The Curious Case Of The Cow Who Was Blamed For Causing The Great Chicago Fire Of 1871
On October 8, 1871, a fire started in a barn in Chicago. The blaze traveled through about three square miles of the city, burning everything in its path.
When it was finally contained two days later, the city was left in critical condition. The fire had killed 300 people, wiped out the homes of 100,000 residents, and demolished $200 million in property. The catastrophe became known as The Great Chicago Fire.
The fire starter was believed to be an ill-tempered cow that belonged to Patrick and Catherine O’Leary.
Newspapers quickly placed blame on the cow, reporting that it had kicked over a kerosene lantern while Mrs. O’Leary was milking it.
After the fire was extinguished, several other theories surfaced, causing more fingers to be pointed at the O’Learys.
For instance, some newspapers claimed that Mrs. O’Leary had been selling the cow’s milk illegally, and when city officials discovered her crime, they forced her to stop. As a result, she set the fire as revenge.
The month after the fire, the O’Learys were interviewed by the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners.
Mrs. O’Leary stated that she never milked the cows in the evening and had been asleep when the fire started.
She had gone to bed early because her foot was sore. A neighbor, Daniel Sullivan, backed up her claim. He was the first person to notice the blaze.
Jonatan Rundblad – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Two months later, the board still couldn’t say how exactly the fire began. The only thing they knew for sure was that it started in the barn.
Still, the declaration did not save Mrs. O’Leary from the accusations or prevent the story about her cow from spreading.
Catherine O’Leary’s reputation was ruined beyond repair. She lived out the rest of her life in isolation and did not leave her home unless it was to attend church.
She died in 1895 from acute pneumonia, but her friends and neighbors said that the real cause of her death was a “broken heart” due to the way she was shunned by society.
A century later, Mrs. O’Leary and her cow were finally absolved of responsibility for the fire. An insurance map documenting the fire’s path showed that it wasn’t the fault of Mrs. O’Leary or her cow.
Richard Bales, an assistant regional counsel at the Chicago Title Insurance Company, did some digging into the Great Chicago Fire in college for an assignment.
He discovered that the fire had not been set on purpose. At the time, the O’Learys’ barn had contained five cows, a calf, and a horse.
A new wagon sat nearby, and none of their property had been insured. Several reporters also admitted that the story about the cow had been fabricated or came from unreliable sources.
Bales suspected that the fire was started by Daniel Sullivan, the man who had noticed it in the first place. In his testimony to the board, he had stated that he visited the O’Learys around eight p.m.
They were getting ready for bed, so he headed home. On the way, he stopped in front of a neighbor’s house to smoke a pipe. When he looked up, he saw flames shooting out from the O’Learys’ barn and ran straight over.
After studying the map and the locations of the properties in the area, Bales didn’t buy Sullivan’s story.
First of all, Sullivan would not have been able to see the barn from the position where he was standing to smoke his pipe.
The buildings would have blocked his view. Additionally, he had a wooden leg and could not move very fast, yet he claimed to have run all the way from his neighbor’s house to the barn, which was about half the size of a football field.
So, it seems more likely that Sullivan was the fire starter. He may have gone into the barn to feed one of the cows his mother kept there.
Then, he accidentally created the blaze, whether it was from a match, his pipe, or a lantern. When the fire got out of control, he ran for help and devised a story to save himself from blame.
Upon being presented with this evidence, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance in 1997, declaring Mrs. O’Leary and her cow to be innocent.
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