As you might guess, we are in Chicago. We went on an architecture tour that was rich with Chicago history as well, so I will share several posts with interesting Chicago factoids we learned. The first is about the great Chicago fire of 1871 that destroyed much of the city.
The myth is 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. So is it true? Nope!
In 1997, the Chicago City Council went so far as exonerating the cow and its owner
Published October 7, 2021 • Updated on October 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 Field. And for well over a century, a cow belonging to Mrs. O’Leary caused the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
But just as baseball fans know the Cubs’ pre-2016 shortcomings had nothing to do with a curse put on the team by a goat’s angry owner, historians say there is no evidence that the massive blaze that destroyed a huge swath of Chicago and displaced about a third of its residents began when Catherine O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern.
Indeed, nobody puts much stock in that story these days. In 1997, the Chicago City Council went so far as exonerating the cow and its owner.
“The family is still mad about how she was treated,” Peggy Knight, O’Leary’s great-great granddaughter, told The Associated Press on Thursday, a day before the 150th anniversary of the start of the fire. “She did not deserve that.”
How the immigrant from Ireland came to be blamed is a familiar story: She was a victim of prejudice and circumstance.
The fire started in or near her home and her family’s barn. And while it destroyed much of the city, it miraculously spared her own house.
More importantly, O’Leary was easy to blame because of who she was and what she represented
Perspectives on the Road 
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