24 May rare ante-fire tract book rescued from great chicago fire of 1871 joins bld. 51 musuem and archive

rees, chase & co. was a prominent chicago land-title abstract firm whose early records became vital to preserving property ownership in cook county after the great chicago fire of 1871.

historical background. in 1855, james h. rees joined horace and samuel chase to form rees, chase & co. earlier, in 1847, rees had helped develop chicago’s first land-title abstract system with edward a. rucker. after rees stepped back from daily operations, the firm became chase brothers & co.

the ante-fire tract books and the great fire. when the great chicago fire swept through the city on october 8–9, 1871, it destroyed the cook county courthouse and the official deed, property, and land-registry records kept there. as the fire neared, three private abstract firms—chase brothers & co. (formerly rees, chase & co.), shortall & hoard, and jones & sellers—rescued their title indexes, maps, plats, and ante-fire tract books from their downtown offices. those tract books became the only surviving record of land transactions and property boundaries in cook county dating back to 1847. without them, property owners would have had no reliable way to prove ownership, and the city’s rebuilding would have been far more difficult.

legal legacy. because these tract books were the only remaining authoritative evidence of ownership, the illinois legislature passed the burnt records act of 1872. the law gave the salvaged abstract books legal standing in court and allowed property owners to petition to restore their titles.

the three firms later merged their ante-fire records, a step that led directly to the creation of the chicago title and trust company.

the ante-fire tract books survived even though the official public land records did not. preserved by three private abstract firms—chase brothers, shortall & hoard, and jones & sellers—these handwritten real-estate ledgers became the basis for restoring chicago property ownership under the burnt records act of 1872. they are now held by the chicago title and trust company, part of chicago title insurance company.

the “kent mills / improved / 1852” paper typically refers to historical documents, letters, or vintage stationery bearing that watermark. it is especially noted in historical and philatelic circles because it appears on 19th-century correspondence, including letters tied to maritime trade in china and hong kong. [1, 2]

the paper was made in england, where kent—especially maidstone and nearby papermaking districts—was a major center of british paper production in the 19th century. examples of these watermarked sheets often appear in auction records and archival manuscript collections.