Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a large fire that started on Sunday October 8, 1871 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The fire started out as nine separated fires.[1] It burned until Tuesday October 10, 1871 when rain started to fall.
The fire destroyed 3.3 square miles (8.5 square kilometers)[2] and $192,000,000 in property. About 100,000 people were left homeless. Three hundred people died. Because of a large fire the night before, firefighters were too tired to quickly put out these fires.[3]
No one is sure what caused the fire. A legend says that it started when a cow knocked over a lantern in Catherine O'Leary's barn on De Koven Street.[4]
The oldest structure left standing in the area where the fire burned is the Couch family tomb. This stone tomb was built in 1858.[5]
Not all of the city was destroyed. Important places like the Stock Yards, where animals were slaughtered, were not damaged. Neither was the railroad system.[6]
The second red star of the Chicago flag represents the fire.[7]
Gallery
- Attributed to George N. Barnard - Untitled (Chicago after the Chicago Fire) - Google Art Project.jpg
Devastation
- Great Chicago Fire cph.3b20287.jpg
October 9, 1871
- Firefighting.jpg
Fighting the fire in O'Leary's barn
- Mrsoleary.jpg
O'Leary and her cow
- Olearyhouse.jpg
O'Leary house on De Koven Street
Great Chicago Fire Media
- 1871 Chicago view before the Great Conflagration.jpg
1871 Chicago view before the 'Great Conflagration'
- 137 DeKoven Street 1871.png
The O'Leary family cottage, 137 (now 558) W. DeKoven St. The neighborhood was congested with wooden buildings and industry, causing the fire to spread rapidly. A strong northeastern wind spared the cottage and the buildings to its west. From a stereoptican view by A.H. Abbott, whose studio at 976 (now 2201) N. Clark Street was consumed by the flames.
- Great Chicago Fire map with starting point cropped with arrow.jpg
1869 map of Chicago, altered to show the area destroyed by the fire (location of O'Leary's barn indicated by red dot and arrow)
- Chicago-fire2.jpeg
Aftermath of the fire, corner of Dearborn and Monroe Streets, 1871
- Philip Sheridan Statue.JPG
General Philip H. Sheridan, who saved Chicago three times: the Great Fire in October 1871, when he used explosives to stop the spread; again after the Great Fire, protecting the city; and lastly in 1877 during the Chicago railroad strike of 1877, riding in from 1,000 mi (1,600 km) away to restore order.
Chicago Tribune editorial
- World Columbian Exposition - White City - 1.JPG
More than 20 years after the Great Fire, 'The World Columbian Exposition of 1893', known as the 'White City', for being lit up with newly invented light bulbs and electric power.
- Pre fire house in Chicago on Fullerton 2.jpg
A pre-fire house in Chicago on Cleveland Avenue (photographed in 2016)
References
- ↑ "Progress of the Chicago Fire of 1871". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
- ↑ Miller, Donald (1996). City of the Century; The Epic of Chicago and the making of America. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 159. ISBN 0684831384.
- ↑ Chicago fire of 1871. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ↑ Did the Cow Do It?
- ↑ Couch Family Tomb
- ↑ The Ruined City. (2011). The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory. Archived 2014-05-28 at the Wayback Machine Chicago History Museum. Web. Retrieved on May 27, 2014.
- ↑ "Municipal Flag of Chicago". Chicago Public Library. 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
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