Download or read book The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs O Leary s Cow written by Richard F. Bales and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 swallowed up more than three square miles in two days, leaving thousands homeless and 300 dead. Throughout history, the fire has been attributed to Mrs. O’Leary, an immigrant Irish milkmaid, and her cow. On one level, the tale of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow is merely the quintessential urban legend. But the story also represents a means by which the upper classes of Chicago could blame the fire’s chaos on a member of the working poor. Although that fire destroyed the official county documents, some land tract records were saved. Using this and other primary source information, Richard F. Bales created a scale drawing that reconstructed the O’Leary neighborhood. Next he turned to the transcripts—more than 1,100 handwritten pages—from an investigation conducted by the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners, which interviewed 50 people over the course of 12 days. The board’s final report, published in the Chicago newspapers on December 12, 1871, indicates that commissioners were unable to determine the cause of the fire. And yet, by analyzing the 50 witnesses’ testimonies, the author concludes that the commissioners could have determined the cause of the fire had they desired to do so. Being more concerned with saving their own reputation from post-fire reports of incompetence, drunkenness and bribery, the commissioners failed to press forward for an answer. The author has uncovered solid evidence as to what really caused the Great Chicago Fire.
Download or read book The Great Fire written by Jim Murphy and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2016-08-30 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Fire of 1871 was one of most colossal disasters in American history. Overnight, the flourshing city of Chicago was transformed into a smoldering wasteland. The damage was so profound that few people believed the city could ever rise again.By weaving personal accounts of actual survivors together with the carefully researched history of Chicago and the disaster, Jim Murphy constructs a riveting narrative that recreates the event with drama and immediacy. And finally, he reveals how, even in a time of deepest dispair, the human spirit triumphed, as the people of Chicago found the courage and strength to build their city once again.
Download or read book The Great Chicago Fire written by Robert Cromie and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 1994 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, The Great Chicago Fire presents a complete narrative history of the 1871 fire that destroyed 73,000 miles of streets and 17,500 buildings, and which left 100,000 people homeless. More than 150 photographs and illustrations help tell the inspiring story of a heroic American city.
Download or read book Chicago s Great Fire written by Carl Smith and published by Grove Atlantic. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A definitive chronicle of the 1871 Chicago Fire as remembered by those who experienced it—from the author of Chicago and the American Literary Imagination. Over three days in October, 1871, much of Chicago, Illinois, was destroyed by one of the most legendary urban fires in history. Incorporated as a city in 1837, Chicago had grown at a breathtaking pace in the intervening decades—and much of the hastily-built city was made of wood. Starting in Catherine and Patrick O’Leary’s barn, the Fire quickly grew out of control, twice jumping branches of the Chicago River on its relentless path through the city’s three divisions. While the death toll was miraculously low, nearly a third of Chicago residents were left homeless and more were instantly unemployed. This popular history of the Great Chicago Fire approaches the subject through the memories of those who experienced it. Chicago historian Carl Smith builds the story around memorable characters, both known to history and unknown, including the likes of General Philip Sheridan and Robert Todd Lincoln. Smith chronicles the city’s rapid growth and its place in America’s post-Civil War expansion. The dramatic story of the fire—revealing human nature in all its guises—became one of equally remarkable renewal, as Chicago quickly rose back up from the ashes thanks to local determination and the world’s generosity. As we approach the fire’s 150th anniversary, Carl Smith’s compelling narrative at last gives this epic event its full and proper place in our national chronicle. “The best book ever written about the fire, a work of deep scholarship by Carl Smith that reads with the forceful narrative of a fine novel. It puts the fire and its aftermath in historical, political and social context. It’s a revelatory pleasure to read.” —Chicago Tribune
Download or read book I Survived the Great Chicago Fire 1871 I Survived 11 written by Lauren Tarshis and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2015-02-24 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could an entire city really burn to the ground? Oscar Starling never wanted to come to Chicago. But then Oscar finds himself not just in the heart of the big city, but in the middle of a terrible fire! No one knows exactly how it began, but one thing is clear: Chicago is like a giant powder keg about to explode.An army of firemen is trying to help, but this fire is a ferocious beast that wants to devour everything in its path, including Oscar! Will Oscar survive one of the most famous and devastating fires in history? Lauren Tarshis brings history's most exciting and terrifying events to life in this New York Times-bestselling series. Readers will be transported by stories of amazing kids and how they survived!
Download or read book The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 written by Christy Marx and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2003-12-15 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the 1871 fire that destroyed much of Chicago, Illinois, examining its causes, the resulting devastation, and its aftermath.
Download or read book Smoldering City written by Karen Sawislak and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-12-15 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the various debates the city faced after the Chicago fire in dealing with homelessness, the care and feeding of much of the population and the problem of rebuilding amidst political chaos and people working at cross purposes. Explains the events that led up to the Chicago fire: intensely dry conditions, a 20-m.p.h. southwest wind, and an unfortunate spark at 10 o"clock on the night of Oct. 8 all combined to turn Chicago into a "vast ocean of flame". The rift between the immigrant working class and the wealthy 'native-born' Chicagoans made Catherine O'Leary (and her famous cow) a perfect scapegoat for anti-Irish, anti-working class invective. Provides historical maps, plates and engravings, with an epilogue and notes.
Download or read book The Great Chicago Fire written by Ross Miller and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the great Chicago fire of 1871 and the rebuilding that followed, focusing on how the city manipulated the tragedy into a lasting myth about the modern struggle against adversity.
Download or read book The Great Calamity written by Alfred L. Sewell and published by . This book was released on 1871 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Chicago Skyscrapers 1871 1934 written by Thomas Leslie and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2013-05-15 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed tour, inside and out, of Chicago's distinctive towers from an earlier age For more than a century, Chicago's skyline has included some of the world's most distinctive and inspiring buildings. This history of the Windy City's skyscrapers begins in the key period of reconstruction after the Great Fire of 1871 and concludes in 1934 with the onset of the Great Depression, which brought architectural progress to a standstill. During this time, such iconic landmarks as the Chicago Tribune Tower, the Wrigley Building, the Marshall Field and Company Building, the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Palmolive Building, the Masonic Temple, the City Opera, Merchandise Mart, and many others rose to impressive new heights, thanks to innovations in building methods and materials. Solid, earthbound edifices of iron, brick, and stone made way for towers of steel and plate glass, imparting a striking new look to Chicago's growing urban landscape. Thomas Leslie reveals the daily struggles, technical breakthroughs, and negotiations that produced these magnificent buildings. He also considers how the city's infamous political climate contributed to its architecture, as building and zoning codes were often disputed by shifting networks of rivals, labor unions, professional organizations, and municipal bodies. Featuring more than a hundred photographs and illustrations of the city's physically impressive and beautifully diverse architecture, Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871–1934 highlights an exceptionally dynamic, energetic period of architectural progress in Chicago.
Download or read book The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes eyewitness accounts of the disaster *Includes a bibliography for further reading "The fire was barely fifteen minutes old. What followed was a series of fatal errors that set the fire free and doomed the city to a fiery death." - Jim Murphy, The Great Fire It had taken about 40 years for Chicago to grow from a small settlement of about 300 people into a thriving metropolis with a population of 300,000, but in just two days in 1871, much of that progress was burned to the ground. In arguably the most famous fire in American history, a blaze in the southwestern section of Chicago began to burn out of control on the night of October 8, 1871. Thanks to The Chicago Tribune, the fire has been apocryphally credited to a cow kicking over a lantern in Mrs. Catherine O'Leary's barn, and though that was not true, the rumor dogged Mrs. O'Leary to the grave. Of course, the cause of the fire didn't matter terribly much to the people who lost their lives or their property in the blaze. Thanks to dry conditions, wind, and wooden buildings, firefighters were never actually able to stop the fire, which burned itself out only after it spent nearly two whole days incinerating several square miles of Chicago. By the time rain mercifully helped to put the fire out, the Great Chicago Fire had already killed an estimated 300 people, destroyed an estimated 17,500 buildings, and left nearly 100,000 people (1/3 of the population) homeless. Several other theories have developed as an explanation for the fire. Most of them center on people around Mrs. O'Leary's barn, but other have gone so far as to blame a meteor shower as the culprit that started fires across the Midwest that same night. As proof, they note that the country's worst forest fire in history took place around the same time in the logging town of Peshtigo in northeastern Wisconsin, a fire that killed thousands. Mrs. O'Leary and her barn remain a part of lore, but it also speaks to Chicago's ability to rebuild that it's almost impossible to envision a farm in downtown Chicago today. Chicago suffered a wide swath of destruction, but it had rebuilt itself within 20 years in order to host the World's Fair, evidence that it was back and bigger and better than ever. Along with that, Chicago has maintained its status as the region's biggest city and one of the most important in America. The Great Chicago Fire chronicles one of the largest natural disasters of the 19th century in America. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 like never before, in no time at all.
Download or read book Personal Experiences During the Chicago Fire 1871 written by Frank Joseph Loesch and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book What Was the Great Chicago Fire written by Janet B. Pascal and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did the Great Chicago Fire really start after a cow kicked over a lantern in a barn? Find out the truth in this addition to the What Was? series. On Sunday, October 8, 1871, a fire started on the south side of Chicago. A long drought made the neighborhood go up in flames. And practically everything that could go wrong did. Firemen first went to the wrong location. Fierce winds helped the blaze jump the Chicago River twice. The Chicago Waterworks burned down, making it impossible to fight the fire. Finally after two days, Mother Nature took over, with rain smothering the flames. This overview of a stupendous disaster not only covers the fire but explores the whole history of fire fighting.
Download or read book Full Account of the Great Fire in Chicago written by and published by . This book was released on 1871 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History Comics The Great Chicago Fire written by Kate Hannigan and published by First Second. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Let this graphic novel be your time machine! In History Comics, the new nonfiction graphic novel series from First Second, the past comes alive! A deadly blaze engulfs Chicago for two terrifying days! A brother, a sister, and a helpless puppy must race through the city to stay one step ahead of the devilish inferno. But can they reunite with their lost family before it’s too late? In History Comics: The Great Chicago Fire, learn how a city rose up from the one of the worst catastrophes in American history, and how this disaster forever changed how homes, buildings, and communities are constructed.
Download or read book The University of Chicago Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Chicago and the Great Conflagration written by Elias Colbert and published by . This book was released on 1871 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
