Chicago avenue, on the west 
 by Pine street, and on the east by the lake, the whole of the two 
 blocks being occupied by the brewery, except a small slip on the south- 
 west corner of Pine and Superior streets, and a small portion occupied 
 by the residence of Mr. Lill. In the western of the two blocks were the 
 ice house, the malt house, the brewing house, etc., all substantial and 
 elegant brick buildings ; the eastern block or rather block and a half 
 were occupied by stables, carpenter shop, cooper shop, blacksmith shop, 
 etc., several of which were built out over the lake on piles. 
 
 THE CHICAGO WATER WORKS. 
 
 Before tracing the progress of the fire further northward must be 
 mentioned the burning of the water works, and the curious or rather 
 incomprehensible manner in which it caught fire almost two hours 
 before the time that the fire first reached the north division across the 
 main branch. As stated above, the Galena elevator at the edge of the 
 main branch caught fire from the south side at about 20 minutes to 6 
 o'clock. At about 20 minutes before 4 o'clock, fire was discovered in 
 the carpenter shop of Mr. Lill, built on piles above the shallow water 
 of the lake. The employes at the brewery immediately endeavored to 
 extinguish the flames, but it was found impossible, and all the efforts of
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 21 
 
 the men were confined to prevent their extension. Standing between 
 the burning carpenter shop and the water works, extending northwest 
 of the shop, stood one of Mr. Lill's bookkeepers. Turning round 
 toward the water works, he exclaimed, " My God, the waterworks are 
 in flames." This gentleman states positively that the flames from the 
 water works, when he first saw them, were issuing from the western 
 portion of the pumping works, no flames being seen from the eastern 
 portion of the grounds, which were occupied with coal sheds, etc. On 
 the other hand, the employes at the water works say that the fire com- 
 menced about half-past 3 o'clock in the morning; that it commenced in 
 the eastern part of the water works, and that it took fire from the shed. 
 Another gentleman testifies that the carpenter shop or the cooper shop, 
 as he called it, was burned down before the fire commenced in the water 
 works, and that when the water works were in full flame the main body 
 of Lill's brewery, with the exception of the carpenter shop, was intact. 
 The time of the commencement of the fire in Lill's carpenter shop and 
 the water works, however, differs one hour; the last named witness 
 asserting that the water works commenced burning at about half-past 
 2 or 3* o'clock, The whole building was soon inflames, and in a few 
 minutes the engineers had to rush out of the building to save their 
 lives. The machinery was very considerably injured. The water 
 tower, however, to the west of the pumping works, was almost entirely 
 uninjured. 
 
 Ox THE SANDS. 
 
 Before relating the further progress of the flames northward, must 
 also be noticed the mingled scenes of sorrow and laughter, or tragedy 
 and comedy, which were presented on what were once known as the 
 sands that part of the lake shore which lies sast of that portion of the 
 north side which has been described above. This sandy waste varies in 
 width between one and two blocks, being the widest at the southern 
 end, near the river, where a frame building stood licre and there before 
 the fire. As soon as the fire broke out along the north side of the main, 
 river, and the rapidity of its progress showed that it would sweep the 
 north side, or a considerable portion of it, all the inhabitants of the 
 district described, lying cast of State street, both rich and poor, both 
 the tenants of the shanties and cottages which occupied North Water 
 street, Michigan street, Illinois street, and the south end cf St. Clair 
 street, and the tenants of the aristocratic mansions north of this local- 
 ity, fled to the lake shore, carrying with them whatever they were able 
 to carry in their hands, but little and but short opportunity being offered 
 to do more. The scene was one of indescribable confusion, of horror 
 and dismay, intermingled to the mere spectator with laughable inci- 
 dents, which were, however, quickly drowned in the overwhelming 
 horror which surrounded them all. Where the lake shore, or sands, 
 were narrow, and the burning buildings approached close to the lake 
 *hore, despair reigned. The water was the apparent boundary of the
 
 23 The Insurance Companies 
 
 place of refuge. The intense heat from the burning buildings, even the 
 flames from them, reached the water, and even stretched out over it, and 
 the flying men, women, and children, rushed into the lake till nothing 
 but their heads appeared above the surface of the waters ; but the fiery 
 fiend was not satisfied. The hair was burned off the heads of many, 
 \vhile some never came out of the water alive. Many who stayed on 
 the shore, where the space between the fire and water was a little wider, 
 had the clothes burned from off their backs. 
 
 Those again who lived west of Clark street in the district named, as 
 soon as they saw that they must succumb to the advancing flames, after 
 flying, and moving north their goods from block to block, rushed across 
 the bridges which, with one exception, that of the Chicago avenue 
 bridge, remained standing. There was a grand emigration, to the 
 west side, of people and goods; of little children and big; of crying- 
 women and excited men ; of broken furniture and cracked crockery ; of 
 ivheelbarrows, buggies, one-horse teams, two-horse teams, heavy wagons, 
 and light wagons, everything that could be saved. 
 
 What was saved in the district south of Chicago avenue, except what 
 has already been mentioned, was located on the banks of the river. The 
 property saved from the flames was as follows : The new north-side gas 
 works just south of the Chicago avenue bridge, the old works south of 
 that beingburned; a litle lumber yard just south of Erie street, which was 
 partially built on piles into the river ; several coal yards alongKingsbury 
 street, which runs along the river side at a distance of about half a 
 block. The coal yard of Blake, Whitehouse & Co., was saved almost 
 entire, alarge, cheap frame buildingin which coal was piled upbeingalone 
 destroyed. Next north of this was Reno & Little's coal yard. Here 
 most of the coal was saved, though nothing was left of several large 
 piles but the cinders. Several small frame buildings on Kingsbury 
 street, between Indiana and Kinzie streets, are only partially burned and 
 can be repaired. Holbrook's and Dewey & Co.'s coal yards to the east 
 of Kingsbury street, and Brown & Van Arsdale's Manufacturing com- 
 pany's building were also left uninjured to any serious extent. 
 
 NORTH OF CHICAGO AVENUE. 
 
 At this time, between five and half-past five, the line of the fire as it 
 progressed north, was about a mile in width. Along the entire line the 
 fire appeared as if attempting to see which portion could surpass the 
 other in its march of destruction. To the east, near the lake shore, were 
 the large ale and lager beer breweries of Sands, Huck, Brandt, Bow- 
 man, Schmidt, Busch, Doyle, etc. ; to the west, near the north branch, 
 was a densely-inhabited district filled with wooden houses as dry as tin- 
 der. From the three, four and five stories' height of the one, the sparks 
 and burning charcoal from the wooded cupolas of the breweries were 
 blown blocks northward, setting fire to the buildings on which they fell. 
 On the west, the closely-built wooden frame buildings, having no brick-
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 23 
 
 
 
 walls to temporarily stay their progress, seemed to surrender instanta- 
 neously to the raging fire fiend that did not crawl but seemed to rush 
 upon them with unrestrainable fury. 
 
 All seemed to be immersed in a hell of flame. No attempts were made 
 to stem the progress of the fire. -All that the tenants cf the houses 
 could do was to save a few of their household goods, and this, too, 
 at the risk of their lives. The scene was rendered still more appalling 
 by the fact that during the earlier stages of the fire, thousands of the 
 able-bodied men had rushed to the south side to witness the fire there, 
 not then dreaming that it would reach their own homes. Before the 
 fire on the south side, these fathers, brothers and sons, were gradually 
 driven across the river, until the rapidity of the progress of the flames 
 convinced them that their own families were in danger. Being at last 
 convinced, they rushed in frantic haste to save what little they could. 
 But they arrived at their homes, most of them, in an exhausted condi- 
 tion. They did their best, but the best was but little. All that many 
 could do was to aid in saving the lives of their wives and children. With 
 their all, standing in their houses, many attempted impossible things, 
 and rushed into burning buildings never to come out alive; for the 
 wind rushed on in horrible fury, and seemed to envelop three or four 
 houses at once in one fell swoop. 
 
 Until the densely-populated district to the west of La Salle street and 
 between Chicago avenue and North avenue had been wasted, there was 
 no stay to the rapid progress of the fire. AH that many people could 
 do was to save themselves, and perhaps a few valuables that they could 
 carry in their hands. A few indeed, ot those who saw beforehand that 
 their homes would be burned down, even when the flames were half a mile 
 off, saved, perhaps, half of their furniture; but many of these even were 
 able to save but little. No conveyance could be found in many cases, 
 and piles of furniture were only saved from t'he house to be burned in 
 the street. East of Dearborn street the scene was a parallel one; the 
 homeless occupants of the houses in many cases rushing to the narrow 
 beach which bounds this portion of the north division on the east, and 
 the same sufferings that occurred on the portion of the beach referred to 
 south of this, were repeated and aggravated by the narrowness of the 
 beach. How many were killed, how many dangerously burned, it will 
 be impossible to find out. Relatives and friends have not waited for the 
 coroner, but have buried their own dead on their own responsibility, 
 and no one person will ever know the names, or even the number, of 
 the victims of the fire in the north division. In the district mentioned, 
 with the exception of La Salle street, Clark street, and Dearborn street, 
 the population was densely packed. In many of the houses lived two or 
 three families. To the east of it were large breweries, where, till the 
 last moment, the employes worked to save the buildings, at last rushing 
 to their own already burning buildings to save their families. Children, 
 as is usual in poor districts, seemed to swarm around every building,
 
 24 The Insurance Companies 
 
 and how many of these, left to their own care, infants, toddling child- 
 ren, little boys and girls, sank before the fire it is impossible to estimate. 
 Suffice it to say that hundreds have been missed who were seen at the 
 fire but never since. 
 
 A FORTUNATE DISTRICT. 
 
 That portion of the north division which lies between Chestnut street 
 and Oak street, and between La Salle street and Dearborn street, was 
 remarkably fortunate. Tl.e only house in the north division inside the 
 limits of the fire that has escaped not only destruction but even injury, 
 is located in this district. This house ie that of Mahlon D. Ogden, Esq., 
 on the north side of the street variously known as Whiting and Whitney 
 streets and Lafayette place. Undoubtedly the saving of this house from 
 the flames was due to the fact that south of it was the Washington park, 
 or square, and on the south-west and west the two blocks, occupied, the 
 southern by Mr. McCagg, and the northern by the widow of a rich 
 citizen. On each of the last two named blocks only one house stood. 
 The house on the latter block was almost entirely destroyed. The house 
 on the block to the south was but partially destroyed, and the large hot- 
 house to the south of it, and one of the finest in the city, was hardly in- 
 jured at all, but a few panes of glass on the north side of it being broken 
 by the heat. Among other buildings burned was the Ogden school, 
 near State street. 
 
 LINCOLN PARK AND OLD CITY CEMETERY. 
 
 These deserve special mention. Lincoln park the glory of the north 
 division has been almost entirely preserved. But few trees have been 
 injured, except in the southeastern portion of the park where the dead 
 house stood and where a few trees are burned ; the small-pox hospital 
 to the east on the lake shore being also destroyed. The gravestones or 
 rather board memorials of the dead poor are many of them destroyed, 
 and their relatives will know no more the place of rest of their kindred. 
 The fences around the graves, the boards which have told to the wan- 
 derer their names, are all destroyed in the southern portion of the old 
 cemetery. In the park itself many took refuge, though the great major- 
 ity, as hereafter stated, fled to the prairies on the northwest. 
 
 North of North avenue no efforts whatever were made to stop the 
 progress of the flames, with one exception, which will be hereafter men- 
 tioned. They followed out their course, the only means that prevented 
 their progress both north and west being stretches of bare prairie on 
 which there was nothing to burn. Excepting on Clark and Wells streets, 
 the houses were more or less separated from each other, occupying or 
 being separated from each other by two or three lots and often more. 
 A small portion of the district north of North avenue and west of Wells 
 street was thickly settled. 
 
 THE NORTHERN LIMIT OF THE FIRE. 
 At Fuller-ton avenue, a little over two-and-a-half miles north of the
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 25 
 
 river, the progress of the fire was finally stopped. A lull of the wind, 
 between two and four o'clock on Tuesday morning, aided in the work 
 of preventing the further progress of the flames northward ; the only 
 houses burned north of Fullerton avenue being Mr. John Iluck's resi- 
 dence, and a building occupied by a Mr. Felk. Between the hours 
 named Mr. Huck's men turned out and beat out the sparks that came 
 from the south as they fell on the ground. A slight rain falling at the 
 same time aided in the work. 
 
 A NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE. 
 
 During all this time, however, that the fire had been raging in the 
 north division, sometimes advancing directly northeast, sometimes 
 progressing westward with a terrible back-fire, people had been flying 
 north and northwest, until the few houses within reach in Lake View 
 and beyond the limits were crowded full of refugees, and the flying popu- 
 lation were compelled to take refuge on the open prairie. Here were 
 gathered thousands of people, tired men, delicate women, children in 
 arms without cover, without shelter of any kind ; many, indeed, without 
 Clothes on their backs. Worse than all, here, too, were compelled to rest 
 from their long-continued flight, the sick and the wounded. 
 
 And as if these experiences were not enough to satisfy the demon of 
 destruction that had driven them hither, women were seized with the 
 pains of childbirth, and children were born on the open prairie. The 
 scene was a sorrowful one. Even water was denied to the ^arched lips 
 of the unexpected wanderers upon the prairies. 
 
 BOUNDARIES OF THE FIRE ON THE NORTH SIDE. 
 
 The boundaries of the fire in the north division were as follows : With 
 the exception of the few buildings mentioned above, the fire extended 
 over all the north division from the main branch to Division street, and 
 from the north branch to the lake ; very nearly 700 acres of territory. 
 The fire left the north branch at Division street, where it left a few 
 houses standing along the side of the river. The back-fire then extend- 
 ed to the river again, or to what is known as the north-branch canal, 
 which connects the ends of a semi-circle in the river, which bends over 
 to the west. Following the canal, or new channel of the river, for a 
 short distance, the fire then tended a little to the east, as far as Halsted 
 street, up which it extended to Clybourne avenue, the back-fire extending 
 along the avenue northwest to Blackhawk street, and a little west until 
 it reached Orchard street a north and south street, excepting at its 
 junction with the avenue, where it runs for about a block in a northeast 
 direction. After reaching Orchard ctrect, the fire proceeded north to 
 Willard street, where it proceeded east along Howe street to Hurlbut 
 street, across a couple of undivided blocks. Along Hurlbut street the 
 firt proceeded north to Centre avenue, on which only three houses were 
 burned down ; the blocks around being nearly vacant. It then advanced
 
 26 The Insurance Companies 
 
 up Hurlbut street to within about 100 feet of Fullerton avenue. In the 
 meanwhile the fire had taken all east of this with the exception of 
 Lincoln park. North of Fullerton avenue, the fire burned up only two 
 houses; those being located east of Clark street. Here the progress of 
 the fire was stayed in the manner stated above. 
 
 BETWEEN FIRE AND WATER. 
 
 No narrative could possess more terrible interest than that which 
 should tell, in the simplest words, the story of the many wonderful 
 escapes from death in the awful conflagration of Chicago. Thnt many 
 persons perished in the burning is already known. That the number 
 may have been hundreds is possible. God alone can ever knew the man- 
 ner or the agonies of their death. But of thousands of those Avho escaped 
 from the awful cyclone of fire, the story is one that finds hardly a parallel 
 in all human experience since the world begun, 
 
 The greater number of these 
 
 TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES 
 
 occurred in the north division. The more combustible nature of the 
 buildings in that part of the city gave to the conflagration a wider sweep 
 and a more rapid movement than in the south division. Like a mighty 
 line of battle, the conflagration extended its terrible banners of flame 
 until the right rested on the lake; the left on the river; then advancing 
 in one awful charge, it literally swept that portion of the city from the 
 face of the earth. Nothing could penetrate that vast line of flame and 
 live. Before it 60,000 men, women and children fled for their lives. 
 
 On the eastern side of the district, many persons fled to the lake shore, 
 supposing that to be a place of entire safety. Many, indeed, were cut 
 off by the rapidly advancing flames from the possibility of escape in any 
 other direction. For nearly all who sought escape in that direction the 
 sequel proved that they had taken a fearful chance. 
 
 The experience of Mr. Lambert Tree and family was in part that 
 of many. Perceiving that his own house could not escape, Mr. Tree, 
 with his wife and child and aged father, Avent to the residence of 
 his father-in-law, Mr. Magee. The Magee residence occupied the 
 centre of a large enclosure, and was therefore regarded as a place of 
 probable safety. But the very fact that of its isolation from surround- 
 ing buildings soon revealed that it was the most dangerous retreat 
 that could have been chosen. The conflagration enveloped it com- 
 pletely on all sides before the house took fire. On the side opposite 
 to the approaching flames, the square was enclosed by a high board 
 fence, without openings. On the front, the flames had already cut off 
 all possibility of retreat. The only way of escape was toward the north- 
 east, over the fence already mentioned ; a barrier which three aged per- 
 sons, a woman already fainting in the dense smoke, and a little child 
 half suffocated, could not possibly scale. The fence, too, was on fire.
 
 And the Chicago Fife. 27 
 
 The house was already enveloped in a shower of burning fire-brands. A 
 horrible death seemed to be the inevitable doom of the entire party. 
 
 At this terrible juncture, a portion of the burning fence fell to the 
 ground, opening a gateway from the fiery cul de sac. Through this 
 opening, Mr. Tree, dragging his fainting wife and child, fled toward the 
 lake. In the flight from the premises the party became separated. 
 Nothing more was seen of Mr. and Mrs. Magee until, on the following 
 day. they were found on the prairie northwest of the city. In their flight, 
 they had taken a different direction from the others, and had no choice 
 but to hasten on before the advancing fire until beyond the line of its 
 horrible path. The aged couple passed the night of Monday on the 
 open prairie. 
 
 In an open space, sheltered by the walls of Lill's brewery, Mr. Tree 
 and his family, with some of their neighbors, again supposed themselves 
 to be in a place of safety. But from this refuge they were also driven by 
 the advancing flames. The intense heat drove them to the beach, and 
 even into the water, in which many men, Avomen and children stood 
 for an hour, throwing water over their clothing to prevent it taking fire 
 from the flame and sparks which a fierce wind drove toward them. In 
 one instance the dress of a lady actually took fire; the wearer, with 
 great presence of mind, removed it from her person to the lake. The 
 heat, ever and anon, enveloped the fugitives like hot blasts from the 
 mouth of a furnace. Dense clouds of stifling smoke swept over them, 
 threatening instant suffocation. Children fainted, and strong men 
 could only breathe by keeping their faces to the ground until some new 
 air current, lifting the smoke or turning aside the fiery blast, gave tem- 
 porary relief. The situation is described by those who experienced its 
 horrors, as one surpassing all possibilities of conception or belief. But 
 the flames, finding at length no more to consume, swept on and the 
 fugitives were saved. 
 
 LOSS AND INSURANCE. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain in dollars and cents the precise amount 
 of the loss; it is not, however, impossible to make a trustworthy ap- 
 proximation, from actual and unimpeachable data. 
 
 And, preliminary thereto, it may be well to say that the ten thousand 
 guesses at the aggregate loss which one hears in every place r.rc mostly 
 of the wildest and absurd character. The aggregate loss has been vari- 
 ously guessed to be two, three, four, five, and so on to eight or nine hun- 
 dred millions of dollars. One will meet in an hour's walk among 
 the ruins twenty intelligent men who will avow that not a dollar less 
 than $500,000,000 of property has been destroyed. This is nonsense. 
 At the most liberal estimate $500,000,000 would cover the value of every 
 particle of property of every kind that ever existed within the corporate 
 limits of Chicago. It is certainly not all destroyed ; nor a half, nor r. 
 third of it.
 
 28 The Insurance Companies 
 
 A CAREFUL CALCULATION 
 
 will show that $150,000,000 is a liberal estimate for the value that has 
 been destroyed by the conflagration. The valuation of property for city 
 taxation for the present year was in round numbers as follows : 
 
 REAL ESTATE (INCLUDING BUILDINGS.) 
 
 South Division $110,000,000 
 
 West Division 87,000,000 
 
 North Division 38,000,000 
 
 Total $235,000,000 
 
 PERSONAL PROPERTY. 
 
 South Division $40,000,000 
 
 West Division 8,000,000 
 
 North Division 5,000,000 
 
 Total $53,000.000 
 
 The judgment of the most trustworthy experts is that the assessed 
 valuation of real property is rather over than under two-thirds of the ac- 
 tual cash value, upon an average of the whole city, while that of person- 
 al property is probably rather under than over one-third of the actual 
 cash value. Adding one-third to the real property and two-thirds to the 
 personal, and the total value of all property in the city of Chicago before 
 the fire was $469,000,000. How much of this value still remains? How 
 much of it has the fire destroyed? 
 
 Assessment District No. i included all the south division north of 
 Twelfth street. The total valuation of land and buildings in that dis- 
 trict was $64,000,000; about $40,000,000 for the former, and $24,000,000 
 for the latter. Much the greater part of the personal property of the south 
 division was in that district; probably $35,000,000; total $99,000,000. 
 Deducting $40,000,000 for the land, and the loss, if everything else 
 were destroyed, would be $60.000,000, according to the assessor's valua- 
 tion ; or if this be equal upon an average of real and personal estate to 
 one-half the actual cash value (which is believed to be quite within the 
 fact), an actual loss of $120,000,000. Similarly, the actual loss in the 
 north division is found to be in the vicinity of $30,000,000. But from 
 this calculation must be deducted all that unburnt portion of assessment 
 district No. i, between Twelfth and Harrison streets, and a small un- 
 burnt district in the northwest corner of the north division. From it 
 must also be deducted the value of all personal property saved from the 
 fire. To it must be added the loss in the burnt district of the west divis- 
 ion. Thus, while the calculation does not assume the character of 
 precision, it furnishes a trustworthy approximation, showing that 
 $150,000,000 will cover the entire destruction of property by the confla- 
 gration. 
 
 A SURVEY BY STREETS. 
 
 No better idea of the losses can be obtained than can be got by going
 
 And the CJiicago Fire. 29 
 
 over a little 5n detail the area swept by the fire in the south division. 
 As jet, and for weeks and months to come, no one will be able to 
 enumerate these losses accurately and elaborately. 
 
 Beginning not with the point where the fire commenced, but at the 
 main branch of the river for convenience, let us enumerate the streets 
 and, as far as possible, recall what was on them, what was bought and 
 sold and stored there, and by whom they were occupied. 
 
 And first, South Water street was swept with destruction's besom, 
 from the south branch to the lake. Here went down the lumber ex- 
 change, several elevators with their contents, almost innumerable 
 houses stored with flour, with apples and butter, with lard and pork, 
 poultry, farm products, garden vegetables, and on the east half of the 
 street on both sides were wholesale houses stored from cellar to attic 
 with groceries, coarse and fine, with the products of Europe, the wines 
 of Burgundy and the Rhine; coffees from South America, the West 
 Indies, and the Orient; teas piled high like a Canton storehouse; 
 whiskies, the distilled essence of thousands of acres of Illinois corn, 
 these, with all that was left of the Fort Dearborn buildings, were wiped 
 out, for the entire length of the street, with the peculiar paraphernalia 
 of the street, the skids, the clogged and choked sidewalks, through 
 which buyers wended sinuous. Where, now, oh consignees from the 
 northwest, are the products of your labor ! You may come in thousands, 
 as you already have, to look after them ; but they are consigned where 
 no consignee or purchaser will ever see them, into oxygen and hydro- 
 gen, thin air. 
 
 While pursuing its resistless way a.ong this street, eating through the 
 \-egetables, and poultry, and fruits, and provisions of the northwest 
 more rapidly than the carnivorous tooth of time aided by the forces of 
 decay, the fires were also sweeping across the river. 
 
 Next take Lake street. This street, which for twenty years has stood 
 as the great business street of Chicago, was totally destroyed from end 
 to end, from the lake to the river, with the contents of the houses. The 
 principal hide and leather houses occupied the west end; next came 
 several heavy hardware and cutlery establishments, farm implement 
 establishments and toy shops, some of the largest silver and plated 
 ware establishments, clothing houses, large retail dry goods houses, 
 and below Dearborn street both sides of the street were occupied for 
 about a quarter of a mile with palatial marble-fronted rows where goods 
 where only sold at wholesale; tall buildings whose shadows fell entirely 
 across the street and terminated somewhat up the fronts of the opposite 
 side. These, containing millions of dollars' worth of goods of all kinds, 
 the labor of the loom, from sunny France, from Italy, from India and 
 China, and the shops of old and of new England, were all consigned at 
 last to the general limbo of total destruction. At the foot of this street 
 stood several fine hotels, the Adams, the Richmond and Massasoit 
 houses and the great railroad union depot, a marvel of magnitude and
 
 30 The Insurance Companies 
 
 art, whose picture graces some of the school geographies. These, with 
 the freight buildings and the warehouses beyond almost to the mouth 
 of the harbor, containing freight and stores, and grain in quantities that 
 nobody knows, and probably never will, in the aggregate, were all 
 consumed. 
 
 Then Randolph street followed. The Lind block stands, at the bridge, 
 the solitary structure left out of all that was valuable, beautiful, or 
 grand on this street. This was the street where the large hotels stood, 
 the Sherman house, the Briggs house, the Metropolitan, the Matteson, 
 and several others. A large number of furniture establishments and 
 toy establishments occupied the west end of the street, while the east 
 end was devoted, like Lake street, to wholesale houses, including the 
 great auction houses, the Museum, the Northwestern Engraving com- 
 pany's building, and several wholesale grocery establishments, together 
 with a miscellaneous business, comprising retail establishments, banks, 
 etc., which were all consigned to ruin with the rest. 
 
 Washington street, from the tunnel to the lake, comprised many of 
 the best buildings in the city. It was largely devoted to banks, offices, 
 insurance, and real estate dealers. On this street was the Second Pres- 
 byterian church, the Union bank building, the Merchants' insurance 
 building, the Nevada house, the Opera house, St. James' hotel, the First 
 National bank, the Board of Trade, and a large number of other equally 
 fine blocks, almost all of which were marble fronts. 
 
 Then all of Madison street, from the lake to the bridge. Some of the 
 famous buildings on this street were Farwell hall, McVicker's theatre, 
 the Morrison block, Tribune building, Staais Zcitung building, and St. 
 Mary's church. The entire street was built up with blocks such as can- 
 not be excelled in any city. 
 
 Monroe street, from river to lake, having upon it the Lombard block, 
 f.he postoffice, the Prairie Farmer building, and a large number of the 
 finest blocks in the city; Adams street, with its cheaper buildings at the 
 west end, its Academy of Design, with most of the works of art therein 
 contained, its temple of Swedenborg, the south side reservoir, and many 
 other buildings; Q^iincy street, with its Pacific hotel, fast approaching 
 completion, and its Palmer house, the pride of everybody, with its 
 palaces and its dens of infamy and shame; Jackson street, from the resi- 
 dences of the rich and the elegant Trinity church on the east, to the less 
 pretentious houses of the working class farther west, to the hundreds 
 of dens and holes of darkness at the west, were illuminated and 
 oxygenized. 
 
 Van Buren street, with its bridge, its magnificent railway depot, St. 
 Paul's church, the Academy of Science building, and its blocks of fine 
 residences and acres of poor ones, were annihilated. 
 
 Congress street, with its elegant Second Congregational church; 
 Harrison street, with its freight-house, the Jones school building, and 
 every thing else, except the Methodist church on Wabash avenue, and
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 31 
 
 the houses on Michigan avenue, fell before the names. And this was the 
 most southern street which was burned from end to end, from the lake 
 to the river. 
 
 These east and west streets only comprise in their description a larger 
 portion of the houses burned. 
 
 On State street, stood the magnificent book stores of Griggs & Co., 
 Keene & Cooke, and the Western News company, Field & Lciter's whole- 
 sale dry goods house, besides many large wholesale and retail carpet 
 houses, jewelry establishments and furniture houses. 
 
 On Dearborn street stood The Times and The Journal newspaper 
 offices, the Dearborn theatre, and a considerable number of banks and 
 large office blocks. La Salle street was built up with many of the finest 
 buildings to be found in the city. It was largely occupied by insurance 
 agents, real estate brokers, lawyers, etc. Between Washington and 
 Randolph streets, stood the court-house, which, of course, shared the 
 general ruin. 
 
 These details are only given to aid the reader in obtaining a proximate 
 idea of the losses. Little was saved except from those houses which 
 were not attacked by the flames until several hours after it was seen to 
 be inevitable that the city was doomed. 
 
 Immense quantities of goods were piled upon lake park and on the 
 grounds of the Chicago Base Ball club pyramids of clothing, boots and 
 shoes, dry goods, and furniture from the houses of the rich dwellers 
 along Michigan avenue all of which fell a prey to the destroyer. 
 
 THE Loss OF LIFE. 
 
 The loss of life, though smaller than could have been predicted in 
 such an extended and such a rapid fire, can yet never be fully estimated. 
 There have been charred remains at the morgue which were almost 
 unrecognizable as human bodies, and as the ruins are lying from two 
 to ten feet deep in places, it is impossible to say how many have been buried 
 under them. The fact that but few of those who are prominently known 
 are missing, must not lead any to believe that there have not been many 
 lost who would be missed only by an exceedingly Kmall circle of friends, 
 too obscure themselves to attract much attention. 
 
 The greatest loss of life was in the north division among the wooden 
 buildings where the billows of fire rolled along so rapidly that the 
 victims were engulphcd before they were aware that the fire had reached 
 their neighborhood. The flames often jumped two or three blocks at 
 once, as was the case at the water works and Lilt's brewery, which were 
 on fire a long time before any of the adjoinng buildings. At the water 
 works one man crawled into a 2o-inch pipe, which was lying in the 
 street, and was burned to acrisp. 
 
 To the death record should be added the mortality on the prairies of 
 the northwestern part of the city where many children and babes-in-
 
 32 The Insurance Companies 
 
 arms, unsheltered and almost unprotected bj garments, took cold in the 
 rain of Monday night following the fire, and died from croup before 
 help could be secured. 
 
 THE GREAT FIRES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Among the great fires of modern history, the mind naturally reverts 
 to the conflagration in London, in 1666, as the most destructive. Rela- 
 tively, such it was, for it continued four days and nights, and consumed 
 nearly five-sixths of the city within its walls. Yet. although more 
 than 13,000 houses of the description then common in the thickly settled 
 portions of the city, were destroyed, the area laid waste was only 436 
 acres, or less than a square mile, while the aggregate loss did not exceed 
 $60,000,000. The city of Moscow, several times before grievously afflicted 
 by fires, was made almost a smoking waste upon its occupation by the 
 French in 1812, when, by order of the Russian governor, Rostopchin, it 
 was set on fire in five hundred places at once, and 11,840 houses burned to 
 the ground, besides palaces and churches. Hamburg, in Germany, was 
 visited by a fire on the 5th of May, 1842, which continued four days, and 
 destroyed one-third of the city. In the United States, the most memor- 
 able conflagration prior to that which has just devastated Chicago, was 
 the great fire in New York, in 1835, which extended from east of Broad- 
 way and south or below Wall street, destroying 648 stores, the Merch- 
 ants 'exchange, and the south Dutch church. Loss estimated at $;o,- 
 000,000. Other great fires occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, 
 April 27, 1838, when 1,158 buildings, covering 145 acres, were burned; 
 in New York, again, September 6, 1839, l ss $10,000,200; in Pittsburgh, 
 April 10, 1845, i>ooo buildings, loss $6,000.000; in Quebec, May 28, 1845, 
 1,500 buildings, and in June of the same year, 1,300 buildings; in New 
 York, July 19, 1845, 302 stores and dwellings, loss $6,000,000; in Albany, 
 September 9, 1848, 24 acres burned over and 300 buildings destroyed, loss 
 $3,000,000; in St. Louis, July 9, 1849, 35 buildings, loss $3,000,000; in 
 San Francisco, May 3, 1851, 2,500 buildings, loss $3.500,000, and again 
 June 22, 1851, 500 buildings, loss $3,000,000; and at Portland, Me., July 
 4, 1866, when 10,000 people were rendered homeless, and fifteen millions 
 of property destroyed. 
 
 WHAT IS SPARED TO CHICAGO. 
 [From The Chicago Tribune.~\ 
 
 Our columns have been so extensively occupied during the past week 
 vrith reports of the enormous losses of life and property in the late fire, 
 that there is some danger that the damage sustained will be over- 
 estimated. True, we have seen 2,500 acres in the most central portion 
 of the city swept bare, 20,000 buildings destroyed, and 100,000 persons 
 rendered homeless, the total pecuniary loss being not less than
 
 And the C*"'~{ro Fire. 33 
 
 $300.000.000; but we have still a great deal left. We may roughly 
 estimate the situation as follows : 
 
 Above 50.000 persons have left the city ; population remaining, 280,000. 
 
 Five grain elevators were burned, with 1,600,000 bushels of grain; 
 leaving us with eleven grain warehouses intact, containing 5,000,000 
 bushels. 
 
 One half of our stocks of pork products were burned up, with the 
 same proportion of flour. 
 
 Of lumber, 50,000,000 feet were burned; the stock remaining is 
 240.000.000 feet. 
 
 Of coal, So.ooo tons were burned up; we have 79,000 tons on hand. 
 
 Our stock of leather was decreased one-quarter, the value of that 
 burned up being $95.000. 
 
 The greater portion of the stocks of groceries, dry goods, and boots 
 and shoes were burned up, with more than one-half the ready-made 
 clothing; but the quantities destroyed were scarcely equal to more than 
 a three weeks' supply, and are now being rapidly replaced. 
 
 Not more than 10 per cent of the currency was destroyed by the fire; 
 we have 30,000 houses left standing, and our real-estate could not 
 burn up. 
 
 A careful average of these larger items, with smaller ones that need 
 not be enumerated, shows that the city of Chicago has suffered a loss of 
 not less than 20. nor morj than 25 per cent, on her total assets real 
 and personal. The loss is a great one; but, so far from irretrievable, 
 that we may confidently hope to see a return to former prosperity ere 
 long. The ratio of increase during the past thirty. four years has aver- 
 aged roV percent per annum. This rate would restore the status of a 
 month ago, within three years. Making every due allowance for the 
 terrible set-back experienceed, there can be no doubt that five years 
 hence, at most, the exhibit of population, wealth, commerce, and man- 
 factures will be greater than a month ago. 
 
 THE EXACT AREA OF THE CONFLAGRATION. 
 \_From The Chicago Journal.} 
 
 CAREFUL measurements and calculations of the area of the burnt district 
 of the city place its length, from its starting point to its place of ending, 
 at four and a half miles, and its average width a little more than one 
 mile. Along the south side lake shore, however, and westward five 
 blocks, Harrison street is the southern limit of the conflagration, and 
 the distance from that street to Fullerton avenue, its northern limit, is 
 only three and a half miles. The point of the fire's beginning on the 
 west side was about one mile south of I larrison street, southwesterly. 
 The number of acres laid waste is not far from 2.300. A pretty careful 
 computation places the number of buildings of all kinds destroyed at 
 18.000, of which at least 1.500 were substantial business structures. The 
 actual total of the pecuniary losses is estimated at three hundred million 
 dollars, but no fair estimate that we have yet seen or heard of places the 
 grand total below two hundred million dollars. We still believe the 
 latter will cover all the losses.
 
 THE LOSSES AND THE RESOURCES OF 
 THE COMPANIES. 
 
 IN the following pages we present a list of all the joint-stock fire insur- 
 ance companies in the United States, except a few unimportant compa- 
 nies in the southern states. The list does not include the small mutual 
 companies which are confined to country towns and a limited business 
 mainly of farm-house risks, since such companies are not to be counted 
 upon for the transaction of a general business. The list also contains 
 a complete record of all the foreign fire insurance companies which 
 transact a general business in this country. 
 
 These lists have been carefully compiled from official sources, and the 
 statement of assets of the companies, in each instance, is in accordance 
 with the returns made under oath to the heads of insurance departments 
 of the various states, and by those officials approved as correct,, after due 
 examination. 
 
 The statements of losses have been gathered from sources equally to 
 be relied on. We have been especially careful to secure the exact 
 figures, and, so far as given, they may be relied on. We are receiving 
 fresh information hourly from our office in Chicago which has been 
 re-opened at 450 State street, and shall issue- daily editions of this pub- 
 lication until the record is complete. 
 
 The use of these facts and figures will be at once apparent to the busi- 
 ness man, who will to-day realize, as he has never realized before, that 
 without reliable, substantial insurance, his house is indeed but built upon 
 loose sand, and his business hangs in the balance, at the mercy of the 
 merciless element, fire. Without insurance no business man in this 
 country stands upon a secure footing. Without it he may be utterly and 
 hopelessly ruined in an hour. The present emergency will doubtless 
 prove of value to him for all time to come, in that it impressess upon 
 him, with a force that he never has hitherto felt, the necessity and the 
 indispensableness of the protection afforded by insurance. 
 
 In this terrible emergency, it behooves the prudent man to look 
 to it without a moments delay that his property is placed" be- 
 yond the possibility of loss. The information we give herewith will 
 afford an intelligent guide as to the course he shall pursue, and the
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 35 
 
 companies he shall trust with the most important interests he has in the 
 world. 
 
 And let us remind the public that it is now no time to haggle about 
 rates. Rates have been too low, and the mushroom companies which 
 pushed the rate below the point of safety in the past have been swept 
 away. The public must not expect that the good companies which have 
 been so severely tried in this great disaster, will longer continue to stand 
 between new and irretrievable loss, for a premium which affords a pal- 
 try margin. They must be remunerated for the blow which has been 
 inflicted upon them, and the public must expect to 'pay at least double 
 the rate which they have hitherto paid, if they expect to be insured. 
 
 And now one word in behalf of the companies. Although there are 
 a limited few which can boast of a heavy capital, past experience shows 
 that the majority are to be relied on under the severest strain. The 
 great fire of '35, which swept New York, the Portland disaster, and now 
 the calamity of Chicago, prove abundantly their elasticity and ability to 
 meet the heaviest drain upon them. There is no financial institution 
 endowed with such recuperative energies; and they meet the claims 
 upon them, as a class, with the most decided and praiseworthy prompt- 
 ness. The public can see from the papers as they are daily issued, how 
 nobly the fire underwriters of this country are meeting the present crisis. 
 And we submit that they are entitled to the largest degree of public 
 confidence, and the most generous public support. Let no one try to 
 beat down the rates they fix upon the risks offered to them. Their offices 
 are over-crowded, their hands are full. They will demand no more than 
 they are justified in asking, and it is every insurer's duty to accept, with- 
 out cavil, the advanced rate, which the severest experience has rendered 
 it necessary_to impose:
 
 The Insurance Companies 
 
 NEW YORK COMPANIES. 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 o 
 1824 
 
 1858 
 1853 
 
 1811 
 1860 
 1857 
 1859 
 1853 
 1851 
 1851 
 
 1853 
 
 1871 
 1849 
 1824 
 1867 
 J843 
 1867 
 1865 
 1860 
 1833 
 1850 
 iSS3 
 1859 
 1859 
 1850 
 
 1853 
 1853 
 1806 
 1850 
 '853 
 1853 
 1861 
 1825 
 1858 
 1859 
 1853 
 1857 
 1859 
 1864 
 1863 
 1824 
 1865 
 1852 
 1852 
 1864 
 1867 
 
 1853 
 1856 
 1825 
 1857 
 1859 
 1864 
 1852 
 1824 
 1858 
 1787 
 1856 
 1836 
 853 
 1833 
 1852 
 1821 
 1870 
 1853 
 1857 
 >SS3 
 
 NAME, 
 
 Office. 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Gross 
 
 Assets, 
 Jan. I, 
 1871. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 vEtna 
 Adriatic 
 Agricultural 
 Albany 
 Albany City 
 American 
 American Exchange.... 
 Arctic 
 Astor 
 Atlantic 
 Beekman 
 Brewers and Maltsters.. 
 Broadway 
 Brooklyn, L. I 
 Buffalo City 
 Buffalo Fire and Marine- 
 Buffalo German 
 Capital City 
 
 170 Broadway.. 
 187 Broadway.. 
 Watertovvn 
 Albany 
 Albany 
 120 Broadway.. 
 141 Broadway.. 
 112 Broadway. . 
 104 Broadway. . 
 178 Broadway.. 
 172 Broadway.. 
 139 Broadway. . 
 158 Broadway. . 
 191 Broadway. . 
 Buffalo 
 Buffalo 
 
 $300,000 
 200,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 150,000 
 200,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 200,000 
 250,000 
 250,000 
 300,000 
 
 2OO.OOO 
 200,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 153,000 
 
 200,000 
 304,222 
 200,000 
 200,000 
 300,000 
 210,000 
 250,000 
 300.000 
 400,000}: 
 
 2OO.OOO 
 
 200,000 
 500.000 
 300,000 
 300,000 
 
 200,000 
 200.000 
 I5O,OOO 
 IOOOOO 
 
 204,000 
 150,000 
 150.000 
 
 200,000 
 2OO,OOO 
 500,000 
 200,000 
 2OO.OOO 
 200,000 
 200,000 
 I5O,OOO 
 400,000 
 200,000t 
 IOO.OOO 
 
 2,500,000 
 150.000 
 500,000 
 200,000 
 
 2OO.OOO 
 500.000 
 2OO.OOO 
 2OO.O1O 
 150.000 
 280,000 
 150.000 
 300,000 
 150,000 
 200,000 
 1,000.000 
 
 500.000 
 
 200,000 
 2OO,OOO 
 I5O,OOO 
 200.000 
 
 capital, Oc 
 >f $100,000 
 
 $442.709 
 246,120 
 550,848 
 264,978 
 397,646 
 741,405 
 277,350 
 2 99,433 
 405,571 
 5S6,>79 
 261,851 
 220,000 
 370,004 
 345-444 
 370-934 
 473,577 
 270,081 
 293,766 
 684,798 
 460,069 
 39 2 ,704 
 45L332 
 692,877! 
 249,372 
 306,002 
 2,538.038 
 398.986 
 595,440 
 266,409 
 335-724 
 183.959 
 199,673 
 359.961 
 J 73,477 
 226,269 
 363,002 
 250.892 
 1,077,849 
 57i,23 
 3-5-738 
 429.872 
 279,688 
 260,135 
 700.335 
 235,242! 
 171-496 
 4,578,008 
 214,241 
 783-851 
 251,186 
 302,589 
 1,329,476 
 32i,745 
 4n,i5S 
 262,573 
 
 304,079 
 2H,75i 
 551.402 
 240.801 
 384.902 
 
 1,715-909 
 1,407,788 
 206.409 
 704,684 
 218,047 
 460.002 
 tober 23, 18 
 
 $660.000* 
 8.500 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 800,000* 
 30.000 
 58,000 
 Nothing. 
 400.000* 
 600.000* 
 350,000* 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 600,000* 
 625,000* 
 5,000 
 270.000* 
 35000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 3.000 
 450.000 
 25,000 
 5.000 
 1,400,000 
 61,000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 600,000* 
 2,500 
 Nothing. 
 I5,ooo 
 32,500 
 5,000 
 900,000* 
 Nothing. 
 
 233,14 
 13,000 
 Nothing. 
 10,000 
 45-000 
 Nothing. 
 233-HO 
 30,000 
 Nothing. 
 2,139.213 
 Nothing. 
 
 473,no 
 24.000 
 22.500 
 
 546,9H 
 550,000* 
 42,500 
 3 1,000 
 Nothing. 
 7.500 
 450.000* 
 32.000 
 Nothing. 
 1,500,000* 
 1.250.000* 
 Nothing. 
 1,000.000 
 22,500* 
 37,000 
 71. * Suspended. 
 
 Buffalo 
 Albany 
 156 Broadway. . 
 in Broadway.. 
 156 Broadway.. 
 161 Broadway.. 
 Albany 
 27 Wall St.... 
 157 Broadway.. 
 
 City 
 Clinton 
 Columbia 
 Commerce 
 
 Commercial 
 
 Corn Exchange 
 Eagle 
 
 104 Broadway. . 
 71 Wall St.... 
 102 Broadway. . 
 130 Broadway. . 
 170 Broadway.. 
 Meridian 
 153 Broadway.. 
 167 Broadway.. 
 60 Wall St. ... 
 152 Broadway.. 
 141 Broadway.. 
 175 B road way .. 
 Glens Falls 
 176 Broadway.. 
 155 Broadway. . 
 187 Broadway.. 
 ii Wall St.... 
 120 Broadway.. 
 4 Pine St.... 
 
 Empire City 
 Excelsior 
 Exchange 
 Farmers Joint Stock 
 Firemens 
 Firemens Fund 
 Firemens Trust 
 Fulton 
 Gebhard 
 Germania 
 Glens Falls 
 Globe 
 
 Guardian 
 Hamilton 
 Hanover 
 I loffman 
 
 Holland Purchase 
 Home 
 Hope 
 Howard 
 Ilumboldt 
 Importers and Traders.. 
 I nternational 
 Irving 
 Jefferson 
 Kings County 
 
 Batavia 
 135 Broadway.. 
 92 Broadway.. 
 66 Wall St... 
 120 Broadway., 
 i oo Broadway. . 
 113 Broadway.. 
 157 Broadway., 
 in Broadway. . 
 S Pine St.... 
 64 Wall St. ... 
 165 B road way.. 
 50 Wall St. ... 
 158 Broadway.. 
 48 Wall St. ... 
 152 Broadway. . 
 68 Wall St 
 Third Avenue.. 
 37 Wall St 
 Wall St.... 
 48 Wall St 
 tion of $50.000 to 
 ised by addition ( 
 ipital intact. 
 
 Knickerbocker 
 Lafayette, L. I 
 Lamar 
 Lenox 
 Long Island 
 
 Lorillard 
 Manhattan 
 Manufact'rs & Builders. . 
 Market 
 
 Mechanics, L. I 
 
 Mechanics and Traders. 
 Assets increased by add! 
 Assets and capital jncres 
 i Voted to continue with c
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 
 
 NEW YORK COMPANIES. Continued. 
 
 37 
 
 s 
 
 i 
 
 1852 
 1850 
 
 1854 
 1857 
 1853 
 1838 
 
 S53 
 
 38 
 1833 
 1832 
 is$o 
 1823 
 i^.'j 
 
 1851 
 1853 
 1851 
 iSS3 
 1853 
 1855 
 1853 
 1857 
 JSS3 
 
 I-SS 
 
 Is6< 
 1851 
 1853 
 1858 
 1824 
 1 850 
 1865 
 183? 
 1862 
 1853 
 186. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 Office. 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Gross 
 As.<tfts, 
 7<i. i, 
 1871. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 Mercantile 
 Merchants 
 Metropolitan....* 
 
 166 Broadway.. 
 i^O Broadway.. 
 loS Broadway.. 
 1 68 Broadway.. 
 05 Wall St 
 Si Wall St.... 
 173 Broadway. . 
 124 B'y *S Pine 
 Union Springs. 
 SS Wall St.... 
 73 Wall St.... 
 11 Wall St.... 
 192 Broadway.. 
 
 300.000 
 200.000 
 
 300,000 
 150.000 
 
 200.000 
 2OO.OOO 
 300,000 
 300.000 
 1OO.OOO 
 210,000 
 200,000 
 1,000.000 
 500,000 
 350,000 
 200.000 
 2OO.OOO 
 150.000 
 150,000 
 1,000.000 
 200.000 
 300.000 
 2OO.OOO 
 200,000 
 1,000.000 
 2OO.OOO 
 200.000 
 200.000 
 2OO.OOO 
 150,000 
 150.000 
 250,000 
 400,000 
 1OO.OOO 
 200.000 
 300.000 
 250.000 
 500,000 
 
 373.309 
 442.690 
 
 39i434 
 
 254.40* 
 39i,|iS 
 283.671 
 433.638 
 562.835 
 201.864 
 429,063 
 303,278 
 ".304.567 
 770,305 
 467,436 
 443-557 
 303.493 
 231.670 
 
 295-7*4 
 i,Sqo.oio 
 310.908 
 683.478 
 252-452 
 343.o4 
 1,880.333 
 372,707 
 300.441 
 247.027 
 303.649 
 222,572 
 425.181 
 437.259 
 774.1" 
 i7'.754 
 4^5.314 
 582,547 
 539-692 
 808,933 
 
 1 12.000 
 10,000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 37-500 
 570.000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 15,000 
 333- '40 
 720.000* 
 Nothing. 
 12.500 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 350.000 
 40,000 
 208,140 
 109.927 
 Nothing. 
 1.500,000* 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 7-500 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 25.000 
 Nothing. 
 900,000* 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing'. 
 , 750,000* 
 60,000 
 700,000* 
 
 
 
 New Amsterdam 
 
 
 New York Equitable.... 
 New York Fire 
 Niagara 
 North American 
 
 Pacific 
 Park 
 Peoples 
 
 470 Broadway.. 
 237 Broadway. . 
 175 Broadway.. 
 9th St. ft td Ave 
 
 
 ^Relief. 
 Republic 
 Resolute 
 
 149 Broadway.. 
 153 Broadway.. 
 151 Broadway.. 
 iSo Chatham St 
 119 Broadway.. 
 117 Broadway.. 
 161 Broadway. . 
 155 Broadway.. 
 200 Broadway.. 
 166 Broadway.. 
 168 Broadway.. 
 106 Broadway.. 
 172 Broadway.. 
 \Vatertown 
 NewRochelle.. 
 Hull ilo 
 165 Broadway. . 
 176 Broadway.. 
 
 Security 
 Standard 
 Star 
 Sterling 
 Stuyvesani 
 St. "Nicholas 
 
 United States 
 Washington 
 \Vatr rti iv. 11 
 \Vestchester 
 Western, of Buffalo 
 Williamsburgh Citv 
 Yonkers and New Vork. 
 
 MISSOURI COMPANIES. 
 
 1853 American Central 
 
 St. Louis 
 K 
 
 $231.370 
 105.225 
 106,530 
 '9-3'9 
 '75.000 
 40.660 
 73.0S7 
 100,900 
 55-500 
 125,000 
 63.850 
 
 101.373 
 51.884 
 160,000 
 150,000 
 60.636 
 111,201 
 134,050 
 2J.OOO 
 
 ioSo<;o 
 64.000 
 240.000 
 109.820 
 100,000 
 170,000 
 
 
 
 (i 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 St. Joseph 
 St. Louis 
 Lexington 
 
 1865 Jefferson 
 1869 Lafayette 
 
 1851 Lumbermen & Mechanics 
 
 
 1866 Merchants' 
 186;') National 
 1867 North Missouri 
 
 St. Joseph 
 I laiinili.il 
 
 Macon 
 
 
 
 1868] St. Joseph 
 i837|St. Louis 
 1865 State 
 1837 Union 
 ifes United States... 
 
 St. Joseph 
 St. 'Louis 
 Hannibal 
 St. Louis 
 
 t Stockholders assessed to pay these losses. 
 
 $254,875 
 
 27'''-575t 
 
 'S38 
 
 25.000 
 
 27.500 
 
 21,808 
 
 17.500 
 
 271.373 
 
 35000 
 
 43*90 
 
 25.000 
 
 19.815 
 
 15.000 
 
 109.701 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 70.673 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 '50-793 
 66,061 
 
 75,000* 
 5.000 
 
 121.842 
 
 15.000 
 
 56.489 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 200,400 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 210.925 
 
 10.000 
 
 79&I 
 
 10.000 
 
 '47,738 
 
 10,000 
 
 154,166 
 
 21.500 
 
 36-835 
 
 10,000 
 
 136,654 
 
 10.000 
 
 105,729 
 
 15.000 
 
 307-343 
 
 20,000 
 
 162.009 
 
 21,500 
 
 "07,575 
 
 Nothiirr. 
 
 S4,279 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 * Suspended. 
 
 O M 
 
 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 > 3 
 
 OS ^ 
 CO 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 - p 
 
 ( ' ~ 
 
 P 3' 
 
 
 O 
 O 
 
 
 00
 
 The Insurance Companies 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS COMPANIES. 
 
 Organiied. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Office. 
 
 Cafh 
 Capital. 
 
 Gross 
 Assets, 
 Jan. i, 
 1871. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 1818 
 1860 
 J8S3 
 1824 
 1825 
 1850 
 1851 
 1845 
 1870 
 1831 
 
 1823 
 1870 
 
 1870 
 1822 
 1823 
 1817 
 1869 
 1832 
 1831 
 '839 
 1851 
 
 1856 
 1857 
 i855 
 1851 
 1859 
 
 1824 
 1868 
 
 1865 
 
 1831 
 1852 
 1864 
 i860 
 1868 
 1851 
 1859 
 '799 
 
 
 
 $300,000 
 104,800 
 30,000 
 300,000 
 300,000 
 200.000 
 300,000 
 50.000 
 100,000 
 300,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 300,000 
 100,000 
 300,000 
 200,000 
 300,000 
 250,000 
 400,000 
 300,000 
 500,000 
 200,000 
 300.000 
 300,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 200,000 
 400,000 
 
 200,000 
 100,000 
 2OO.OOO 
 
 500,000 
 150,000 
 100,000 
 200,000 
 300,000 
 
 :KY. 
 
 $150,000 
 
 100,000 
 IOO.OOO 
 
 300,000 
 500,000 
 
 200,000 
 100,000 
 
 100,000 
 IOO.OOO 
 
 100,000 
 250,000 
 
 5LAND. 
 $200,000 
 
 200,030 
 
 50.000 
 
 200,000 
 
 150,000 
 
 20O.OOO 
 
 500,000 
 
 2OO.OOO 
 20O.ODO 
 
 $844,481 
 196.275 
 
 41.831 
 678,740 
 
 933,256 
 399,427 
 
 672,212 
 
 42,129 
 
 1 1 1 ,092 
 'j57'356 
 
 541,908 
 118,751 
 419.211 
 358,642 
 
 646,048 
 262,502 
 1,480.464 
 
 594,299 
 958.559 
 254.092 
 821,840 
 
 852,195 
 1,080,073 
 601,747 
 
 887,756 
 
 452,660 
 197,940 
 
 549,806 
 
 9-50,101 
 
 283,288 
 192,401 
 294-543 
 985,975 
 
 $163,543 
 115,000 
 
 110,000 
 300,000 
 
 500.000 
 250.000 
 
 100,000 
 
 211.000 
 100,000 
 
 125,000 
 250,000 
 
 $374.969 
 326,614 
 72,150 
 272.169 
 311,673 
 372,199 
 792,947 
 415.149 
 
 278.0'XJ 
 
 Nothing'. 
 5,000 
 Nothing 
 Nothing. 
 13.000 
 15,000 
 12,500 
 Nothing. 
 , Nothing. 
 35,000 
 2,500 
 50,000 
 Nothing 
 720,000* 
 27.500 
 1,100,000* 
 10,000 
 120,000 
 Nothing. 
 10,000 
 Nothing. 
 400,000! 
 60,000 
 i ,000,000* 
 
 10,000 
 
 335,000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 25,000 
 45o.ooof 
 23,000 
 Nothing. 
 70,000 
 25,000 
 
 6,Soo 
 
 Bay State 
 Beverly 
 
 Worcester 
 Beverly 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 Eliot 
 
 K 
 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 II 
 
 Mutual Benefit 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 I 
 
 New England Mutual M. 
 
 ( 
 
 1 
 
 Peoples 
 
 
 
 
 
 Shoeand Leather Dealers 
 Springfield 
 Suffolk 
 
 Boston 
 Springfield 
 
 Traders and Mechanics.. 
 
 Lowell 
 
 
 
 KENTU( 
 Aurora Covington 
 
 Franklin 
 
 German Bk. & Ins. Co.U 
 German Ins. & Banking 
 Co.1T 
 
 Louisville 
 
 
 
 (4 
 
 
 German Security Bank 
 & Ins. Coir 
 
 M 
 
 
 Kenton 
 
 Louisville Ins. & Bank- 
 ing Co. IT 
 
 Covington .... 
 Louisville 
 
 " .'.'.'.'.'. 
 RHODE I 
 Providence . . . , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 West'n Ins.& B'k'gCo.U 
 American 
 
 
 600,000* 
 
 325.000* 
 7.500 
 Nothing. 
 325,000* 
 15,000 
 25.000 
 550.000* 
 
 22C.OOO* 
 
 City 
 
 
 
 
 
 Providence Washington. 
 
 II Doing principally a banking business. 
 
 t Voted to continue business with capital intact. 
 
 Suspended.
 
 And the Chicago Fire. 
 
 39 
 
 OHIO COMPANIES. 
 
 \ 
 i 
 
 o 
 
 Warn/. 
 
 Office. 
 
 Cask 
 Capital. 
 
 Gross 
 Asset f, 
 7a*. i, 
 1871. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 1870 
 1850 
 1870 
 1866 
 
 !pj 
 
 i& 
 
 lS;s 
 Ip 
 
 1851 
 1867 
 1850 
 1 866 
 1865 
 
 1868 
 
 iStf 
 '859 
 
 *7 
 
 :* M 
 
 1859 
 
 iSf>; 
 iSri s 
 
 IS'-.' 
 186 S 
 '854 
 IS7I 
 
 !*''- 
 1838 
 
 8.i7 
 1863 
 1854 
 1851 
 1866 
 2865 
 1863 
 1865 
 1865 
 1865 
 1865 
 1865 
 1836 
 '859 
 
 l!Si 
 
 Alemannia 
 American 
 
 Cleveland 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Hamilton 
 
 9250,000 
 
 100.000 
 1 ,000,000 
 
 60,000 
 14,000 
 60,000 
 
 40,000 
 
 30,833 
 
 150,000 
 5.5oo 
 4 '4.400 
 100,000 
 210,210 
 23,800 
 100,000 
 37,35o 
 93-4o 
 36,435 
 23-360 
 
 100,000 
 
 32.000 
 100,000 
 100,000 
 100,000 
 100,000 
 70,000 
 200.000 
 22,500 
 100,000 
 45,000 
 100.000 
 
 17,500 
 
 2OO.OOO 
 
 500,000 
 60,000 
 43-.',93 
 150,000 
 100,000 
 26,100 
 90,000 
 100,000 
 40,000 
 35,383 
 50.760 
 20,000 
 200.000 
 200.000 
 25,000 
 1 00,000 
 75,000 
 100,000 
 129,100 
 
 100,000 
 
 * 385.555 
 135,5'3 
 1,203.425 
 
 75,369 
 22,322 
 78.000 
 55-541 
 29,896 
 109,2*3 
 67,690 
 530,208 
 158.987 
 349,624 
 33,537 
 128.604 
 46.667 
 $02.922 
 67,607 
 
 34,143 
 
 131,626 
 SS-770 
 '33,366 
 25,6oo 
 126,893 
 
 i$ 
 
 181,260 
 28,347 
 127,858 
 54,500 
 
 178,143 
 41,620 
 225,000 
 637,947 
 76.335 
 60,632 
 266,780 
 141,004 
 
 5M33 
 90,249 
 120.514 
 49,092 
 54-Sig 
 
 7' oa i 
 4 S-93S 
 
 301,340 
 337,016 
 46.573 
 108.343 
 105.837 
 30-845 
 MS,747 
 1/8.550 
 
 508.100 
 12,500 
 S5o,ooof 
 3,500 
 
 
 Butler 
 Capital City 
 
 
 
 
 
 Central 
 
 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Cleveland 
 Cincinnati 
 Cleveland 
 
 50.000 
 18,000 
 700,000* 
 13,000 
 400,000* 
 
 Cleveland 
 Commercial 
 Commercial Mutual 
 
 Eagle 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 Nothing. 
 2.500 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 10,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Telloway 
 Dayton 
 Hamilton 
 Cincinnati 
 Dayton 
 Cincinnati . ... 
 Columbus 
 
 Farmers 
 Farmers and Merchants. . 
 Farmers, Mer. & Mfctrs. . 
 Firemens 
 Kiremens 
 
 
 
 29,500 
 
 65,000 
 
 Franklin 
 
 700,000* 
 
 
 
 !i nn .1 n i .1 
 
 Cincinnati 
 Toledo ... 
 
 3.500 
 7.000 
 40,000 
 
 jlobe Cincinnati 
 
 rlibernia Cleveland 
 
 360,000* 
 300,000! 
 
 Home Tolrrlo 
 
 efferson 
 
 Merchants and Manufrs.. 
 
 Steubcnville.... 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Dayton 
 Toledo 
 Cincinnati 
 Chillicothe 
 Dayton 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Cleveland 
 
 Dayton 
 Cincinnati 
 Toledo 
 
 
 14,500 
 15.000 
 
 Miami Valley 
 Mutual 
 National 
 Ohio 
 Ohio 
 Ohio Valley 
 
 3,000 
 3,000 
 
 
 32.000 
 
 3,488 
 >7S-ooo 
 1,000.000* 
 
 Sun 
 
 Teutonia 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 
 Union 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 37,500 
 
 21,000 
 
 31,000 
 
 
 CALIFORNIA COMPANIES. 
 
 
 San Francisco. . 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 II 
 
 MICHIG 
 Detroit 
 
 $ 300,000 
 500.000 
 003,600 
 300,000 
 
 I ,<kC>.'KlO 
 300,000 
 750,000 
 
 AN. 
 
 $150.000 
 150.000 
 
 100,000 
 
 $ 406.824 
 799,627 
 657.343 
 474.095 
 1.777,267 
 
 500.000 
 M'S,574 
 
 $73,o63 
 
 206.12) 
 
 'SM77 
 
 Nothing. 
 3oo.oooJ 
 Nothing. 
 300,000$ 
 1 ,900,000* 
 400,000 
 Soo,ooot 
 
 175.000$ 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 
 
 
 
 1863 Pacific M 
 
 
 
 iS66;Detroit Fire & Marine.. 
 1864! Michigan State ........ 
 
 1867 State 
 
 Lansing 
 
 t Stockholders assessed for $500,000. 
 
 { Stockholders assessed for $120,000.
 
 The Insurance Companies 
 
 ILLINOIS. 
 
 Organised. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Office, 
 
 Cash 
 Capital. 
 
 Gross 
 Assets, 
 Jan. i, 
 1871. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 1859 
 1865 
 1861 
 
 1855 
 1865 
 1863 
 
 1857 
 
 sss 
 1866 
 
 1859 
 
 1866 
 1870 
 1868 
 1837 
 1870 
 1863 
 1864 
 1865 
 1867 
 1868 
 
 
 
 $150.000 
 100,000 
 101,800 
 200,000 
 iSo.ooo 
 100,000 
 100,000 
 150.000 
 101,000 
 132,900 
 200.000 
 322.831 
 
 200,000 
 113,000 
 l6o,OOO 
 500,000 
 118,325 
 998,200 
 IOO,OOO 
 425,000 
 
 $ 548,875 
 220,471 
 131,566 
 372-544 
 266.535 
 120.191 
 191,303 
 181,489 
 119,824 
 
 158,051 
 257,821 
 
 2741125 
 245,338 
 350,016 
 170.129 
 878,252 
 
 145,584 
 1,132,812 
 23S-442 
 460,000 
 
 1,000 
 300.000 
 
 3,000,000* 
 3,000,000* 
 3,000,000* 
 3,000 ooo* 
 
 Chicago Fire 
 
 Chicago 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 Freeport 
 
 
 
 2,000,000* 
 
 German 
 
 German Ins. & Sav's Co. 
 Germania 
 
 Freeport 
 
 
 Chicago 
 
 1,500,000* 
 
 2 27 .OOOf 
 
 2,000,000* 
 
 1,100,000* 
 
 750.000* 
 6,000.000* 
 1,800,000* 
 3,500,000* 
 
 
 i< 
 
 Illinois Mutual 
 Knickerbocker 
 
 Alton 
 Chicago 
 
 
 <t 
 
 
 a 
 
 Rockford 
 State 
 
 Rockford 
 Chicago 
 
 3,000,000* 
 
 MARYLAND COMPANIES. 
 
 iSsSlAmerican 
 
 1847 Associated Firemens 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 i 
 c 
 
 $125,000 
 203,500 
 200,000 
 378,000 
 
 IOO.OOO 
 
 150,000 
 
 IOO.OOO 
 2OO.OOO 
 
 200,000 
 
 131.500 
 
 250.000 
 200,000 
 100,000 
 125,000 
 
 IOO.OOO 
 
 75-651 
 
 100,000 
 100,000 
 
 $147,605 
 281,882 
 466.882 
 529,292 
 63.034 
 
 251,000 
 
 125.555 
 259,360 
 251.157 
 235.211 
 324.208 
 286,405 
 224,000 
 
 100.388 
 113-094 
 97.209 
 164.986 
 121,804 
 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 12.000 
 Nothing. 
 290.000* 
 Nothing. 
 33-165 
 10,000 
 17,000 
 
 IO.OOO 
 
 25,000 
 
 
 
 ;' :::::: 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 
 1864 Merchants and Mechanics 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iS6c Washington.... 
 
 CONNECTICUT. 
 
 1819 
 
 ,856 
 1847 
 1850 
 1870 
 
 1810 
 
 1857 
 
 :g 
 ;& 
 
 ^Etna 
 City 
 
 Hartford 
 
 Charter Oak 
 
 
 
 Norwalk 
 Hartford 
 
 i> 
 
 
 Fairfield County 
 Hartford 
 
 
 Norwich 
 Phoenix 
 
 Norwich 
 Hartford 
 
 $3,000,000 
 
 $5,782.635 
 
 $3,000,000 
 
 250.000 
 
 554,287 
 
 650,000* 
 
 150,000 
 
 251.951 
 
 400.000* 
 
 200,000 
 
 405.060 
 
 600.000* 
 
 200.000 
 
 216,358 
 
 25.000 
 
 I, COO COO 
 
 2,737-5" 9 
 
 1,500.000 
 
 20O.OOO 
 
 540.096 
 
 1.000.000* 
 
 300.000 
 
 456,50* 
 
 800.000* 
 
 300.000 
 
 381.736 
 
 350.000* 
 
 600.000 
 
 1,717.947 
 
 Soo.ooo 
 
 500,000 
 
 785,783 
 
 1,350,000* 
 
 MAINE. 
 
 1869! Eastern .. 
 1870! National.. 
 18621 Union .... 
 
 Bangor . . . 
 
 $150.000 
 200.000 
 200,000 
 
 t Stockholders assessed for $237,600. 
 
 $237,648 
 241.308 
 421,205 
 
 7.500 
 
 17.500 
 
 5.000 
 
 * Suspended.
 
 Anil the Chicago Fire. 
 
 >YLVAMA. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1857 
 
 1870 
 1810 
 
 i Sao 
 1832 
 
 1829 
 
 i8S3 
 
 1794 
 '794 
 
 1868 
 1840 
 
 1835 
 
 1841 
 .835 
 
 .804 
 
 Name. 
 
 Offict. 
 
 Cash 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Gross 
 Assfts. 
 
 y<7. i, 
 
 1871. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 Allegheny ... 
 
 Pittsburg 
 
 Philadelphia.... 
 Frie 
 
 50.000 
 50,000 
 
 350.000 
 400.000 
 64,000 
 3,ooo 
 125.000 
 
 100.000 
 
 100,000 
 
 
 
 3.500 
 i5-5oo 
 
 Anthracite 
 
 344.007 
 
 a6S.524 
 1,047,612 
 
 185,000 
 Notliing. 
 
 A merican 
 Artiziins 
 Ben. Franklin 
 Hoatmens 
 C:ish 
 
 Philadelphia... 
 l'itt>-l>urg 
 Allegheny .... 
 Pilt.-lmrg 
 
 
 18,000 
 
 
 
 
 17.500 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 325,000* 
 
 
 350.000 
 1,821,162 
 611,654 
 
 Delaware Mutual Safety. 
 
 Philadelphia. .. 
 Pittsburg .... 
 
 360.000 
 
 200.000 
 
 
 
 Philndelphia ... 
 Allegheny .... 
 Philadelphia... 
 
 175.000 
 
 2OO.OOO 
 20.00O 
 500,000 
 
 221,645 
 i>705.3'9 
 
 18.000 
 35,000 
 7.500 
 
 Fame 
 Federal 
 Fire Association 
 Fire Ins. Co. oftheC'ntry 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Erie 
 
 400.000 
 200,000 
 50,000 
 
 3,087,453 
 216,482 
 
 500.000 
 Nothing. 
 
 
 German 
 
 Pittsburg 
 
 
 Germantown Mutual.... 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 11 
 
 aOO.OOO 
 
 500.000 
 3OO,OOO 
 
 403,062 
 
 3,050.536 
 542,908 
 
 13,000 
 
 
 Ins. Co. of N. America. 
 Ins. Co. State of Penn . . . 
 
 500,000 
 25,000 
 
 Keystone 
 Lancaster 
 
 Heading 
 Lancaster 
 
 300.OOO 
 
 Mutual. 
 135,000 
 
 185,092 
 3 5 -349 
 
 
 34,000 
 500.000 
 6,000 
 
 Manufac'rs & Merchants 
 Manufacturers Mutual.. 
 
 Pittsburg .... 
 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 140,000 
 
 
 1 2. COO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 National 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Allegheny .... 
 Philadelphia... 
 Pittsburg 
 
 50,000 
 400.000 
 115.800 
 
 200,000 
 76.OOO 
 IOO,OOO 
 
 I5O.OOO 
 300,000 
 
 1,094,004 
 128,852 
 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pittsburg 
 
 Philadelphia. .. 
 Heading 
 Philadelphia... 
 
 177.503 
 . 422.362 
 
 705-3S9 
 
 10,000 
 Nothing. 
 
 Phila. Contributionship. 
 Rending Fire 
 Reliance 
 
 
 Teuton ia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Western 
 
 \Villi;imsport Fire 
 \Vvom inir... 
 
 Pittsburg 
 Williamspnrt . . 
 \Vilkesbarrc.... 
 
 08,000 
 100,000 
 
 
 5.000 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 1 10,500 
 
 FOREIGN COMPANIES. 
 
 This list of the foreign companies doing business in the United States gives the whole 
 assets of the companies. All of them except the Imperial do a life insurance businc**, 
 and the largest portion of their assets is credited to that department. 
 
 1861 Commercial Union 
 
 1803! Imperial 
 
 1836 Liv'rp'l & Lon. and Globe 
 1823 \. British & Mercantile.. 
 
 1857 Queen 
 
 1845 Royal 
 
 f Exclusive of premium note assets assessed 
 
 $1,350.000 
 3.500,000 
 1458,760 
 1,350,000 
 955,S6o 
 '.444,475 
 
 $4,000.000 - 
 
 30,136.420 
 
 2,347-495 
 9,274-776 
 
 zj per cent. 
 
 65,000 
 
 150.000 
 
 3,500.000 
 
 2.i OO.OOO 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 98,000 
 
 * Suspended.
 
 The Insurance Companies 
 
 LOUISIANA COMPANIES. 
 
 5 
 _ 
 
 1866 
 1849 
 1866 
 1871 
 1866 
 1866 
 1871 
 1871 
 1851 
 
 857 
 1871 
 
 1854 
 1854 
 1869 
 1859 
 1870 
 1871 
 1871 
 '855 
 1871 
 ISC7 
 
 Name. 
 
 Office. 
 
 Cask 
 Capital. 
 
 Gross 
 
 Assets, 
 Jan. i, 
 1871. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 Atlantic 
 
 New Orleans... 
 
 
 $232,109 
 908,662 
 
 39M34 
 300,000 
 1,040,576 
 370,46i 
 
 780,827 
 320,762 
 
 SI'MSS 
 1,002,134 
 
 566,405 
 802,742 
 
 433,779 
 
 $10,000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 10,000 
 10,000 
 5.000 
 Nothing. 
 
 JO,COO 
 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 10,000 
 
 10.000 
 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 10,000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 10,000 
 Nothing-. 
 
 
 Delta 
 
 
 
 Factors and Traders. . . . 
 
 Great Western 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mechanics and Traders. 
 
 New Orleans Ins. Ass'n. 
 
 Salamander 
 
 Sun 
 
 
 
 774.061 
 2S6,vx) 
 
 
 Union... 
 
 NEW JERSEY COMPANIES. 
 
 1871 
 1842 
 
 1857 
 1858 
 
 1858 
 
 1866 
 1870 
 1869 
 
 1868 
 1866 
 1866 
 1866 
 1867 
 
 J868 
 1869 
 
 '3S4 
 1870 
 
 
 Newark 
 
 200,000 
 170,401 
 200,000 
 
 150,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 Q59:SSS 
 5i7,i74 
 
 250,000 
 
 227-583 
 400,000 
 
 6,000 
 15,000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 3,000 
 Nothing. 
 Nothing. 
 5,000 
 5,000 
 2,500 
 Nothing. 
 
 $3,000 
 8,333 
 5.000 
 3', 834 
 
 Vi',833 
 5, 
 
 5,000 
 
 
 First National 
 
 Jersey City 
 
 Newark 
 Jersey City 
 Newark 
 
 Humboldt 
 Jersey City 
 Merchants Mutual 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 State 
 WE 
 JEtna. 
 
 Jersey City 
 ST VIRGINIA 
 
 Wheeling 
 ; 
 
 175,000 
 
 COM PA 
 
 $100,000 
 
 100.000 
 
 100,000 
 150,000 
 100,000 
 
 2OO.OOO 
 
 125,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 165,000 
 )MPANII 
 
 N'lES. 
 
 :s. 
 
 $200,000 
 50,000 
 250,0x1 
 122,400 
 
 210,000 
 
 250,000 
 150,000 
 200,000 
 
 | $183,681 
 1 191,202 
 
 $344,164 
 $280,593 
 $:34.586 
 
 
 
 < 
 < 
 Parkersburg. .. 
 Wheeling 
 ALABAMA CC 
 Mobile 
 
 
 
 
 State 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 Citizens Mutual 
 Factors and Traders. . . . 
 Gulf City 
 
 
 (C 
 
 $100,000 
 80,000 
 
 
 Mobile Fire Department. 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 Planters and Merchants. 
 
 (1 
 
 250,000 
 150,000 
 200,000 
 fSlN. 
 $164,175 
 150,000 
 OMPAN\ 
 $200,000 
 OTA. 
 $120,000 
 PSHIRE. 
 $100,000 
 
 
 (j 
 
 
 
 U 
 
 
 Brewers' Protective .... 
 Northwestern National. . 
 
 WISCO1 
 
 Milwaukee 
 
 GEORGIA C 
 Columbus 
 MINNES 
 St Paul 
 
 2OO,OOO 
 
 90,000 
 
 St. Paul Fire and Marine 
 
 New Hampshire Fire.... 
 t Stockholders assessed to 
 
 ioo,ooot 
 
 Nothing. 
 * Suspended. 
 
 NEW HAM 
 Manchester .... 
 repair deficient
 
 And the Chicago Fire 
 
 43 
 
 SUMMARY : 
 
 THE FOLLOWING TABLE SHOWS THE AGGREGATE Loss OF THE COM- 
 PANIES BY STATES, THE NUMBER OF COMPANIES IN EACH STATE, 
 THE NUMBER SUSPENDED AND ASSESSED, AND THE NUMBER TIIVl 
 WERE NOT AFFECTED BY THE FlRE : 
 
 Slate. 
 
 v| 
 
 i 
 
 Afgrtfatt 
 Capital. 
 
 Total Gross 
 Assets. 
 
 Total 
 Losses. 
 
 No. 
 Suspended. 
 
 No. 
 Assessed. 
 
 i 1 
 
 New York... 
 
 
 JUo.ifii.au 
 
 *c.67c ico 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ohio 
 
 
 ; 300.90 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 < OS \ N < 
 
 ]S VS, > -',- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cc 
 
 6.225.800 
 
 17,106,180 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2C 
 
 J '- ; ; : 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 4. t> ; ' '^'> 
 
 6,461,268 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iS 
 
 - "s-.'-^i 
 
 4.1 l*,O7J 
 
 ; ~ i"; 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 6 700 ooo 
 
 I t.Sao.S&i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 224. C4t 
 
 6,Soo 
 
 
 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 
 3116810 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 7s I 600 
 
 5,7^0,630 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 i . ' 
 
 (> i I'll 
 
 i - r i . *> 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 c;o OOO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 114.17? 
 
 :- i Sv . 
 
 39O,OOO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .' N -> ;o ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 New Hampshire 
 Georgia 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 IOO,OOO 
 
 J34tSS6 
 344,164 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 Alabama 
 
 8 
 
 780,000 
 
 1,432,400 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 
 1,140,000 
 
 
 7O,OOO 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 21 
 
 
 8,6aa 1 $o6 
 
 8>.ooo 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 12 
 
 I,J95,OOO 
 
 3,661,835 
 
 46,500 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total of U. States.... 
 
 47 
 6 
 
 *79-59S<3 
 io.4Co.oo; 
 
 $153,863 ,01 a 
 
 $87,069,849 
 
 c Sn.ooo 
 
 '* 
 
 " 
 
 '3* 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tlr.nicl Totnl 
 
 43 
 
 $T>.o 5 ,.|," 
 
 
 $92,882.849 
 
 & 
 
 a$ 
 
 1.55 
 
 THE HARTFORD COMPANIES. 
 [From The Hartford Courant.] 
 
 The aggregate capital of the Hartford fire insurance companies is 
 $6,100,000. Its market value last week w.is $12,894,000. The total a-- 
 sets last New Year's clay were $13,287.865, and when the Chicago fire 
 broke out the total was doubtless at least fourteen million. The total 
 income in 1870 was $9,237,821. The market value indicated the confi- 
 dent expectation of stockholders and the market that not less than ten 
 per cent on that market value, or over a million and a quarter annually, 
 might be expected in dividends. 
 
 Several millions are going directly from Hartford to Chicago. The 
 depreciation in the present market values of the stocks will doubtless be 
 many millions. It is a terrible loss, but there is lite-vise a grand oppor- 
 tunity, the best of forty years past or of a generation to come, to put our
 
 44 The Insurance Companies 
 
 insurance business upon a greatly honorable and a greatly profitable 
 basis. 
 
 Let us take the oldest company, the Hartford, for illustration. It will 
 meet all its obligations without impairing its capital, and doubtless 
 with a large share of its surplus left. But suppose it has lost not alone 
 its surplus of nearly two millions, but its capital of a million also. 
 There could be no better investment for its stockholders than to con- 
 sider themselves organizing anew, and to take from their pockets 
 another million for new capital, in order to keep the old name going. 
 And the}' could afford to pay a million for the franchise at that. The 
 same can be said of any Hartford company with an established repu- 
 tation and a good set of officers. 
 
 This is the era of new departures and there is clearly to be a new de- 
 parture in the business of insurance. There will be certain great advan- 
 tages over the past. 
 
 1. There will be less competition on the part of inferior complies 
 pursuing a weak and narrow minded policy of very low rates. Many 
 such companies, especially in the west, have ended their course. 
 
 2. Rates will necessarily advance, and with the cheerful consent o 
 the insured. Hereafter people will willingly pay companies that pass 
 this ordeal not only for the pleasure of holding a policy, but something 
 for the solid assurance of being really protected. Short-sighted men 
 will grumble less at "bloated monopolies" after having felt the value of 
 a great surplus rolled up for a day of need. 
 
 3. Chicago, and other cities as well, have learned an awful lesson, 
 and there will be greater care in rebuilding, aided by stricter local legis- 
 lation and more watchful supervision. The hazard will be reduced. 
 
 4. Much of the nonsensical and wicked jealousy of "foreign compa- 
 nies," as those of sister states are called, will pass away, and with it will 
 go the hostile legislation so directly at war with sound economical prin- 
 ciples and the true spirit of unity.
 
 And the Chicago Pi re. 
 
 
 THE 
 
 
 DO YOU TAKE IT? 
 
 DO YOU READ IT? 
 
 
 
 
 
 FOREMOST INSURANCE JOURNAL 
 
 
 AN AMERICAN REVIEW OF INSURANCE. 
 
 Published Monthly in New York and Chicago. 
 
 The Largest, 
 
 The Most Influential, 
 
 The Most Interesting, 
 
 The Best. 
 
 ABL T EDITED, HANDSOMEL T PRINTED, AND 
 INDEPENDENT. 
 
 az 
 
 o 
 p 
 
 CO 
 
 
 Success O/THE SPECTATOR 
 has been unexampled in the his- 
 tory of journalism. The first num- 
 ber "i'tts issued in January, 1868, 
 and consisted of 6 pages. Its 
 present si:e is 100 faffcs, and its 
 circulation is larger than that of 
 all other insurance periodicals. 
 
 CO 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 -3 30 
 
 I > 
 
 5" 32 
 2Z 
 G 
 
 No AGENT CAN AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT THE SPECTATOR.
 
 AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE COMPANY, 
 
 OF WATERTOWN. N. Y. 
 
 V? '.M-J. 
 
 // Ji'J not lose out dollar in Ikt Chicago Firt\ It never lost uver $4,000 I'M any one Fire. 
 
 ADVANTAGES THAT IT OFFERS. 
 
 It iv confined hy its charter to insure nothing; inun- h.i/ardnus than residences and 
 farm property 
 
 It pays all loss ca . li^htnini; wlu-thfr tin- rnsurs or not . 
 
 It affords a Rrtr.r 
 dwellings from 10 t !nwi-r th.ui companies il 
 
 Id, :ind other lia/arilons 
 
 property, ami i I)wrllinj;s. it is not -uhji-ct to 
 
 -si-s. and a: 1 lO tlio-i- it 
 
 Its dividend* an :^ iinr-tini'iits. All pn-iniuin* 
 
 are restT\c>l in prut. .niulatod at .1 
 
 |>5O,OOO a vr. u. anil will l>r hrld from \ us making thr Coinpanv urmv sironj; 
 
 *s it grows old. 
 
 urt-pini; tires, because its risks are a 
 
 It has no losses due unp 
 
 The officers are all practical insurance m >ver 16 years' experience in thr 
 
 business. 
 
 ORGANIZED 1853. 
 
 I'l \ t M I I I s/ I / / >/ / N / / / /// 
 
 Agricultural Insurance Company, Watertown, N, Y, 
 
 
 First Lien Mort(ra>;eK on Real Estate $.17 
 
 .. o .. 
 
 U. S. J-JO RcKi-ti-rrd Honds 102,850.00 
 
 Canada Dominion Boodi i 
 
 I. o.i us on < . 80,^90.49 
 
 ............. ............. lS.OOO.OO 
 
 I iirniture, Ac ..................... . ..i.OOO.On 
 
 Casli in Hank anil Vault .............. ...................... 
 
 Uncnllecti'd I'rfiiiiuins. secured by A^. .......... .jj. 118.09 
 
 N- 71 ....................... --,.1111,11 
 
 Unuary ist. . . .$545,508.57 
 
 Increase in . Nun- Montiis . .... 89,683.55 
 
 The following table tkotvf tlir frotfrnt of the Company tintt 1865 : 
 
 1866, January i-t. t: 
 iS/^;. ' 
 
 .V.s. 
 IS/M, 
 1870, 
 
 1871, Nine Months. ' ' , 
 
 The Company kat paid in losses *inc,- its Organiiation . 
 
 if Hi 
 
 . Stcxl,
 
 For Dwelling Houses & Furniture. 
 NO LOSSES IN CHICAGO! 
 
 ATERTOWN FIRE INS. CO, 
 
 | OF WATERTOWN, NEW YORK. I 
 
 ^^^^"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^"""'"i 
 
 CASH CAPITAL, .... $200,000.00 
 CASH SURPLUS, Oct. 20, 1871, . 120,576.14 
 
 TOTAL CASH ASSETS, . . 320,576.14 
 
 Hon. Norris Winslow, Pres't. 
 
 Jesse M. Adams, Sec'y. 
 
 C. H. Waite, Gen'l Agent. 
 
 This Company is confined by its Charter to risks 
 not more hazardous than Dwelling' Houses. 
 
 AGENCIES SOLICITED 
 
 In places where the Company is not now represented, 
 
 in the States of NEW YORK, MICHIGAN, OHIO, 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS and RHODE ISLAND.