On Oct. 8, 1871, the most famous fire in American history broke out in Chicago. Before it was over it had created $200 million in damages and cost the lives of 300 people. 90,000 were left homeless. The city was ripe for a fire due to a long drought. There had recently been 700 small fires. In a case of bad timing, a lumberyard caught fire on Oct. 7 and took 17 hours to put out. It left the firemen exhausted and not in the best shape when the big fire broke out 12 hours later. To make matters worse, the fire department was given the wrong address and the second fire engine to arrive did not have enough fuel to run its waterpump. The neighborhood was completely wooden and the fire quickly spread to Conley’s Patch which was a slum area. Early on a gasworks exploded plunging the city into darkness. The business district was supposedly “fireproof” with its brick and stone buildings, but the roofs were wooden. The fire jumped the river to reach the north side. There was widespread looting, including by escaped inmates from the courthouse jail. The fire needed air which created gale-force winds. When the waterworks went up, there went the water for fire hoses. The fire did not burn out until Oct. 10 when a drizzling rain finished it.
Newspapers needed someone to blame and they assigned the blame to Catherine O’Leary. Mrs. O’Leary and her husband owned the barn where an eyewitness saw flames sprouting. From that fact, the story was built. Supposedly, Catherine was milking a cow when it knocked over a lantern. Catherine denied involvment and pointed out that she never milked the cows at night. But she was now infamous. In 1997, the Chicago City Council exonerated Catherine. Historians and experts have tried to refute the myth. One theory is the fire was started by a partygoer at a party being held nearby. He went into the barn to “borrow” some milk and his lantern was knocked over. Another possibility was a neighbor who liked to smoke his pipe in the barn. Gamblers using the barn might have been the culprits. We’ll probably never know for sure, but when you teach about the fire mention Mrs. O’Leary but point out that she was not the actual cause.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/09/the-burning-of-the-world-the-great-chicago-fire-and-the-war-for-a-citys-soul-scott-w-berg-book-review
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