Did Mrs. OLearys cow start the Great Chicago Fire?
There’s evidence that suggests she did. The uncontrollable fire almost surely began in the vicinity of the crowded family barn, where, in addition to a horse, a calf, and a wagon, Kate O’Leary kept the five cows she milked twice a day for her local dairy business. The O’Learys had just stored plenty of coal, wood shavings, and hay to see them and their livestock through the winter–(and to feed any fire once it got going). Kate supposedly revealed to different people the morning after the blaze began that she was in the barn when one of her cows kicked over a lantern. This has never been proved or disapproved. While the fire spared the O’Leary home, located on the city’s West Side, much of the rest of Chicago was not so fortunate. Before the fire died out in the early morning of Tuesday, October 10, 100,000 people were left homeless, and 300 people lost their lives. The board of enquiry members failed to discover the fire’s cause, stating in their report that “whether it originated fro
