The Great Chicago Fire & the Myth of Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow

by Richard F. Bales

Presented by Arlyn Elizée

Innocent - yet still an Urban Legend

The Great Chicago Fire started on Sunday, October 8th, 1871 at 9 pm at the O’Leary’s Barn on DeKoven Street

- > 300 dead & > 100,000 homeless- Total Property Loss: $200 Million - Burned > 2,050 acres- Between 17,000 – 18,000 bldgs burned

The Fire and Contributing Factors - Part 1

Man-Made Hazards

- Chicago was growing too fast -

- from 200 to 334,000 people in < 40 years- from < 1 sq mile to 36 sq miles

(4th largest in US)- Rich built with brick & stone; poor with

lots of wood- Little to no regard for fire-resistance or

construction

- Local gov’t wasn’t fully supportive

- Wouldn’t pass mitigation laws re: woodas building materials & land

usage- Wouldn’t buy a floating steam engine

- Public wasn’t fully supportive

- Opposed any laws that would regulateuse of their property

- Firemen

- Some were potentially drunk

The Fire and Contributing Factors - Part 2

Weather

- That summer was extremely hot & dry (with only .11” of rain falling the previous 20 days) & very windy.

Other Fires

- During the 1st week in October, 28 different fires had already broken out.

- Most severe was on the night before, Oct 7th at 11pm at the Lull & Holmes Planning Mill on Chicago’s West Side.

Natural Hazards & Cascading Events

The Media & Public Goes Wild

- Imaginative drawing of The Horrors of Chicago

- Several journalist and supposed “witnesses” come out in droves and gave their accounts of what happened that night

- Rumors of looting & robbery were greatly exaggerated

- Price gouging was rampant

Ineffective InvestigationThe public wanted a culprit to blame.

Witnesses:- > 50 witnesses interviewed- Many gave inconsistent or fabricated accounts- Many were seeking their 15 minutes of fame (i.e. Andy Warhol effect)- Most likely the real culprit was among the top witnesses

Inquiry & Commissioners Report:- selective, ineffective, indifferent questioning & irrelevant information asked of the witnesses- perhaps to distract from the public relations problem the fire dept. had of being seen as generally “drunken and stupefied”. - Did nothing to quelch the devastating rumors of the poor Irish woman & her cow.

Journalist:- Several journalist (in haste to publish the cause first) later claimed to have simply heard from neighboring children that the cause of the fire was Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.- Never bothered to check their facts with investigators, and in fact, embellished their writings.

Mrs. O’Leary & Her Cow

View of Mrs. O’Leary & Her Cow:

- Anti-immigrant sentiment was high

- Easy to blame (seen as: careless, uneducated, vengeful, etc…)

- Even though fire cause was officially “undetermined” & even when she was fully exonerated;

her legacy & that of her cow live on in infamy

- It ruined her life. She refused to be interviewed or photographed and every year she was harassed for an interview for an article on the anniversary of the fire

Nasty, dirty, evil depiction in the media

Problems with The Response To The Fire

1. Firemen Exhaustion - from previous night’s fire & the 27 prior ones

2. Equipment Disrepair & Hose Shortage - also from previous night’s fire

3. Error in Judgement – wrong box fire alarm was sounded

4. Brown’s Delay - Refused to correct error in fire alarm’s Box location5. An Uncooperative Druggist? - Refused to call in

the fire6. Inattentive Neighbors - Didn’t notice fire until too

late7. Lack Of Engine Support – Steam engine wasn’t

ready due to previous night’s fire & later sprung a leak

Debunking Myths & Possible Source of the Fire

Other Myths:

-Spontaneous combustion of hay- Spark from a chimney- Arsonist (aka incendiaries)- Milk thief- Nightime smoker- A gambler named “Cohen”- A comet

Plausible explanation ofwhat REALLY caused the fire.

Daniel “Peg Leg” Sullivan & Dennis Regan in the O’Leary’s Barn that evening.

Bales’ Conclusions

Richard Bales’, being considerate and careful cannot prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Daniel “Peg Leg” Sullivan is the true guilty party, even though the evidence points in that direction. Unlike Mrs. O’Leary, Daniel is being afforded the benefit of the doubt.

Bales’ initial conclusions concerning the cause of the Great Chicago Fire earned him the Illinois State Historical Society’s Harry E. Pratt Memorial Award.