Maynard’s failed Exodus.  By the first years of 1870’s the chorus of voices complaining of Chicago’s wickedness was beginning to gain some volume. One of these voices was that of Jeremiah Maynard.  Depending on whom you listen to, Maynard was a man of unusual insight or a lunatic.  He talked frequently of the dark forces at work beneath the cities façade of normalcy and claimed to have evidence of a grand conspiracy against humankind.  He raved about the machinations of “godless cabalists”, “beasts that hide behind men’s faces” and other, darker creatures that hid in Chicago’s shadows.  Some listeners thought he was using colorful metaphors.  Others believed he was telling the literal truth-as he saw it, at least.  And some claim to have seen the horrors Maynard was talking about with their own eyes.  From 1866 to 1871, Maynard built a small following through a combination of revival preaching, anti-corruption activism and sheer charisma.  Amoung those who might be called his followers was a small handful of influential men, including General Phillip Sheridan, Maynard’s commander in the Union Army.

  In the spring of 1871, Jerimiah Maynard and a couple of trusted intimates left Chicago to secure a route westward to found a Zion of their very own, free from “infernal manipulation and the wickedness of weak men”.  His plan was to return to Chicago in the fall, to spend  the winter making an all out assault on the forces of darkness, proving their existence to one and all, and then to depart for New Zion the following spring.  It never happened.  Within a week of Maynard’s departure, members of his “flock” began to drop like flies.  Some died of disease, others from accidents and others still wound up as victims of the city’s burgeoning violent crime rate.  Those who survived this series of unfortunate events grew quiet about what they had learned about the world from Jerimiah maynard, and most disavowed their former “guide” entirely.  Unsurprisingly, all of Jerimiah Maynards alledged “evidence” of the dark conspiracy was destroyed by the great fire a few months after he left town.  Some claim this was itself part of the conspiracy.  Others call it an easy out for Maynard’s erstwhile followers.  Jeremiah Maynard himself dropped out of history about a month after he left Chicago.  It is assumed that he met his fate while looking for his new Zion, but there are no official records of his death.  {Jeremiah Maynard, he knew the names, habits, accomplices, vices and locations of half a dozen of Chicago’s more interesting residents including two vampires and a wayward occultist.  He had evidence which he had cached in four different locations around Chicago for safety, that he intended to show people when he returned from his westward journey.  All four places burned in the fire.}

The Fire.  October 8^th 1871, a strong northernly wind was blowing that carried the flames from a barn in the southern part of the city (around 8:30 pm).  Not the only place to experience fire that night, blazes seemed to erupt spontaneously at approximately the same time, all across Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois.  Thieves looting houses were shot and thrown in to the fires to be counted as casualties later, as well  any number of long-time grudges, lover’s quarrels and vicious business rivalries were settled the same way.  Blood spilled.  Bodies burned.  The chaos and death toll would have been much worse, except for the presence of General Phillip Sheridan, the Civil War hero and ranking military commander, who instituted martial law to return from the frenzy of madness and mayhem.