John Boda - The Great Chicago Fire

IMAGES
of America

THE GREAT
CHICAGO FIRE

ON THE COVER: The Chicago City Courthouse was one of the few landmarks that remained in the burned district after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It acted as a guidepost and a reminder of what Chicago had gone through and what work was ahead to bring the city up from the ashes. (Courtesy Chicago History Library, ICHi50753.)

IMAGES
of America

THE GREAT
CHICAGO FIRE

John Boda and Ray Johnson

Copyright 2017 by John Boda and Ray Johnson

ISBN 978-1-4671-2566-6
Ebook ISBN 9781439662847

Published by Arcadia Publishing

Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949328

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We dedicate this book to the memory of all those who lost their lives, to all the thousands affected who had to rebuild their lives and city, and to all the heroic first responders who did the best job they could do and no doubt saved many lives and prevented this disaster from becoming even worse than it was.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Only nine years after the Great Chicago Fire, around 1880, my great-great grandfather Edward Bohn came from Germany and was one of thousands of immigrants who settled in Chicago near the Union Stockyards during the accelerated growth period after the fire. His granddaughter (my grandmother), Anna Bohn, was one of 2,500 people who boarded the Eastland steamship on the morning of July 24, 1915, docked between Clark and LaSalle Streets on the Chicago River. At 7:30 a.m., it capsized, and 844 lives were lost, including all members of 22 entire families, making it Chicagos worst and deadliest disaster. My grandmother somehow survived, and that event, and my personal connection to it, ignited a flame of deep interest in all things relating to Chicago history, which are often closely connected in many ways. I have had a long interest in the Great Chicago Fire and continue to research, explore, and teach the history of that event, which never seems to cease revealing new insight and revelations!

I wish to thank Brian Petronio, assistant store manager of Barnes & Noble in Bolingbrook, Illinois, for his encouragement and initial idea for me to pursue the course that resulted in this book. Thanks also to Katelyn and all the fine people at Arcadia Publishing and their commitment to preserving local history all over America. Thanks to Ray Johnson, Chicagos history cop, for his partnership. Lastly, thanks to my wife, Maureen, who always encourages me to pursue my dreams and interests and understands that I never have too many books, just not enough shelves.

John Boda

I would like to thank the following for their gracious assistance: Jordyn Cox, Sarah and Leslie Martin of the Chicago History Museum, Laura Kraly and Jeanette Weiden of the Loutit District Library, Julius Machnikowski and Phil Costello of the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Archives, Glenn Longacre and Doug Bicknese of the Great Lakes Region of the National Archives, John Powell of the Newberry Library, the staff of the Special Collections Department of the Chicago Public Library, Geoffrey Reynolds of the Joint Archives of Holland, Mark Fedder of the Manistee County Historical Museum, and the staff and volunteers of the Peshtigo Fire Museum.

I would also like to thank John Boda for his encouragement and love of history, and a huge hug for my wife, Laurie, and sons Mikey and Kevin who put up with seeing the back of my head a lot!

Raymond Johnson

All photographs, unless otherwise credited, are courtesy of the New York Public Library.

INTRODUCTION

The Great Chicago Fire, which occurred October 810, 1871, has risen to mythological proportions, and many now find it difficult to separate fact from fiction. When most people are asked about it, the usual and most common fact is that it was started by Catherine OLeary and her cow kicking over a lantern. But Catherine OLeary herself stated she went to bed early that night, approximately an hour before the fire even started, and that was corroborated by her neighbors. She became the scapegoat for the fire, and afterwards she hated the notoriety. In defiance, she stated that her likeness, or picture, would never be found, in an effort to deny history the chance of connecting her with the fire. Although she was successful in denying history of any photographs of herself, she was not successful in dodging the blame, which continues today. The official conclusion reached by the City of Chicago, which remains to this day, is that the fire did indeed start in the OLeary barn at 137 South DeKoven Street, but how it started is unknown and remains a mystery.

In chapter three, we offer a possible alternate theory, which continues to gain acceptance, as to the cause of the fire. If this theory is true, then whatever caused the spark on the ground to ignite is irrelevant, whether it was a cow kicking over a lantern, a man lighting a cigarette, or somebody simply lighting a match. We caution that this theory does not offer conclusive evidence of the cause of the fire, but it is a possible theory of what could have caused several firestorms to occur on the same night in a large three-state area in the shape of a triangle.

Another seldom-heard mystery about this disaster is that there is not one actual photograph today of the Great Chicago Fire while it was burning. It is believed there were people taking pictures during the fire itself, but either the intense heat destroyed the photographs amid the chaos, the photographers lost their lives (and pictures) in the process, or they simply got lost through time. But there are many photographs of Chicago just before and after this great event and those are the majority of the pictures published in this book. We have assembled here a valuable record of what really happened in the Great Chicago Fire.

Chicago had developed into a major city by 1871. It started as a town in 1833, and in those 38 years, it rapidly grew from 350 residents to 300,000 living within the boundaries of a city six miles long north to south and three miles wide from the lake to the west. Even though some of the buildings were brick or limestone, most of the roofs were wood or tar and vulnerable to sparks and flame. It is estimated that of the citys 60,000 buildings, more than 40,000 were made completely of wood. Many miles of Chicago sidewalks and streets were laid in wood-tar blocks, which easily became engulfed in the flames when they came.

Being October, many people stockpiled lumber for burning through the winter, and it is a well-known fact that Chicago had just experienced one of the driest summers on record, with very little rainfall.

Fires were commonplace in Chicago at that time, and many residents welcomed them as a form of entertainment as they gathered in the street to watch the flames. Many even did that with this fire at first, but they began to realize that this was no ordinary fire and soon were running for their lives.

By 1863, there were 186 reported fires in Chicago; by 1868, that number rose to 515. By 1870, the record states a total of 600 fires occurred in Chicago.

By 1871, the Chicago Fire Department was large and considered very modern for the day, but it was also spread too thin, with 185 firefighters covering 18 square miles. The city had an elaborate system of 172 fire alarm boxes, which sent telegraphs to the watchman lookout at the courthouse. The city had a network of water mains and hydrants pumping water from the new waterworks station.