Most Smokey Row businesses had rented property in the downtown area of Lemont that was owned by early pioneer settlers. Many of these people were churchgoers, important and well respected in the community. Unhappy due to pressures put on them after the strip was raided in 1895, more and more owners refused to renew the rentals, and the demise of Smokey Row establishments followed. Within six months after the battle between Reverend Clancy and Mayor McCarthy only twenty-five saloons remained.