The Great Chicago Fire |
table of contents |
By C. Daddy Stevens, Arkansas Mensa's Time Traveling Reporter
I was hired by Arkansas Mensa to travel back in time to Chicago, the morning of October 8, 1871, the date of The Great Chicago Fire. The editor of M-Ark wanted me to spend the day asking questions and getting a general feel for the city the day the disaster struck. I was also to take a few before and after photographs. My primary mission was to solve the question of whether or not Mrs. O'Leary's cow, Daisy, had actually started the greatest fire in U.S. History.
I learned much during the day. It had been an extremely dry summer. Less than an inch of rain had fallen on this great city since the Fourth of July. It was dry. It was very, very dry. Another item which caught my attention was the incredible amount of potential fuel for a fire. People had just replenished their coal and wood reserves for the coming winter and there were stacks of wood and coal everywhere.
Even the streets were paved with wood. I knew from my studies before I came here that there were fifty seven miles of wood paved streets and almost six hundred miles of wood paved sidewalks in the area. One surprise, which I had not expected of 1871, was the extremely close proximity of the houses and factories. It was as if someone had prepared this city for the specific purpose of fueling the great conflagration. But still, how could a single fire burn the entire city down?
The city was averaging about two fires per day. There had been twenty the previous week with the largest being just last night. But they were brought under control. What would be so special about this fire that would erase this great city around me?
The O'Leary Home
Patrick and Catherine O'Leary lived at 137 DeKovan Street with their five children in the rear of this cottage which was about five years old at the time of the fire. The ill-fated barn where Daisy kicked over a kerosene lantern and started it all was behind the cottage. The home survived the fire.
I thought it ironic that the city would soon be destroyed, but this small wooden cottage would survive the fire which started in its very backyard. How could it survive and all else be destroyed? Haw could a fire spread so fast? I would know in just a few hours.
I went behind the house and looked inside the barn. Katherine had a neighborhood dairy business. Inside the very crowded barn were her five cows, a home and a wagon. There was also hay everywhere. Huge stacks of it. Stacks of wood shavings and coal filled much of the interior of the barn. It was obvious why none of the occupants of this barn would live. The place would go up in seconds. I also noticed a lantern hanging on a nail just inside the door. I wondered which cow was Daisy.
Between the mid 1860s and 1883, the bison population
In North America was reduced from an estimated 13 million to a few
hundred.