The popular version says that the culprits of the great Chicago fire of 1871, which destroyed most of the city, became an animal and its careless hostess. We checked if it was so.

How They say The people, Moscow burned from a penny candle. In the history of Chicago, the role of the legendary candle is occupied by a kerosene lamp, or rather, a cow of a local resident of Mrs. O'liri. She allegedly on October 8, 1871 was inaccurately treated with the lighting device, which caused firewho forever changed the fate of not only one of the largest cities in the United States, but also urban planning in general.

Behind the ocean of the Non -Pothenov cow and her mistress are dedicated to Songs, Cartoons And Books, and in a classic American film "In the Old Chicago" (1937) The fascinating story of the O'Liri family has been shown since emigration from Ireland in 1854. Already in the 19th century, they also wrote about this case in Russia. So, he is mentioned by Konstantin Skalkovsky in his "Travel impressions of the Caucasus, Turkey, Serbian lands and the United States" (1885) and Vasily Vitkovsky in the book "For the ocean: travel notes" (1894). The latter, in particular, wrote: “The fire was produced as an old woman who, engaged in the milking of a cow in a wooden barn, overturned a kerosene lamp by negligence. During the fire, 20,000 houses burned down and property died for $ 200 million. By the number of losses, this is the worst fire in world history. Indeed, expressing all the numbers in dollars, we find that the London fire of 1666 caused losses of 54 million, the Moscow fire in 1812 destroyed the property of 150 million, the Hamburg fire of 1842 - by 35, and even the losses of the Parisian fire of 1871 from the Communists are calculated only in 160 million. "

5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Great Chicago Fire

Official website The great Chicago fire (the resource is supported by the local historical society and the North-Western University) draws the following picture of what happened.

The fire almost certainly began in the immediate vicinity of the barn, where Katherine O'Liri held five cows, which she finished twice a day to feed five children. The family has accumulated enough coal, wooden chips and hay for the winter, so that the flame could well flare up here. There were rumors that immediately after the start of the fire, Katherine admitted to several people that she was in the barn when one of her cows knocked over the lantern. According to a kind of irony of fate, which did not go unnoticed by the city press, the fire spared the house of the O'Liri family. Several curious people claimed that they found fragments of a lantern when they snooped behind the house.

However, there are many reasons to believe that Mrs. O'liri and her unhappy cow (in various retelling her name, Daisy, Madlin or Gwendolin) were innocent. Katherine O'Liri testified under the oath that she was in bed when a fire began, and the official investigation did not find evidence of her guilt. The stories of people who allegedly heard her “recognition” were mutually contradictory. The man who, many years later, claimed that in childhood he found a broken lantern under the floorboards of the barn, could not explain how the floorboards did not burn in the hellish Peckla. As for the lamp itself, the man allegedly borrowed it from the man, who then disappeared. Katherine son, Jim, grew up and later became the most influential gambling boss Chicago. Over the years, in his interview, Bolshoi Jim complained that "from this musty old fake about the cow overturning the lamp, he became hot under the collar." He argued that the cause of the fire was a spontaneous combustion of fresh hay, a large number of which were delivered to the barn on the eve of the fire.

In addition to all in 1893, the reporter Michael Aheern, who illuminated the fire on the pages of the newspaper Chicago Republican, admittedthat he composed the details of the causes of the fire to make a story more colorful. Although in interview 1911 he no longer spoke of himself as a source of hearing, but in every possible way he tried to make it clear that Mrs. O'Liri was not to blame. After that, one of the reporter’s colleagues said that he had sent an action -packed story at Chicago Tribune 40 years ago signed by Etern himself.

During the fire and after it, several more theories surfaced - from smoking the boys to the fall of the meteorite. Based on the testimony that took a total of 1,100 pages of the text, the members of the city council issued a conclusion that stated: "Whether everything happened because of a spark that flew out of the pipe on that windy night, or it was a deliberate dormant, we cannot determine." The inability of the official investigation contributed to the growth of rumors - for example, that the fire was arranged by an unnamed member of the World Terrorist Organization, which has direct ties with the Parisian commune of 1871. However, Mrs. O'liri - Irish, Catholic, and just a woman - became the perfect target in the light of those moods that reigned in the United States at that time. On the threshold of Mrs. O'Liri’s house, reporters constantly appeared, calling it “stupid and worthless” and “drunken old witch with dirty hands”. The journalists transferred their hatred to articles, where they claimed that the woman intentionally set fire to the barn, "swearing to take revenge on the city that refused her firewood or pound of Beecon." Her husband set dogs on the boor and rushed into her head with bricks. The greatest showman Fineas Barnum, the creator of the Circus of freaks, once knocked on the door of Mrs. O'Liri to ask her to join her tour, - the woman drove him off with a broom. As the magazine notes Smithsonian, a very dubious role in one of the greatest disasters in the history of America brought the woman fame that she never wanted. When 24 years later she died of acute pneumonia, the neighbors insisted that the true cause of misfortune was a broken heart.

One and a half centuries have passed since then. On the site of the house of O'liri is located today ... Chicago Fire Academy. The memorial plaque, installed here in 1937, reads: “Here were the house and Sarai Mrs. O'Liri, where the Great Chicago Fire began in 1871. Despite the presence of many versions, the real cause of the fire was never determined. ”

And in 1997, the municipal authorities decided to restore historical justice. The City Committee for Police and Fires voted for the justification of Katherine O'Liri and her infamous cow. Based on the testimony of historians and great -grandchildren, Mrs. O'liri, officials came to conclusionThat the woman and the animal were unfairly slandered as random guiltymen of the fire. Instead, in their opinion, it was necessary to carefully study the actions of a woman’s neighbor, Daniel (Pegai's leg) of Sullivan, who accused Mrs. O'Liri of the occurrence of a fire.

Thus, despite the lack of strict evidence, historians are inclined to conclude that the version of a kerosene lamp overtaken by a cow is an invention.