Mar 21, 2021 · The Great Chicago Fire is remembered as one of the major disasters of the 19th century, along with the eruption of Krakatoa or the Johnstown Flood. And it's also remembered, of course, as it seemed to have a distinctive character, Mrs. O'Leary's cow, at the center of it.

There has been much speculation over the years on a single start to the fire. The most popular tale blames Mrs. O'Leary's cow, which allegedly knocked over a lantern; others state that a group of men were gambling inside the barn and knocked over a lantern. [6] .

Oct 4, 2012 · By early morning on Tuesday, October 10, when rain extinguished the last meekly glowing ember, the city was ravaged: $200 million worth of property destroyed, 300 lives lost and 100,000...

Catherine O'Leary (née Donegan; March 1827 – July 3, 1895) was an Irish immigrant living in Chicago, Illinois, who became famous when it was alleged that an accident involving her cow had started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Born Catherine Donegan, she and her husband, Patrick O'Leary, had three children.

In all of history, no cow is more infamous than Mrs. O'Leary's. The farm animal was accused of kicking over a lantern and starting the Great Chicago Fire on Oct. 8, 1871. The fire, despite its humble origins in a barn, was ferocious. It destroyed 3.5 square miles of the city and left 120 people dead and thousands more homeless.

Did Mrs. O'Leary's cow start the Great Chicago Fire? It's possible. The conflagration almost surely began in the vicinity of the crowded barn, where Kate O'Leary kept the five cows she milked twice a day in order to help support the five O'Leary children.

Feb 12, 2024 · For decades, many believed the origin of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was an ill-tempered cow kicking over a lantern. An insurance map of the fire’s path suggested otherwise.

Oct 7, 2021 · Chicago seems to like to pin the blame for its misfortune on farm animals. For decades the Cubs' failure to get to the World Series was the fault of a goat that was once kicked out of Wrigley...

There’s a common myth that pops up anytime the Chicago Fire of 1871 comes up in conversation: that a woman named Catherine O’Leary was milking her cow when the cow kicked over a lantern, igniting the barn and starting the fire that would destroy much of the city.

This is the cow, at the Leary back gate, Where she stood on the night of October the 8, With her old crumpled horn and belligerent hoof, Warning all "neighbor women" to keep well aloof. Ah! this is the cow with the crumpled horn That kicked over the lamp that set fire to the barn That caused the Great Fire in Chicago!