There Were 600 Fires in Chicago the Year Before the Great Fire of 1871

From the August 29, 2021, Chicago Tribune "600 fires sprang up in Chicago the year before the Great Fire of 1871.  On the night before came this 'terrible' prediction" by Rick Kogan.

There is no way of knowing what was on people's minds in the hot and arid weeks before a certain cow is said to have kicked over a lantern and started the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. 

But, 150 years before that Jean Babtiste Point du Sable had not yet been born and only a few white men had ever even walked on the land that would eventually become Chicago.  The only fires here were those made by the Potawatomi, Sauk, Illinois, Algonquins, Iroquois and the Native American tribes that had been in the area for centuries.

As a matter of fact, for much of the 18th century, what would become Chicago was a place of warring tribes.  DuSable and his Potawatomi wife Kitihawa built their cabin on the banks of the Chicago River in the 1770s and a few other white settlers followed.

Most settled on the riverbanks near Fort Dearborn, built in the fall of 1803 and soon afterwards called "the best garrison in the country."

--CootSable

James O'Leary's Life (You Know, That O'Leary as in Great Chicago Fire O'Leary)

From the September 19, 2021, Chicago Tribune "Chicago's history is punctuated with devastating fires" by Rick Kogan.

Only, this was O'Leary, the son of Kate and Patrick O'Leary who had the famous cow, Daisy, who supposedly kicked over the lantern and started it all.

He was only two when the fire took place.  His parents and he moved south to the rough-and-tumble neighborhood around the stockyards.  His parents became virtual hermits, shamed by their connection to the fire, he became one of the city's first big-time crime figures.

In the early 1890s, he built a palatial gambling mecca at 4183 Halstead Street which included a billiards room, several bowling alleys, a saloon, a barbershop and a sauna.  He had his name- O'Leary- set in giant electric letters proudly emblazoned across the massive ironbound oak door.

Steel plates covered the outer walls, and the inner walls were made from heavy oak covered with zinc.  It was, O'Leary said proudly, "fire-proof, bombproof and police-proof."

"Big Jim," as he was known, died in 1925, but his gambling house continued to operate.  It was destroyed May 19, 1934, when the second-biggest fire in Chicago history blazed, taking out nearly 90% of the Union Stock Yards, injuring 50 firefighters and killing hundreds of cattle.

A large crowd stood watching the blaze, and one insensitive fellow was heard to say, "Them cows, they had it coming."

Steak Tonight, Fellows!!  --Cooter

Looking Back to 1915: Mrs Daw Gored By Cow in 1915

From the September 27, 2015, MidWeek "Looking Back."

1915.  "Mrs. William Daw was gored by a cow at home 7 miles southwest of Malta in Milan Township, Friday.  It may result in her death.

Things Weren't Always So Pleasant Out On the Farm.  --DaCoot