[PRE-FIRE CHICAGO]. A group of 3 Pre-Fire Abstract Deed Books, 1830s-1860s. Folio (352 x 242 mm). Manuscripts, in a secretarial hand throughout, recording land transactions in Chicago and Cook County, occasionally accompanied by hand-drawn maps. Following the Chicago Fire of 1871, Ante Fire Tract Books, such as these, provided the only evidence of land ownership, as the Cook County Courthouse was destroyed in the conflagration. The Illinois State Legislature passed the Burnt Records Act in 1872, which allowed these records to be admissible in court as evidence of title and ownership.