# The origin of the Great Chicago Fire in the contemporary press, October–December 1871 All quotations below are taken from text fetched and saved under `pages/` (OCR text from Library of Congress Chronicling America, transcriptions from chicagology.com and greatchicagofire.org, and PDF text from fultonhistory.com). OCR is quoted with light silent correction of obvious letter-level errors only where the reading is certain; doubtful readings are marked `[?]`. Fetch times and URLs for every file are logged in `SOURCES.md`. ## 0. What was reachable, and the single most important finding about sources **The Chicago Tribune of 1871 is itself in Chronicling America** (LCCN sn82014064, "Chicago tribune (Chicago, Ill.) 1864-1872", batch `dlc_clark_ver03`). The Tribune is present for every issue from its post-fire resumption on Wednesday 11 October 1871 through 31 December 1871, with these gaps: no issues for 9–10 October (not published) or 15 October and 26 December (not present), **no 1 December issue**, and **only two pages of the 30 November (Thanksgiving) issue**. Every page of 11 Oct–16 Dec was harvested as OCR text (`pages/loc/sn82014064__ed-1_p.txt`, with a `.json` sidecar giving the LoC resource URL, PDF and full-text service URL). This gives the Tribune's own day-by-day reports of the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners' inquiry (23 November–2 December) and its 12 December printing of the Board's report — the best available substitute for the handwritten transcript. Other sources: - **Chronicling America out-of-town papers**: searched with c. 50 query/date-window combinations (log in `SOURCES.md`; consolidated results in `search_results.json`); OCR of every hit page in 9 Oct 1871–31 Dec 1871 was fetched into `pages/loc/` (1,669 page texts, including the Tribune, the Staats-Zeitung weekly and 478 of the 1,009 pages of the unfinished December campaign, §2.14). Papers carrying Chicago dispatches include the New York Herald, New-York Tribune, The Sun, Evening Star (Washington), Memphis Daily Appeal, New Orleans Republican, Wheeling Intelligencer, Worcester Daily Spy, Portland Daily Press, Cairo (Ill.) Daily Bulletin, and many weeklies. - **Illinois Staats-Zeitung (Chicago's German daily; LCCN sn85033492)**: Chronicling America holds it for this period only as the weekly edition (Tuesdays: 24 and 31 Oct; 7, 14, 21, 28 Nov; 5, 12, 19 Dec 1871), which reprints the daily's local matter a week or so late. All nine issues (4 pp. each, 36 pages) were fetched as OCR (`pages/loc/sn85033492__ed-1_p.txt`) and scanned for Leary/Koven/Sullivan/McLaughlin/Untersuchung/Polizei-Commissäre/Feuer-Commissäre/Kuh/Lampe/Stall/Brandstiftung and related terms (`sz_scan.py`). The paper's own account of the origin (24 Oct, 31 Oct and 7 Nov: §1) is in hand; **its weekly issues of 28 Nov, 5 Dec, 12 Dec and 19 Dec contain no report of the Police and Fire Commissioners' inquiry and no mention of the Board's report of 11 Dec** — the only "Untersuchung" of a fire in December is a Milwaukee insurance agent's letter on the Wisconsin forest fires (12 Dec, p.2). The Fraktur OCR is poor but the proper names Leary, DeKoven, Sullivan and McLaughlin are recognisable where they occur (as they do on 24 Oct, 31 Oct and 7 Nov), so this is a real absence, not an OCR failure. - **chicagology.com** Chicago Fire section: 56 pages saved (`pages/chicagology/`). Directly relevant: `fire052` "Origin of the Fire" (transcribes the Tribune of 20 Oct 1871 with the McDermott affidavits, and the Chicago Evening Post of 12 Dec 1871 printing the Board's finding); `fire013` (Harper's Weekly, 11 Nov 1871, reprinting the Chicago Journal's interview with Mrs. Leary); `fire009` (Harper's Weekly, 28 Oct 1871); `fire010` (labelled "Chicago Evening Post—October 10, 1871", but the text calls itself "the Ledger" — see §1); `fire001` (Lakeside Monthly, Jan 1872); `fire030` (Leary cottage photographs). - **greatchicagofire.org**: the "O'Leary Legend" essay, its library items ("Kate the barn is afire" — an excerpt of Mrs. O'Leary's testimony from the transcript; "The Official Report" — the Board's report as printed by Andreas; the 1872 Insurance Monitor poem), the "Media Event" pages, and the timeline items for 7 Oct–30 Dec 1871 (`pages/gcf/`). - **fultonhistory.com**: the dtSearch back end (`POST /dtSearch/dtisapi6.dll`) can be driven programmatically (see `SOURCES.md` for the exact form fields); it returns PDF links, and the PDF text layer was extracted with PyMuPDF (`pages/fulton/`). Its `fileConditions`/`xfilter` date restriction is ignored and results are capped at 500–1000 by hit count, so 1871 hits had to be filtered from the link list. Fulton's 1871 holdings that surfaced: Troy Daily Times, Troy Daily Whig, Albany Morning Express, Watkins Schuyler County Democrat, Schoharie Union, Greenfield (Mass.) Gazette, Indianapolis Evening News, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York World (1871–72 volume), and scans of the **Chicago Tribune 1871** (which duplicate LoC's pages). The New York Herald, Tribune, Sun and Times for 1871 did not surface on Fulton in these searches; the Herald, Tribune and Sun are in Chronicling America anyway. - **LoC page images**: the page PDFs on tile.loc.gov/storage-services are behind a Cloudflare challenge from here (HTTP 403 "Just a moment…"), but the IIIF image service is open and can serve any region of a page at full resolution (`https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:ndnp:::data::::/,,,/full/0/default.jpg`; the identifier is the `segment=` path of the page's word-coordinates URL with `/` replaced by `:` and the `.xml` dropped; use `curl --http1.1`, HTTP/2 transfers are cut off by the proxy). This is how the Frostburg credit line was verified (pages/loc/frostburg_1028_topleft.jpg) and is the route to check any OCR reading against the print. - **Not usable**: nytimes.com search (HTTP 403 from the proxy); Trove API (401, key required); Papers Past (Incapsula JavaScript challenge); IDNC (Cloudflare challenge). Headless Chromium cannot connect through the egress proxy here (`net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET` on every host), so no browser-based attempt on IDNC/Papers Past/Trove was possible. The Chicago Times, Evening Journal, Republican and Evening Post of October 1871 are not in Chronicling America; what they printed is known here only through quotation in the Tribune, in Harper's Weekly, and in chicagology's transcriptions. **Chicago Tribune holdings used (LoC sn82014064, batch dlc_clark_ver03).** Every page of every issue from 11 Oct to 16 Dec 1871 was fetched as OCR text (`pages/loc/sn82014064__ed-1_p.txt`, with `.json` sidecars giving the LoC resource URL and the tile.loc.gov full-text URL). Issues present in LoC in October: 11 (2 pp.), 12, 13, 14, 16 (6 pp.), 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Oct (4 pp. each unless noted); absent: 9, 10 and 15 Oct. The 11–22 Oct issues are also assembled one file per issue in `pages/tribune_issues/tribune_.txt`, and `pages/tribune_index_oct.md` gives per-page keyword counts (O'Leary, DeKoven, cow+lamp, barn, Sullivan, McLaughlin, "origin", "Times", smoke/pipe/cigar); `pages/tribune_index_nov.md` does the same for 23 Oct–22 Nov (42 pages with hits out of 170), and every hit that concerns the cause, the O'Learys, Sullivan or the McLaughlins is written up in §1 (27 Oct, 4 Nov, 7–8 Nov, 11 Nov, 12 Nov, 15–20 Nov). The rest are homonyms (a Brooklyn "Register McLaughlin", a Boston lawyer McLaughlin, Sullivan, Ill., "John DeKoven, cashier", cattle sales, want-ads). No "boys smoking in the barn" story was found in the Tribune of 11–22 Oct (the "smok/cigar" hits are advertisements); the Tribune's only pre-inquiry reference to a smoker is the editorial of 16 Nov ("the man with a pipe who passed through the O'Leary back-yard", §1). The Times-story rebuttals are the letter and affidavits of 20 Oct p.2 (§1) and the Tribune's own interview of 19 Oct p.2; the Tribune of 21 Oct p.2 also defends Mayor Mason against the Times. The issues of 20 Oct and 23 Nov–14 Dec are also held in the transcript folder (../transcript/text/tribune/); the copies here were fetched independently and are identical LoC OCR. ## 1. Dated chronology: how the fire was said to have started Dates are dates of printing; dispatch dates are given where the page carries them. **Mon 9 Oct – Tue 10 Oct 1871 (first wire dispatches): location, no cause.** The Associated Press night dispatch printed on 9–10 Oct gives only a location: "The fire started in a row of low wooden buildings on Dekoven street, between Jefferson and Clinton, and, as was the case last night, spread with terrible rapidity. Before a single engine could get on the ground, half of the block was in flames" (Cheyenne Daily Leader, 9 Oct, p.1, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84022149/1871-10-09/ed-1/?sp=1 ; same text Wheeling Daily Register 10 Oct p.1; Worcester Daily Spy 10 Oct p.2; Stark County Democrat 12 Oct p.2). The New York Herald of 10 Oct (p.7) has the Herald's own narrative: "This was at ten o'clock at night, and occurred at the corner of Jefferson and Dekoven streets, again in the Western division" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030313/1871-10-10/ed-1/?sp=7). No cause is offered in any 9–10 Oct dispatch found. **Tue 10 Oct, "Milwaukee, Oct 10, 10 A.M." – the earliest printed cow-and-lamp statement found.** A Milwaukee relay dispatch printed in the St. Cloud (Minn.) Journal of 12 Oct, p.2: "MILWAUKEE, Oct 10, 10 A.M. Fire commenced on the corner of Twelfth and Dekoven streets, at 9½ o'clock, occasioned, it is said, by a cow kicking over a lamp" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033526/1871-10-12/ed-1/?sp=2 ; the same dispatch in the Grant County (Wis.) Herald, 16 Oct, p.1: "commenced on the corner of Twelfth and De Koven streets, at 9½ o'clock, occasioned, it is said, by a cow kicking over a lamp"). Note the wrong cross-street (Twelfth) and the hedge "it is said". No person is named. **Tue 10 Oct (dispatch) / Wed 11 Oct (print): the Associated Press "boy" version.** The AP's long account, headed in the Sun "The Origin of the Disaster" and introduced as "specially prepared for the Associated Press by those who witnessed and fought the flames throughout", reads: "Late on Sunday evening a boy went into a stable on Dekoven street, near the river, on the west side, to milk a cow, carrying with him a kerosene lamp. This was kicked over by the cow, and the burning fluid scattered among the straw. This was the beginning of the great fire. A single extinguisher on the ground, or active work of the police in tearing down one or two shanties, would have prevented the" [conflagration]. Printed: New York Herald 11 Oct p.5 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030313/1871-10-11/ed-1/?sp=5); The Sun 11 Oct p.1 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030272/1871-10-11/ed-1/?sp=1); Wheeling Daily Register 11 Oct p.1; Richmond Daily Dispatch 12 Oct p.1; Stark County Democrat 12 Oct p.2; Springfield Weekly Republican 13 Oct p.5; Pawtucket Gazette 13 Oct p.2 ("so it is stated, a boy went into a stable"); Independent Statesman 13 Oct p.8; Cambria Freeman 14 Oct p.2; Shepherdstown Register 14 Oct p.3. This is the version that went round the country first: **a boy, not a woman, and no name**. **Tue 10 Oct: a Chicago paper printing on the West Side gives other rumours.** chicagology.com's page `fire010`, labelled "Chicago Evening Post—October 10, 1871", transcribes an article that opens "It becomes the sad mission of the Ledger to chronicle the particulars…" and later says all newspaper offices were burned "except the Ledger offices which is located in the West Division" — i.e. the text is, or was printed from, the Chicago Ledger's West Side office (chicagology's attribution should be treated with caution). It says: "At about nine o'clock last evening, flames broke out in a small barn on Farquahr [Forquer] street, near Jefferson, in the West Division, about ¼ of a mile from the South Branch of the river. How those flames originated, we do not know, though rumor has it that they were the result of incendiarism and also that they sprang from a carelessly used pipe or cigar." (pages/chicagology/chicago-fire_fire010.txt; https://chicagology.com/chicago-fire/fire010/). So on the morning of 10 Oct, at least one Chicago paper had incendiarism or a pipe/cigar, not a cow. **Thu 12 Oct: "a woman was milking".** Kenosha Telegraph, 12 Oct, p.8: "The fire broke out on the corner of DeKoven and Twelfth streets, at about nine o'clock on Sunday evening, being caused by a cow kicking over a lamp in a stable in which a woman was milking" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033123/1871-10-12/ed-1/?sp=8). This is the earliest "woman" version found in the out-of-town press. **Mon 9 Oct, afternoon: the source of the "woman milking" version is the Chicago Evening Journal's extra.** The Watertown (Wis.) Republican of 18 Oct, p.1, reprints it with its credit line: "ORIGIN OF THE FIRE. From the Chicago Journal Extra, Monday, [3] o'clock P. M. The fire broke out on the corner of DeKoven and Twelfth streets, at about nine o'clock on Sunday evening, being caused by a cow kicking over a lamp in a stable in which a woman was milking. An alarm was immediately given, but, owing to the high southwest wind, the building was speedily consumed, and thence the fire spread rapidly" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033295/1871-10-18/ed-1/?sp=1). The identical text is what the Kenosha Telegraph printed on 12 Oct (p.8, above). So the earliest Chicago-printed statement of the cause reachable here — on the afternoon of the day the fire was still burning — already had the cow, the lamp and a milking *woman*, but no name and no street number. **Mon 9 Oct (the Chicago Newspaper Union's extra, "Last night"): "occasioned by a cow kicking over a lamp".** A Chicago report written on Monday 9 Oct — reprinted without credit in the Wyandot County (Ohio) Republican, 19 Oct, p.3, and the True Northerner (Paw Paw, Mich.), 20 Oct, p.2, and with the credit "THE CHICAGO FIRE … From the Chicago Newspaper Union. Extra. Oct. 9" in the Frostburg (Md.) Mining Journal, 28 Oct, p.1 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85025350/1871-10-28/ed-1/?sp=1; the credit line "From the Chicago Newspaper Union, Extra, Oct. 9." was verified on the page image, pages/loc/frostburg_1028_topleft.jpg, fetched through LoC's IIIF image service since the PDF is behind a Cloudflare challenge) — follows its account of the Saturday-night Lull & Holmes fire with: "THE WEST SIDE. Last night about nine o'clock a fire broke out in a barn on the corner of Twelfth and De Koven streets, occasioned by a cow kicking over a lamp. An alarm was quickly sounded, but the high wind prevailing at the time caused the building to burn and the fire to spread rapidly, and before the engines reached the ground several buildings were in flames and the firemen were forced to give way to the devouring element" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85038238/1871-10-19/ed-1/?sp=3 ; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033781/1871-10-20/ed-1/?sp=2). The wrong cross-street ("Twelfth") in all the 9–10 Oct versions is the same error as in the Milwaukee relay dispatch. The Chicago Newspaper Union (the ready-print house at 13 North Jefferson street, on the unburnt West Side) is where the Evening Journal's half-sheet of Monday afternoon was printed and where the Tribune and Times were to be printed (Manitowoc Pilot, 12 Oct, p.2, Chicago letter of 10 Oct: "The Evening Journal made a raise of type, and came out on a half sheet this afternoon, printed at the office of the 'Chicago Newspaper Union.' … The Tribune and Times are to be printed in the morning at the same place as the Journal"; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033139/1871-10-12/ed-1/?sp=2). Its extra of 9 Oct, supplied to its country clients, is therefore the earliest Chicago-printed statement of the cow-and-lamp cause identified here, contemporary with the Journal extra of the same afternoon; no copy of the extra itself was found, only these reprints of 19–28 Oct. **Thu 12 Oct: a Wisconsin weekly's survey of the competing rumours.** Kenosha Telegraph, 12 Oct, p.4: "On Sunday evening about nine o'clock another fire broke out on the west side, generally said to be on the corner of De Koven and Twelfth streets, and to be caused by a cow kicking over a lamp in a stable in which a woman was milking. It has also been located on Farquhar street near Jefferson, and has been attributed to incendiarism and to carelessly used pipe or cigar. It has also been attributed to a light in a saloon by which a stove with fire was turned over, and by one man, as reported by a Milwaukee paper, to carelessness of the firemen in not extinguishing the first fire, from which he says it originated" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033123/1871-10-12/ed-1/?sp=4). Four days after the fire, then, the press had five versions in circulation: cow and lamp (woman milking); incendiarism; pipe or cigar; a saloon stove; a rekindling of Saturday's fire. **Wed 11 Oct: Chicago Tribune resumes** (4 pages). No statement of the cause was found in the 11 Oct issue (searched for "originat", "Koven", "cow", "barn", "lamp"). Its p.1 missing-persons list happens to include a "Henry Leary" — unrelated. **Thu 12 Oct: Tribune first refers to the barn, without a name.** Tribune 12 Oct p.1: "The little one-story frame in the rear of which was the barn in which the fire originated, on De Koven street, stands to-day alone and untouched. The flames swept rapidly on every side, igniting everything else, while that miserable structure stands — a monument [?] of the place where the fire commenced. Will some enterprising museum please purchase it at a fictitious price, and help to relieve the disaster with a round sum?" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-10-12/ed-1/?sp=1). **c. 10–14 Oct (daily) / Tue 24 Oct (weekly): Chicago's German daily — "set on purpose, or an oil lamp upset".** The Illinois Staats-Zeitung's retrospective (in LoC only as the weekly edition of 24 Oct, p.1, but already reprinted by the Täglicher Baltimore Wecker on 17 Oct, p.2, so written for the daily in the first week after the fire): "Daß die Feuersbrunst am Sonntag Abend halb 10 Uhr an der Ecke von 12. und De Koven Straße ausbrach (nach manchen Vermuthungen angelegt, nach anderen Angaben durch das Umstoßen einer Oellampe veranlaßt); daß es sich, von einem orkanartigen Südwestwinde angefacht, ostwärts und nordwärts an Jefferson u. Clinton Straße eine Meile lang ausbreitete … Das Alles wissen unsere Leser schon längst" — "that the conflagration broke out on Sunday evening at half past 9 at the corner of Twelfth and De Koven street (according to some conjectures set on purpose, according to other accounts caused by the upsetting of an oil lamp) … all this our readers have long known" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033492/1871-10-24/ed-1/?sp=1 ; Wecker: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026860/1871-10-17/ed-1/?sp=2). No cow, no milking, no name: for the German paper incendiarism and an upset lamp were equal "conjectures". **Wed 11 Oct (visit) / Thu 19 Oct (print): the Cincinnati Gazette's correspondent interviews Mrs. Leary — the earliest interview found.** Nashville Union and American, 19 Oct, p.2, in an editorial headed "Was the great fire in Chicago the work of thieves?": "As to the origin of the fire, the cow and kerosene story is not generally credited now. A correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette paid a visit Wednesday evening to Leary, No. 137 DeKoven street, in whose stable the fire Sunday night started. … [she had been reported as carrying] a kerosene lamp, and that the cow kicked the lamp over and started the fire. She says this is not true, and that she was in [bed at the] time; besides, she uses sperm oil and not kerosene … She says the house opposite and across the alley north was unoccupied, and she thinks some one fired the shed on the back of that. Many of the neighbors affirm the story of the cow and the kerosene lamp. I don't know how they can be certain about that, for no witness has turned up … Leary said she would not be milking a cow at that time of night" (OCR partly illegible; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033699/1871-10-19/ed-1/?sp=2). "Wednesday evening" is 11 Oct. The Gazette itself is not in Chronicling America; this is the earliest text found in which the name Leary and the number 137 DeKoven street are printed, and it shows Mrs. Leary's denial (and her counter-suggestion of incendiarism from the unoccupied house across the alley) was on record a week before the Tribune's interview. A second reprint of the same letter, in the Ouachita Telegraph (Monroe, La.), 28 Oct, p.2 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85034336/1871-10-28/ed-1/?sp=2), headed "The Origin of the Chicago Fire. [Cincinnati Gazette Cor.]", runs on past the point where the Nashville text stops: "Many of the neighbors affirm the story of the cow and the kerosene lamp. I don't know how they can be certain about that, for no witness has turned up, and Mrs. Leary says she would not be milking a cow at that time of night. Another story is that across the alley from Mrs. Leary's some Bohemian tailors got to quarrelling and upset a kerosene lamp among a lot of shavings, and so started the conflagration." The same closing sentences, credited only to "Exchange", are in the Bossier Banner (Bellevue, La.), 18 Nov, p.4 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85034235/1871-11-18/ed-1/?sp=4). This "Bohemian tailors" story (garbled to "some tipsy tailor" in the Belmont Chronicle of 26 Oct, below) is the earliest form found of the Bohemian-neighbour theory that the Staats-Zeitung later put as "an old Bohemian woman" (7 Nov) and that surfaced at the inquiry as the Regan/"Bohemian" alley. **Sat 14 Oct (dispatch) / Tue 17 Oct (print): the New-York Tribune's special correspondent at "the cradle of the fire" — Patrick's first reported statement.** New-York Tribune, 17 Oct, p.1, "THE CRADLE AND THE GRAVE OF THE FIRE. [From the Special Correspondent of The Tribune.] Chicago, Oct. 14": "I found Dekoven-st. at last, a mean little street of shabby wooden houses … On the south side of the street not a house was touched. On the north only one remained. … a squalid little hovel alone remained intact … For out of that house, last Sunday night, came a woman with a lamp to the barn behind the house, to milk the cow with the crumpled temper, that kicked the lamp, that spilled the kerosene, that fired the straw, that burned Chicago. … I went around to the rear, and there found the Man of the House sitting with two of his friends. His wife, Our Lady of the Lamp … sat at the window, knitting. I approached the Man of the House and gave him good-day. He glanced up with sleepy, furtive eyes. I asked him what he knew about the origin of the fire. He glanced at his friends and said, civilly, he knew very little; he was waked up about 9 o'clock by the alarm, and fought from that time to save his house; at every sentence he turned to his friends and said, 'I can prove it by them,' to which they nodded assent. He seemed fearful that all Chicago was coming down upon him for prompt and integral payment of that $200,000,000 his cow had kicked over. His neighbors say this story is an invention dating from the second day of the fire" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1871-10-17/ed-1/?sp=1 ; reprinted Worcester Daily Spy 19 Oct p.2, Richmond Daily Dispatch 19 Oct p.1, and — this is the passage chicagology reproduces from Harper's Weekly of 11 Nov). The family is not named; the correspondent treats the cow story as fact and Patrick's "I was asleep" as a fiction. (The letter is credited to "John Hay, in New York Tribune" when the Yorkville (S.C.) Enquirer reprints it on 26 Oct, p.2, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026925/1871-10-26/ed-1/?sp=2 — the same text, "THAT HOUSE … I can prove it by them … an invention dating from the second day of the fire"; and the Green-Mountain Freeman (Montpelier, Vt.), 1 Nov, p.1, introduces the same letter with "John Hay of the New York Tribune thus describes a visit to Dekoven street", https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84023209/1871-11-01/ed-1/?sp=1.) **Thu 19 Oct (dispatch) / Fri 20 Oct (print): Mrs. Leary's denial goes out on the wires, in two forms.** Eastern papers: "Mrs. Leroy [sic], of 137 Dekoven street, in whose barn the fire originated, pronounces the story false that the fire broke out owing to carrying a kerosene lamp into the stable. She was in bed and asleep when the fire commenced" (New York Herald 20 Oct p.7, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030313/1871-10-20/ed-1/?sp=7 ; Portland Daily Press 20 Oct p.3; Daily Kennebec Journal 20 Oct p.3; Worcester Daily Spy 20 Oct p.1; Richmond Daily Dispatch 21 Oct p.1). Western/Southern papers: "Mrs. Leary, residing at No. 137 [DeKoven] street, in whose barn the fire originated which destroyed the city, pronounces the story as false that her cow kicked over the lamp in the stable while she was milking; on the contrary, she was abed and asleep when the fire commenced" (Morning Republican, Little Rock, 20 Oct p.1, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014367/1871-10-20/ed-1/?sp=1). Both are condensations of the Tribune interview of 19 Oct; the eastern one garbles the name. **Wed 18 Oct: the Chicago Times' hostile story.** The Times is not available; it is known here from the Tribune letter of 20 Oct ("as the Times has it, an 'Irish hag' of 70 years of age … the epithets used by the Times of the 18th"), from Mrs. Leary's remark to the Journal ("the dirty Times had no business to say it, bad cess to it", see below), and from greatchicagofire.org's summary that the Times described her "as a welfare cheat who, 'when cut off, vowed revenge'" (pages/gcf/oleary-legend.txt). **Thu 19 Oct: the Tribune interviews Mrs. Leary — the first naming of the family in the Tribune, and her denial.** Tribune 19 Oct p.2, under "The Cow that Kicked Over the Lamp": "A reporter of The Tribune called upon Mrs. Leary, of No. 137 DeKoven street, in whose barn originated the fire, which destroyed the city of Chicago on last Sunday night and Monday morning. It was the intention to interview her [as to the] cause of the fire, and ascertain all about that 'cow which kicked over the lamp.' She said that this story was false; she did not go into the barn with a kerosene lamp; she did not milk at night; and she did not know how the fire started. She was asleep when the alarm was given, and was awakened by a neighbor, who rapped on the door and told her that the stable was on fire. When asked how her house, which is not even scorched, was saved, she replied that there was a hydrant on each side of it, and a hundred of her friends filled buckets with water and threw it on the sides and roof of the building." (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-10-19/ed-1/?sp=2). The same page carries a joke: "A Chinaman's account of the Chicago calamity is as follows: 'Melican Ilish boy take kelosene lamp and milk cow; cow kick over lamp; up go Chicago.'" **Fri 20 Oct: sworn affidavits published.** Tribune 20 Oct p.2, "How It Originated. Statements and Affidavits as to the Starting Point of the Great Fire", a letter from Michael McDermott, Notary Public and City Surveyor, who on "last Sunday night" (15 Oct) went to "the O'Leary's house, yet standing, and there, at No. 137 DeKoven street, on the east ½ of Lot 12, in Block 38, School Section Addition to Chicago, found Dennis Sullivan, of No. 134, and Dennis Ryan, of No. 112, both of DeKoven street. There and then I took the annexed affidavits. The parties have been known to me personally for several years as of irreproachable character. Mrs. O'Leary is neither haggard nor dirty." The affidavits (sworn 15 Oct 1871): "Patrick O'Leary, and Catherine, his wife, being duly sworn before me, testify that they live at No. 137 DeKoven street, and own the lot and house in which they live; they had five cows, a horse and wagon, on all of which they had not one cent of insurance. She milked her cows at 4½ p.m. and 5 a.m., as Mrs. O'Leary peddled the milk. Mrs. O'Leary fed the horse beside the fence at about 7 o'clock p.m., and then put him in the barn. She had no lamp in the yard or barn that night or evening. Patrick O'Leary testifies that he was not in the barn during that day or night; left the feeding of the cows and horse to his wife and daughter; that both were in bed when awakened by Denis Ryan, of No. 112 DeKoven street; that they have lost their barn, cows, horse and wagon." The OCR shows both signed by mark ("Patrick X O'Leary, his mark", "Catherine X O'Leary, her mark"). Sullivan's affidavit: "Denis Sullivan being duly sworn before me testifies that he was at Patrick O'Leary's house, No. 137 DeKoven street, on Sunday night the 8th of October, 1871, from about 8½ to 9 o'clock at night, during which time Mr. O'Leary and wife were in bed; that he went a few lots east of O'Leary's on the opposite side of DeKoven street, until about half-past 9 o'clock, when he saw the fire. He went across the street and cried 'fire,' 'fire,' and went into O'Leary's barn, where he found the hay in the loft on fire. He then attempted to cut loose the cows and horse, but failed to save anything but a half burned calf. He then came to O'Leary's and found them out of bed. Denis Ryan alarmed them during his time at the barn." (LoC OCR: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-10-20/ed-1/?sp=2 ; clean transcription at https://chicagology.com/chicago-fire/fire052/ ; Fulton's scan of the same page: pages/fulton/Chicago_IL_Tribune_1871_-_0349.txt.) The letter itself points away from the family: the facts "will cause the public to look for the cause in other sources, and perhaps attribute it to the love of plunder, Divine wrath, etc." **Mon 16 Oct (letter) / Sat 21 Oct (print): a New York reader on the ground calls the cow story "the invention of the incendiaries".** New-York Tribune, 21 Oct, p.9, letter headed "HOW DID THE CHICAGO FIRE ORIGINATE?", signed "E.C.T., Chicago, Oct. 16, 1871": "A visit to [the] point where the fire originated convinces me [that the] tale of the cow and the kerosene lamp is [untrue]. I found on the site of the barn from which [the] mischief spread the carcasses of five cows and one [horse]. It is reasonable to infer that these need not have been lost if any one had been at hand other than an incendiary. Mr. Leary, to whom the barn belonged, was in bed when the fire broke out. A man who lives [across] the street first saw the fire, and it was then too late to [save] the animals, excepting a calf, which was hastily [got] out. Evidently the story of the cow and the kerosene lamp was the invention of the incendiaries. And I have no doubt that the intention was to start a conflagration which should sweep over the city. The fire of Saturday night was meant to the same end, but the wind was not strong enough for success, and the firemen were too [prompt]. The second and great fire was started just south of the scene of the first, exactly at the right point to produce the result…" (OCR poor; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1871-10-21/ed-1/?sp=9). Note that the "five cows and one horse" and "a man across the street first saw the fire … a calf saved" match the 15 Oct affidavits of the O'Learys and Sullivan (Tribune 20 Oct). **Sat 21 Oct: the Chicago Evening Journal's interview with Mrs. Leary — "Whether man or cow, match or lamp".** The Journal's article is dated by two reprints that Harper's omits to credit: the Workingman's Advocate (Chicago), 28 Oct, p.1, "ORIGIN OF THE FIRE. [Interview] with Mrs. Leary—The Cow and Lamp Story. From the Chicago Journal, Oct. 21" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn89077510/1871-10-28/ed-1/?sp=1; the OCR of this page is very poor) and the New Orleans Republican, 29 Oct, p.6, "From the Chicago Journal, October 21" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83016555/1871-10-29/ed-1/?sp=6), whose text is quoted here. The Journal's preamble, not in Harper's: "Rightfully or wrongfully, the great fire of London, September 2, 1[666], is [laid at the] door of a bakehouse … in Pudding lane, near the tower; and rightfully or wrongfully, the [great fire of Chi]cago, October 8, 1871, will go down to history as chargeable to one Mrs. Leary, a dairy woman, living on DeKoven street, between Canal and Jefferson streets. According to Mistress Rumor, the cow woman was later than usual about her milking, and to 'lighten' the job she took a kerosene lamp to the stable. While at her work, the beast she was draining [came] up with her right hind leg and hit the lamp a kick, splashing the burning fluid against the wall. In an instant the whole stable was in flames, and the woman had time only to escape with her life, leaving the kine to roast. Another slightly varied version is that she milked at the usual hour, but in the evening took [a lamp] and went out to see if all was right, and, [seeing] that the cows wanted salting, she put the lamp down by the door and went back for her salt dish. Before she returned the barn was all ablaze. The story told that night, and before any one had the least idea that a great conflagration was in store, was caught up by the electric wires the next morning and flashed wherever telegraphy extends. Even if it were [an] absurd rumor, forty miles wide of the truth, it would be useless to attempt to alter 'the verdict of history.' Mrs. Leary has made a sworn statement in refutation of the charge, and it is backed by other affidavits; but to little or no purpose. She is in for it and no mistake. Fame has seized her, and appropriated her name, barn, cows and all. … Now that our reporters have a little leisure for matters of secondary importance … we sent one of them to the spot where the fire originated, for whatever clouds may shroud the cause of the fire, the place where it began is quite beyond dispute. He had the good fortune to find the woman herself." The interview: "We saw a stout Irish woman, some thirty-five years of age, standing at the rear door of this solitary house, with a babe in her arms, talking with one of her countrymen. … Reporter: Are you the lady of the house? Mrs. Leary: I am, sir. Reporter: Have you lived here long? Mrs. Leary: Going on five years. Reporter: Do you own this place? Mrs. Leary: I do. Reporter: Did the fire start in your barn? Mrs. Leary: It did. Reporter: What was in it? Mrs. Leary: Five cows, a horse and about two tons of hay in the loft. Reporter: Is your husband an expressman? Mrs. Leary: Indade, he is not. We all knocked our living out of those five blessed cows, and I never had a cint from the parish in all my life, and the dirty Times had no business to say it, bad cess to it. Reporter: How about that kerosene lamp story? Mrs. Leary: There is not a word of truth in the whole story. I always milked my cows by daylight, and never had a lamp of any kind or a candle about the barn. It must have been set afire. Two neighbors at the far end of the alley saw a strange man [come up] about half-past nine in the eve[ning. H]e asked them was the alley straight through. They told him it was, and he went through. It wasn't five minutes till they saw the barn on fire. Before we had time to get out the horse or any of the cows it was all gone, and the fire was running in every direction. The boy turned to and saved the house. I hope to die if this isn't every word of it true. If you was a priest I wouldn't tell it any different. All further questioning was useless. … 'It was pretty rough on you, anyway.' 'Rough!' she exclaimed, 'why, my God, man, it was a terror to the world!' The fog will probably never rise from that barn. Whether fired by an incendiary or a kerosene lamp kicked over by an irate cow, must remain an open question. The woman would naturally shrink from the responsibility, knowing that she would be severely blamed for her carelessness, and feeling, in her ignorance, that she might be made to suffer for it, either by mob violence or the hand of the law. On the other hand, there is nothing improbable in her story. One thing is certain: Whether man or cow, match or lamp, the greatest fire of all the ages began in a dairy kept in the very heart of the city." Note (i) the Journal's dating of the rumour to "that night" and the wires of "the next morning"; (ii) the "salt dish" variant, found nowhere else; (iii) Mrs. Leary's "strange man" who asked "was the alley straight through" — the man with the pipe of the Tribune's 16 Nov list and the "stranger" of the inquiry; (iv) "the boy turned to and saved the house" — her son (cf. Sullivan's affidavit and the 24 Nov testimony). Harper's Weekly, 11 Nov 1871 (chicagology `fire013`, pages/chicagology/chicago-fire_fire013.txt; https://chicagology.com/chicago-fire/fire013/), reprints the interview without the preamble and, uncredited, the New-York Tribune correspondent's 14 Oct visit (see the 17 Oct entry). **Mon 23 Oct: the Chicago Times prints a "confession" of arson by the International.** Chicago dispatch of 23 Oct in the Gold Hill (Nev.) Daily News, 23 Oct, p.2: "The Times this morning publishes a highly sensational account of the origin of the great fire [—] what purports to be the confession [of a member of the] International Society, who alleges that it was their work. He set the first fire on Dekoven street, and about a dozen confederates assisted in spreading it. He declares this is the third attempt, the first being September 30th, when the Burlington Warehouse was burned. The second was on the Saturday night preceding the great fire. The writer further says that Geo. Francis Train is a member of the Society, and in a lecture at Farwell Hall, the night of the disaster, he came near betraying them by using the following language: 'This is the last public address that will be delivered within these walls. A terrible calamity is impending over Chicago. More I cannot, dare not say.' … [The Times] declines to offer an opinion as to the authenticity of the story, and says it will not be believed unless by the credulous. It is certain to all who saw the fire that the perfect hurricane of wind which accompanied it was quite sufficient to account for its terribly rapid spread" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84022046/1871-10-23/ed-1/?sp=2). The confession's own words on the barn, as reprinted by the Cedar Falls (Iowa) Gazette, 3 Nov, p.1 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83025161/1871-11-03/ed-1/?sp=1; also Urbana (Ohio) Union, 8 Nov, p.1): "The plot had been so arranged that all should appear as accident, our part being mainly to assist the progress of the flames … The place above all others in the city which promised the great measure of success was in the barn on DeKoven street. No 'old Irish hag' was milking her cow at the time, as the reporters of the city press are determined to have it. A human being of a different sex was there, however, but had disappeared, as if by magic, before any mortal eye had remarked his presence. Before the arrival of the jaded firemen at the scene of the conflagration, half a dozen mines had been touched off … Simultaneously a mine was sprung at the gas works and another near Van Buren street bridge." (The "gas works" motif recurs, from the other side, in the Board's questions to the gas-works superintendents on 28–29 Nov, §§2.5–2.6.) **Tue 24 Oct (daily) / Tue 31 Oct (weekly): the Staats-Zeitung dismisses the "International" confession — "Arson or accident?"** Illinois Staats-Zeitung (weekly), 31 Oct, p.1, "Brandstiftung oder Zufall?": "Seitdem die berühmt gewordene Kuh in DeKoven-Straße sich von der Brandbühne [in Folge verschiedener Affidavits] zurückgezogen hat, ist ein neuer Kandidat auf dieselbe getreten und nimmt den schrecklichen Ruhm in Anspruch, der Herostrat Chicagos gewesen zu sein. Es sind vorgebliche Mitglieder der Internationalen, welche den Brand in Chicago systematisch angelegt haben wollen. Eine lange, für einen wirklichen Brandstifter viel zu sehr auf Effekt berechnet geschriebene Geschichte der Verschwörung zur Zerstörung Chicagos wird in der gestrigen Times [veröffentlicht], ohne daß jedoch die Zeitung die Glaubwürdigkeit der angeblich einem geängsteten Gewissen entstammten Mittheilung zu behaupten wagt … (wir halten nämlich die Erzählung von Anfang bis zu Ende für erdichtet)" — "Since the now-famous cow of DeKoven street has withdrawn from the stage of the fire [in consequence of various affidavits], a new candidate has stepped onto it and claims the terrible fame of having been the Herostratus of Chicago. They are pretended members of the International, who claim to have set the Chicago fire systematically. A long history of the conspiracy to destroy Chicago, written far too much for effect for a real incendiary, is [published] in yesterday's Times, without the paper daring to vouch for the credibility of the communication, supposedly sprung from a frightened conscience … (we hold the tale to be invented from beginning to end)" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033492/1871-10-31/ed-1/?sp=1). The German paper thus treated the cow as disposed of by the affidavits and the arson confession as fiction — within a week of the Times' story. **Mon 23 Oct – Tue 24 Oct: the eastern press accepts the affidavits.** New York Herald, 23 Oct, p.7, and (credited to the Philadelphia Ledger) the Washington Evening Star, 24 Oct, p.4, "How it Originated": "The story of the cow and the kerosene lamp having been the origin of the Chicago fire is squelched by the affidavits of the owners of the property, who swear that there was no fire in the stable that night, and that their cows were milked before dark. This is unfortunate, for the lesson taught by the supposed origin of the conflagration in connection with kerosene might have been the means of saving many a life by causing more care to be used in handling the inflammable material. The origin of the fire, therefore, still remains a mystery" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1871-10-24/ed-1/?sp=4 ; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030313/1871-10-23/ed-1/?sp=7). Contrast Memphis Public Ledger, 23 Oct, p.2: "Mrs. Leary, who owns the cow that kicked over the lamp that burned Chicago, denies the kicking over business. Now, Mrs. Leary, you should know better. You should know that your cow did kick over that lamp" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033673/1871-10-23/ed-1/?sp=2). **Thu 26 Oct: the weeklies' versions — "some tipsy tailor", and "the body of the historic cow".** Belmont Chronicle (St. Clairsville, Ohio), 26 Oct, p.2 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85026241/1871-10-26/ed-1/?sp=2), an unsigned paragraph evidently lifted from a larger paper: "The origin of the great Chicago fire ought to be settled. … It should be decided now whether a cow is responsible for this historic fire. One of our correspondents, tracing this story to its source, was told by the woman who owned the shanty on the corner of De Koven and Jefferson streets that the flames were not started in the barn, she plausibly argued, [nobody] milking at 10 o'clock at night. It was her belief that the flames were started in the rear of the barn, and were caused by the upsetting of a kerosene lamp [by] some tipsy tailor [sic]. The story of the cow is nevertheless the popular one. For the sake of truth let the facts [be] thoroughly searched out." The "tipsy tailor" is a garbling of the Cincinnati Gazette correspondent's "some Bohemian tailors … across the alley" (see the 11/19 Oct entry and the Ouachita Telegraph reprint of 28 Oct); Mrs. Leary's own theory in the Journal interview is "a strange man", and in the Gazette interview the unoccupied house across the alley. St. Cloud (Minn.) Journal, 26 Oct, p.2 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033526/1871-10-26/ed-1/?sp=2), news-paragraph column: "The little one-story frame shanty, in the rear of which the fire originated on De Koven street, stands alone and uninjured. The flames swept around it on every side, igniting everything else, while that miserable structure stands—a monument of the place where the fire commenced. On the Wednesday after the fire, the body of the historic cow lay half burned in the ruins of the shed." **Fri 27 Oct: "Who burned Chicago? A new sensation" — a southern daily names the O'Learys and Sullivan, and reprints the Chicago Times' framing of the "confession".** Nashville Union and American, 27 Oct, p.2, editorial (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033699/1871-10-27/ed-1/?sp=2): "There is a mystery about the burning of Chicago. It was at first confidently asserted that the fire originated from a cow kicking over a kerosene lamp in a stable on De Koven street, but that theory seems now to [be pretty] well exploded. Evidence has been produced showing that Mr. and Mrs. O'Leary, who lived on the lot where the fire broke out, were in bed and asleep some time before the alarm of fire was raised. A [neighbor?], Mr. Sullivan, who discovered the fire, had been to their house half an hour previously and found them in bed. He then passed by the stable and on his return discovered the fire, but it was burning in the hay in the loft, and not on the ground floor where three or four cows and a horse were confined. He raised the alarm and then endeavored to get the cows and horse out of the stable, but succeeded in getting only a calf out. The others were burned with the stable. Mr. Sullivan makes oath as to the truth of his story. Another theory was that the fire was the work of thieves, who applied the torch in various parts of the city, the better to ply their vocation. … There is a new sensation afloat now as to the origin of the fire. The Chicago Times of the 23d inst. publishes what purports to be the confession of a member of the 'Societe Internationale,' showing that Chicago was burned by order of that organization. The Times does not explain how it became possessed of the document." This is the earliest out-of-town naming of Sullivan found (surname only, as in the affidavit digest), a week after the Tribune's affidavits; note that it has him find the fire "in the hay in the loft" and rescue "a calf" — details from the affidavit as printed 20 Oct. The same issue, p.1 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033699/1871-10-27/ed-1/?sp=1), reprints the Times' story in full under "A STARTLING STORY. The Societe Internationale and the Chicago Fire … Remarkable Verification of a Prophecy by George Francis Train. From the Chicago Times, Oct. 23", including the Times' own preamble — otherwise unreachable here — "The following document is given without the expression of any opinion as to its authenticity. Though it appears at the first thought to be utterly romantic and improbable, there are not wanting confirmatory circumstances. For example, the original explanation of the origin of the fire has been denied by two persons on oath, which is sufficient to disprove the statement in a court of justice. Then it can be attested by every one who listened to Train at Farwell hall on the night of the fire that he used the language recited below, predicting the destruction of the building in which he spoke … Finally, there is abundant evidence going to show that the fire was set in more than one place. Thus, a well-known lady, who resides in the vicinity of the Franklin school, on Division street, states positively that … she saw a man walk up to the side of the primary school … turn out a lot of shavings from a bag, and immediately after the man had turned his back upon them, saw the shavings flaming up." The Times thus used the O'Leary/Sullivan affidavits ("denied by two persons on oath") as a reason to credit the arson confession. **Fri 27 Oct: the Tribune's editorial scepticism.** Tribune 27 Oct p.2, dismissing the "oil-bearing limestone" theory: "…leaving petroleum walls, pine pavements, the Fire Commissioners, and the O'Leary cow all out of the account. The fact is, it is difficult to see how the fire, having got the start that it did at DeKoven street and again at Conley's Patch, could have burned any less than it did." (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-10-27/ed-1/?sp=2). **Sat 28 Oct: Harper's Weekly's "woman" version** (chicagology `fire009`): "The fire had an ignoble beginning. Late on Sunday evening, October 8, a woman went into a stable on Dekoven Street, near the river, on the west side, to milk a cow, carrying with her a kerosene lamp. This was kicked over by the cow, and the burning fluid scattered among the hay and straw." — the AP text with "boy" silently changed to "woman". **Early November: the story becomes a national joke.** Troy (N.Y.) Daily Whig, 2 Nov 1871: "The Louisville Journal will not admit that Mrs. Leary's Cow did not kick over the lamp which burned down the stable and set fire to Chicago. 'How does she know, if she was asleep, that the cow did not kick over the lamp? She has no right to deprive the cow of the immortality won by that historic kick!…'" (pages/fulton/Troy_NY_Daily_Whig_1871_-_1054.txt). Troy Daily Times 8 Nov and Watkins Schuyler County Democrat 22 Nov reprint the Chicago Post's rhyme "There was a bovine of Chicago … This wicked old tramp / Kicked over a lamp, / And away on the winds went Chicago", and the Post's joke that "no museum will be complete without" the cow (pages/fulton/Watkins_NY_Schuyler_County_Democrat_1870-1871_-_0414.txt). The Louisville Courier-Journal's piece is printed in full by the Western Reserve Chronicle (Warren, Ohio), 15 Nov, p.1, "Mrs. Leary's Cow. From the Louisville Courier Journal" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84028385/1871-11-15/ed-1/?sp=1): "The telegraph brings us the mortifying intelligence that Mrs. Leary denies positively that her cow kicked over the lamp which set fire to the stable and burned down Chicago. … Mrs. Leary declares she was asleep at the time the fire broke out. Then, how does she know that her cow didn't kick over the lamp? … Besides, she had no right to deprive the cow of the immortality she won by that historic kick. Suppose old Mrs. Erostratus had denied that her son had fired the Ephesian dome? … Your renowned cow did kick over that lamp filled with non-combustible kerosene, and you needn't deny it. You may have been asleep at the time — it is very likely you were, for nine o'clock at night is a singularly late hour for you to be up and abroad — but that fact alters the identity of neither the cow nor the kick. You had better yield gracefully to the inevitable and let your cow pass into history." The same Ohio weekly's page 3 carries the earliest advertising use of the story found: "Chicago Might have been Saved. Had Mrs. O'Leary used the Security Carbon Oil, sold by H. G. Stratton & Co." (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84028385/1871-11-15/ed-1/?sp=3). The Washington Evening Star (7 Nov, p.3), Juniata Sentinel (8 Nov), Wheeling Intelligencer (11 Nov) and Rutland Herald (16 Nov) all print the Chicago Post's joke that the city could not keep its fire until the Russian Grand Duke arrived but "would take pride, however, in showing him Mrs. Leary's cow and the post-office cat". **Sat 4 Nov: the Tribune answers the pulpit with the affidavits.** Tribune, 4 Nov, p.4 (editorial): "A clergyman at Amherst, Mass., recently preached a sermon on the Chicago fire, in which he said that the name of the boy who carried the kerosene lantern into the cow stable was written in Heaven, thousands of years ago, as the appointed agent for the destruction of the city; and thereupon pointed the moral for his people by advising them to smash their kerosene lamps. The effect of the clergyman's lesson will not be improved when his parishioners come to learn that the worthy old couple who owned the cow stable make affidavit that the cow was milked before dark, and that no kerosene lamp was carried into the stable at all; that they lost their own property by the fire, and that it was not insured. There has been a great deal of loose talk from the pulpit in regard to the Chicago fire, and a very manifest disposition to charge to God's providence what is clearly attributable to man's folly" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-04/ed-1/?sp=4). (Tue 7 Nov p.3 and Wed 8 Nov p.3 carry jokes on "the cow that kicked over the lamp"; Sat 11 Nov p.6 a notice "TAKEN UP—THREE COWS, ON NIGHT OF fire, at 214 Dekoven-st.; two red and one white".) **Tue 7 Nov: the German weekly's verdict — "an untrue story … an old Bohemian woman".** Illinois Staats-Zeitung (weekly), 7 Nov, p.1, in a long retrospective "Das große Feuer": "Um 9 Uhr 32 Minuten wurde die Feuerwehr nach der Ecke von Jefferson und De Kovenstraße gerufen. Noch ehe die erste Spritze an Ort und Stelle war, standen zwei Häusergevierte in hellen Flammen. Wie das Feuer entstanden ist, wird wohl ewig ein Geheimniß bleiben und ist auch im Allgemeinen gleichgültig gegenüber der gewaltigen Calamität. Einstweilen hat sich die Fama des Vorfalls bemächtigt und eine unwahre Geschichte in die Welt geschickt, nach welcher eine alte böhmische Frau mit offenem Lichte in den Stall ging, um ihre Kuh zu melken, bei welcher Gelegenheit diese hinten ausschlug und das Licht umwarf. Durch eidliche Erhärtung der solchergestalt für das schauerlichste Unglück der Neuzeit verantwortlich gemachten armen Frau und ihres Mannes ist jedoch festgestellt, daß sie und die Ihren schon fest schliefen, als das Feuer ausbrach und daß sie selbst mit knapper Noth ihr nacktes Leben retteten" — "At 9:32 the fire department was called to the corner of Jefferson and De Koven street. Before the first engine was on the spot two blocks were in bright flames. How the fire started will probably remain a mystery for ever, and is in any case immaterial beside the enormous calamity. Meanwhile rumour has taken hold of the incident and sent an untrue story into the world, according to which an old Bohemian woman went into the stable with an open light to milk her cow, on which occasion the cow kicked out and upset the light. By the sworn statements of the poor woman thus made responsible for the most dreadful disaster of modern times, and of her husband, it is however established that she and hers were already fast asleep when the fire broke out and that they themselves barely escaped with their bare lives" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033492/1871-11-07/ed-1/?sp=1). Note "Bohemian" (the DeKoven street quarter was largely Bohemian, cf. the New-York Tribune's "St. Wenzel"/"Czechs", 17 Oct) — the German paper does not even make her Irish — and "9:32", the same minute the New York Herald's correspondent gave on 20 Oct. The same paper's issue of 24 Oct, p.2, already carried an account of Hildreth and Locke fetching powder and seeking the Fire Commissioners and then Mayor Mason and Judge Miller at the Court House for authority to blow up buildings — the story Hildreth told the Board on 29 Nov (§2.6). **Thu 9 Nov (decision) / Fri 10 Nov (print): the Board resolves to investigate — "to commence this morning".** Tribune, 10 Nov, p.6, "Board of Police": "A regular semi-weekly meeting of the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners was held at the Madison Street Station yesterday afternoon, President Brown in the chair. Daniel McCarthy and Patrick Bond were appointed special policemen. On motion it was decided to investigate the cause of the fire, and to commence this morning. It was stated that several thousand feet of hose had been received. The board then adjourned" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-10/ed-1/?sp=6). No sitting is reported on 10 Nov or on any day before 23 Nov; the Tribune's "[Call] for Facts" of 15 Nov (below) treats the Board as "having failed in their duty to investigate", six days after this resolution. The Associated Press carried the decision the same day in a Chicago dispatch of 10 Nov: "That Kicking Cow. The Police and Fire Commissioners have determined to investigate the cause of the fire and ascertain the truth, if possible. Mrs. O'Leary and her famous cow will be looked after" — Nashville Union and American, 11 Nov, p.1 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85033699/1871-11-11/ed-1/?sp=1); the same sentences in the Leavenworth Weekly Times, 16 Nov, p.2 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84027691/1871-11-16/ed-1/?sp=2) and the Painesville (Ohio) Journal, 18 Nov, p.2 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84028193/1871-11-18/ed-1/?sp=2); and the Indianapolis Evening News, 11 Nov, p.2: "The Fire Commissioners of Chicago have determined to investigate the cause of the fire, and we may soon expect to know certainly whether Mrs. O'Leary's cow was the offending party or not" (pages/fulton/Indianapolis_IN_Evening_News_1871_11-11_0002.txt). From the first announcement, then, the wire framed the inquiry as being about the cow. **Sun 12 Nov: a reader's verdict — "official incompetence".** Tribune, 12 Nov, p.4, "Letters from the People. Our Fire—Causes and Lessons": "the only possible verdict charges our ruin directly and solely to official incompetence and lack of forethought. No apology or excuse will suffice to cover up the great crime of allowing the fire to cross the river … No blame attaches to the failure to check its course in the dry, contiguous buildings it was holding carnival among; but here, at the river, was a broad, open space of vantage" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-12/ed-1/?sp=4). By mid-November the Tribune's readers, like its editors (16 and 19 Nov, below), were treating the origin as settled by the affidavits and the real question as the spread — which is the balance the Board's inquiry then struck (five days of firemen for one day of the O'Learys' neighbours). **Wed 15 Nov – Sun 19 Nov: the Tribune interviews the Fire Marshals and demands an inquiry.** Tribune, 15 Nov, p.1, "[…] FOR FACTS. Interviews with Fire Marshals Williams and Brenner on the Great Conflagration. What the Former 'Felt in His Bones,' and Retired to Bed Upon": "The Board of Police and Fire Commissioners having failed in their duty to investigate and report to the public, whose servants they are, the origin and progress of The Great Fire, and the conduct of the Fire Department on the fatal night of October 9 [sic], a reporter of The Tribune was yesterday despatched to interview the Chief Marshal (Williams) and such of his assistants as could be found." Williams: "I had been to Box No. 28 … While returning from 28 I told my driver that we were going to have a 'burn,' as I felt it in my bones, and I said to him, 'I am going to bed so as to get some sleep.' I went to bed, and was asleep when my gong struck; that was between half-past 9 and 10 o'clock. When I got to the fire I should think there were some six or seven buildings ablaze — sheds and outhouses; we got it under control, and it would not have gone a foot further, but the next thing I knew they came and told me St. Paul's Church, about two squares north, was on fire" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-15/ed-1/?sp=1). Nothing in Williams' or Brenner's statements concerns the cause at the barn. 16 Nov p.6: "Brenner's Statement" corrected. 17 Nov p.4: First Assistant Marshal John Schank's counter-statement ("Williams' Visit to the Water Works 'Reviewed' by Schank"): asleep at 7:30, "the wrong box was sounded", reached the fire when "it must have covered nearly half a block. I got round on DeKoven street, and there met Williams … 'Chief, you've got to bring those engines ahead of the fire toward Polk street, or else we'll burn up the whole town.' He said, 'it can't be done'" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-17/ed-1/?sp=4). 19 Nov p.2, editorial "The Fire Marshal and his Assistants": their statements "amount to only the fact of establishing that they lost their heads and worked in an aimless sort of way … If any investigation is to be had concerning their competency, that investigation should appertain to the commencement of the fire alone. It should discover whether Marshal Williams was on the ground promptly; whether he acted intelligently and skilfully; whether …" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-19/ed-1/?sp=2). The Board opened its inquiry four days later (§2.1). A letter from the gas company (20 Nov p.2) denying any explosion at the gas works is the origin of the gas-works questions of 28–29 Nov (§§2.5–2.6). **Thu 16 Nov: the Tribune lists the causes on offer — including "the man with a pipe".** Tribune, 16 Nov, p.4 (editorial): "We have had enough causes assigned for the Chicago conflagration. Leaving out of account the fact that Chicago, according to the architects, ought to have burned up years ago, and leaving the Fire Commissioners to settle the responsibility of the Fire Department where they may, we have still the O'Leary cow, the man with a pipe who passed through the O'Leary back-yard just before the fire, the Paris Communists, the petroleum in the building stones, the wrath of God, the presence of distilleries in the city, the iniquity of the divorce business, the loyalty of Chicago during the war while the South was being ravaged (this is the Southern rationale of the fire), and various other primal causes of our disaster to fall back upon" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-16/ed-1/?sp=4). This is the earliest Tribune mention found of a smoker passing through the yard — a week before the inquiry opened. **Sun 19 Nov: "Daniel Sullivan" of 134 DeKoven street, in his own words.** Tribune, 19 Nov, p.8, lost-and-found column: "Lost — two goats, from 134 Dekoven st., two weeks since; hind part of both white, fore part yellow; one young and small, the other old. $5 reward. DANIEL SULLIVAN" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-19/ed-1/?sp=8). McDermott's letter of 20 Oct had called the same man "Dennis Sullivan, of No. 134" (see §3). **Thu 23 Nov – Fri 24 Nov: the country papers' view on the eve of the inquiry.** Tipton (Iowa) Advertiser, 23 Nov, p.2: "Mrs. O'Leary persists in denying the story about her cow having kicked over the lamp which set fire to Chicago. It is too late. She told the kicking story herself in the first place — it has become a fact in history — and she and all the cows in DeKoven street cannot now kick it over" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84027398/1871-11-23/ed-1/?sp=2). South-eastern Independent (McConnelsville, Ohio), 24 Nov, p.2, "Whisky the Origin of the Chicago Fire": "A Chicago correspondent of the New York Observer says 'The singular tale of the oil lamp and the cow in De Koven street is apocryphal. Anne Maloney, the owner of three cows, utterly repudiates the idea of attending her little dairy at half-past nine o'clock at night. She clearly saw the flames begin in a German tailor's shanty, where a number of his companions had been drinking and carousing all Sabbath afternoon'" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn87075000/1871-11-24/ed-1/?sp=2) — a garbled version (wrong name, three cows for five) of the "drinking party next door" theory that the Tribune's letter of 20 Oct had hinted at and that surfaced at the inquiry as the McLaughlin party. **November (undated; reprinted 7 Dec): the Chicago Mail's "true story" — the party next door.** The Jeffersonian (Stroudsburg, Pa.), 7 Dec, p.1, reprints from the Chicago Mail, "How it Happened. The True Story of Chicago's Ruin": "We haven't been able to pick up an exchange during the last four weeks without seeing something about Mrs. Leary and her cow … Hasn't Mrs. Leary made innumerable solemn affidavits to the effect that her lamp wasn't kicked over and that she was in bed and asleep when the fire broke out? … While Mrs. Leary, or O'Leary (both readings being adopted), denies the alleged fact, she gives no solution of the case in lieu thereof; so the press … continued to hawk about this same story. Now, to set the matter forever at rest, we propose to give the vera acta, obtained from indisputable authority, but which have thus far been kept secret, lest the persons engaged in it should suffer some legal penalty … The cow was being milked at night; she did kick the lamp over; the lamp did set fire to the stable, which caused the conflagration. It happened this wise: A gay party was gathered at a house near Mrs. Leary's. During the evening some milk was wanted, and there was none in the house, and of course, none was to be bought, it being Sunday night. Finally it was proposed by one of the party to make a 'draft' on Mrs. Leary's cow without her knowledge. The proposition was accepted, and a gay bevy repaired to the stable for the purpose of putting it into execution, with what result the whole world knows. These are the facts. — Chicago Mail" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026399/1871-12-07/ed-1/?sp=1). This is the "party wanted milk" story in the form it circulated in Chicago before Mrs. O'Leary repeated it, as Mrs. White's hearsay, at the inquiry on 24 Nov (§2.2). **Thu 23 Nov – Sat 2 Dec: the inquiry** — see §2. **Tue 5 Dec:** Tribune p.2, "Miscellaneous": "Mrs. O'Leary's cow, that either did, or didn't, set Chicago on fire, has been bought on speculation by two Louisville (Ky.) boys." (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-12-05/ed-1/?sp=2; reprinted e.g. Frostburg Mining Journal 30 Dec). **Mon 11 Dec: the Board's report presented; Tue 12 Dec: printed.** See §2.11. **Fri 15 Dec: a wrong summary goes round.** Schoharie (N.Y.) Union, 15 Dec 1871: "From the evidence taken before the Fire Commissioners, at Chicago, it turns out that Mrs. O'Leary's cow was the cause of the great fire, after all." (pages/fulton/Schoharie_NY_Union_1871_-_0201.txt) — the opposite of what the Board found. **December (Delaware weekly) – the "oysters" version as fact.** Middletown (Del.) Transcript, Dec 1871 (OCR poor): "…tenant McLaughlin, the fiddler, had a social time that evening, and wishing to cook a few oysters for the [?] crowd, and being short of milk, he 'went for' Mr. O'Leary's cow, and while engaged in surreptitiously obtaining the lacteal fluid … she became indignant at the dishonest practices and kicked over the lamp; hence the great [fire]" (pages/fulton/Middletown_DL_Transcript_1871_12_0215.txt). **Postscript, 27 Dec 1871 / 23 Jan 1872 – "Mrs. O'Leary Exculpated".** New York World, 23 Jan 1872: "The Mayor of Chicago has received the following communication: SAN FRANCISCO, December 27, 1871. Mr. Medill: It was me that set Mrs. Leary's barn on fire and my old man gave me $10 for doing it. I set the hay on f[ire] … As I run out I met a man … I [give] you this to clear Mrs. Leary of the charge of … setting her barn on fire with a lamp…" (pages/fulton/New_York_NY_World_1871-1872_Grayscale_-_0686.txt; OCR fragmentary). **January 1872 – the retrospective "she admitted it" claim.** The Lakeside Monthly (Jan 1872; chicagology `fire001`) asserts that "early in the history of the blaze … historical Mrs. Leary admitted that the fire had its origin in the manner popularly understood," that she "held forth exasperatingly to police, spectators curious, and reporters," and that her later denials were prompted by fear of liability. No October 1871 newspaper text found here contains any such admission by her; every contemporary report of her own words (Tribune 19 Oct, Journal interview, affidavit 15 Oct, testimony 24 Nov) is a denial. ### Summary answers to the research questions - *Earliest printed statement that a cow kicked over a lamp*: the Milwaukee relay dispatch dated 10 Oct, 10 A.M. ("occasioned, it is said, by a cow kicking over a lamp"), printed 12 Oct (St. Cloud Journal) and the AP narrative of 10 Oct printed 11 Oct (NY Herald p.5, Sun p.1, Wheeling Register p.1) with "a boy … carrying with him a kerosene lamp". Both predate any naming of the family. A Chicago-printed statement of Mon 9 Oct — the Chicago Newspaper Union's extra ("Last night about nine o'clock a fire broke out in a barn on the corner of Twelfth and DeKoven streets, occasioned by a cow kicking over a lamp") — is known only from reprints of 19–28 Oct; the Journal extra of the same afternoon ("a woman was milking") from the Watertown Republican of 18 Oct. - *Earliest naming of the O'Learys*: in the material reachable here, the Cincinnati Gazette correspondent's visit of Wed 11 Oct ("Leary, No. 137 DeKoven street"; printed in the Gazette c. 13–16 Oct, reprinted Nashville 19 Oct), then the Chicago Times of 18 Oct (known only by reference) and the Tribune of 19 Oct ("Mrs. Leary, of No. 137 DeKoven street"); the Tribune of 20 Oct is the first to print "O'Leary" and the affidavits; the wires carried "Mrs. Leary/Leroy, of 137 Dekoven street" on 19–20 Oct. Out-of-town papers of 9–16 Oct harvested here never name her; they say "a boy", "a woman", "a farmer" or "a laboring man". The NY Tribune's 14 Oct dispatch describes both O'Learys without naming them. - *Statements of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary to reporters in October*: Cincinnati Gazette correspondent, 11 Oct (Catherine: not true, in bed, uses sperm oil not kerosene, suspects the unoccupied house across the alley); NY Tribune correspondent, 14 Oct (Patrick: knew very little, waked about nine by the alarm, "I can prove it by them"); Tribune 19 Oct (Catherine: story false, no lamp, no night milking, asleep, wakened by a neighbour); Chicago Evening Journal, 21 Oct (reprinted Workingman's Advocate 28 Oct, New Orleans Republican 29 Oct, Harper's 11 Nov) (Catherine: "not a word of truth", milked by daylight, "It must have been set afire", a "strange man" seen at half past nine); Harper's 11 Nov (Patrick: knew very little, waked about nine by the alarm); affidavits of 15 Oct (both). A third-hand version of Catherine's theory circulated in the weeklies: "the upsetting of a kerosene lamp [by] some tipsy tailor" (Belmont Chronicle, 26 Oct). - *"Boys smoking in the barn"*: the West Side paper of 10 Oct (chicagology `fire010`) and the Kenosha Telegraph's survey of 12 Oct have "a carelessly used pipe or cigar"; the Tribune of 16 Nov lists "the man with a pipe who passed through the O'Leary back-yard just before the fire"; at the inquiry Sullivan and Catharine McLaughlin both said boys could get into the alley/shed (§2.3); no October wire report with "boys smoking" was found in the harvest. - *October reports naming Sullivan or the McLaughlin party*: Sullivan is named on 20 Oct (affidavit, as "Denis Sullivan of No. 134"); the McLaughlin party is first mentioned in the harvest at the inquiry (Mrs. O'Leary's testimony, 24 Nov; Catharine McLaughlin, 25 Nov). No October wire (AP) report naming either was found; the earliest out-of-town naming of Sullivan is editorial, the Nashville Union and American of 27 Oct ("Mr. Sullivan, who discovered the fire … makes oath as to the truth of his story"), a digest of the Tribune's affidavits of 20 Oct. - *What the press said the Board concluded*: §2.11 (Tribune 12 Dec, Evening Post 12 Dec via chicagology); out of town, only the ready-print digest of 21 Dec (§2.14) reports the finding, and it reports it correctly; the wire's last word was "Cow or How?" (§2.13). ## 2. What the daily press reported from each inquiry session The Board of Police and Fire Commissioners (Police Commissioners T. B. Brown, president, and Mark Sheridan; Fire Commissioner Chadwick; Commissioner Gund retired 4 Dec and Rehm took his place) sat in Captain Miller's room at the Union Street police station. The Board had resolved on Thu 9 Nov "to investigate the cause of the fire, and to commence this morning" (Tribune, 10 Nov, p.6; §1), but no sitting is reported before Thu 23 Nov; in the interval the Tribune ran its own interviews with the Fire Marshals (15–19 Nov) and the wire had already announced that "Mrs. O'Leary and her famous cow will be looked after". Tribune texts are in `pages/inquiry/tribune__p.txt` (article extracted from the OCR page). ### 2.1 Session 1 — Thursday 23 Nov (Tribune, Fri 24 Nov, p.6; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-24/ed-1/?sp=6) Heading: "…Board of Police. A Telegraph Operator and the Court House Watchman Examined." "The Board of Police and Fire Commissioner Chadwick commenced, yesterday, the investigation into the origin of the fire, and its progress, with a view to place the responsibility upon whom it belongs. Only Mr. Brown and Mr. Chadwick were present, the other Commissioners being otherwise engaged. It was the intention to have a short-hand writer to take the evidence in full, but as one could not be procured, Mr. Brown wrote the testimony in long-hand. There were but two witnesses examined." **William J. Brown**, fire-alarm operator: on duty in the Court House; "Mr. Schaffer, the watchman in the tower, notified him, about half past 9 o'clock, that there was a fire and told him to strike Box No. 342 … In a short time the watchman called him again, and said he had been mistaken—that the fire was not so far off as he had thought when he gave him Box No. 342, which is located on the corner of Halsted street and Canalport avenue. As the box was on the line of the fire, Brown thought the firemen would not be misled, so he did not strike a nearer box. If he did so, confusion might ensue." He struck a second alarm about ten minutes later on the same box, then a third. **Matthias Schaffer**, Court House watchman, "corroborated the statement of Mr. Brown in regard to the alarms given. After he told Brown to strike Box No. 342, he took another look at the fire, and was satisfied that he had located it about a mile south of where it really was, and he informed the operator of it." Sparks were blown over the Court House "within half an hour after he had given the first alarm"; the cupola caught twice before the fire crossed to the South Division; he later slid down the banisters with whiskers scorched. Adjourned to 9 o'clock next morning. ### 2.2 Session 2 — Friday 24 Nov (Tribune, Sat 25 Nov, p.6; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-25/ed-1/?sp=6) Heading: "THE GREAT FIRE. Continuation of the Investigation by the Board of Police. Mrs. O'Leary, the Owner of the Cow, Etc., Examined. Testimony of Foremen of Steamers, and Citizens." Present: Brown, Sheridan, Chadwick, Marshal Williams, Assistant Marshals Walters and Benner. Witnesses: **William Musham** (foreman, Little Giant): first intimation from the watchman in his own engine-house tower; hitched up and "was about leaving the house, when Box No. 342 was struck"; took a plug at Jefferson and DeKoven and led hose "up DeKoven street into an alley running north". **Mrs. O'Leary**: "the owner of the cow, which, it was claimed, kicked over the lamp and started the fire, testified that she and her family—her husband and five children—were in bed, but not asleep, on that Sunday night. They knew nothing of the fire until Mr. Sullivan, a drayman, who lives on the south side of DeKoven street, awoke them and said their barn was on fire. She took a look at the barn and saw that it could not be saved. She became almost crazy on account of losing all her property—a barn, wagons, harness, six cows, and a horse—and was very much excited. There were three barns—two besides her own—on fire at the same time. A family named McLaughlin lived in the same house with her, and she understood they were having a 'social time' on that Sunday night; that they had an oyster supper, and a Mrs. White had told her that one of the family went into the barn to milk one of the cows. She had no knowledge of it, and could not say whether it was true or not. The first she saw of the fire engines was one playing on Turner's Block, on the corner of Jefferson and DeKoven streets. She thought it was a good while between the time the fire broke out and when she saw the steamer, but it might have been working some time before she saw it." **William Mullin** (foreman, Illinois): heard the gong strike 342, went to Canalport and Halsted, found no fire there, "kept on to the place where he saw a blaze"; the buildings "were mostly of wood, and the fire went through them rapidly"; denies drunkenness, mentions offers of $100–$1,000 to play on buildings, and $50 later paid to his company by Ryerson's foreman. **Catharine Sullivan**, "who lives on DeKoven street, east of Jefferson, was washing dishes when she saw a bright reflection on the window panes … ran into the street, and saw that O'Leary's barn and two others east of it were on fire. She had heard that the O'Learys were asleep at the time, and that somebody awoke them … Her son and Dennis Regan woke the O'Learys. She did not know, of her own knowledge, whether there was a party in O'Leary's dwelling, but she had heard that there was. Pat McLaughlin, the fiddler, lived in the front part of O'Leary's house." **Dennis Regan**, "of No. 112 DeKoven street, was in O'Leary's [house?] about half-past 8 o'clock on Sunday night. O'Leary and his wife were in bed. He asked the woman why she went to bed so early, and she said it was because she had a sore foot. He went home … sometime after 9 o'clock he heard a neighbor say that O'Leary's barn was on fire. He jumped up, and ran around to the barn and tried to save a wagon that was there, but he could not … There was company at McLaughlin, the fiddler's, and he heard music in there. He did not know who was present. It was a quarter of an hour, he thought, before the engines came." **Christopher Schimmels** (foreman, Chicago): "the first he knew of the fire was the striking of the gong. He thought it was about 9:30. Box No. 342 was struck. This box is about a mile southwest of where the fire was." **George Rau** (foreman, Truck 2): "stopped his truck on Jefferson street, opposite the alley on which O'Leary's barn fronted … Only one barn was on fire then. No pipemen were there, nor was any water put on the barn for several minutes after he got there. When water was put on, two other buildings were on fire." Adjourned to 10 o'clock next morning. A second, independent press version of Mrs. O'Leary's evidence — first person, and evidently from a Chicago paper other than the Tribune (uncredited; the mock-heroic frame is in the Chicago Times' manner) — reached the Richmond (Va.) Daily Dispatch, Wed 29 Nov, p.3, "Mrs. O'Leary and Her Cow — What the Old Lady Knows About the Conflagration" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84024738/1871-11-29/ed-1/?sp=3): "The Board of Police of Chicago have commenced a systematic investigation of the facts in relation to the history of the great fire. On Friday Mrs. O'Leary, in whose barn the fire is said to have commenced, was before the Board. She was dressed in a clean face and a plaid black and white calico, with hair a la negligee. A warm woollen shawl bound her babe closer to her breast … 'Well, sir, I was in my bed, and my husband and five children, and I owned six cows, one good horse and waggin and harness, and I had two tons of coal and two tons of hay, and I couldn't for the life of me save a five cents' worth from it all, except Mr. Sullivan brought out a burned calf that I was offered $11 for on Saturday, and I could git but $8 for it. Two men came near the door, and my husband run out o' doors and came back to my bedroom, and he says, \"Kate, the barn's afire,\" and I couldn't tell nothing more nor couldn't do nothing, I was so excited … Mr. Sullivan made the first alarm to me. He lives just across the road forninst us, and it's a drayman he is — a one-legged man that works at the oil works — and when I looked the fire was all along — three or four barns all on fire. There was mine and Mrs. Murray's and Mr. Dalton's little shed, and I catched up one of the children and I put it out on the sidewalk. Then I saw the fire breaking from the inside of Turner Block, facing on Jefferson street, and I gave up all hope, for I was sure our little house would burn up. They kept it wet with the water running into the wash-tubs. Mrs. Laughlan was living in the front part of my house, and they had a little bit of a party, and there was music and a little dancing, and her husband was a fiddler, and had some company, and I couldn't tell whether it was her that made the fire or not. I did not hear any of them going back and forth outside. None of us had been in the other part, sure, but heard next day Mrs. White say, \"Sure wasn't [it] a pity that Mr. O'Leary had to lose everything he had,\" and I says, \"Why,\" and she says, \"Sure, wasn't somebody in your barn milking your cows last night?\" Some one said they wanted the milk for oysters, but I never saw them milking any of my cows, and I asked Mrs. Laughlan, and she said she had no supper that night, and didn't go near the stable at all. The wind blowed everywhere you could think; you'd hear the roar of the fire like cannons; it roared like everything. There were shavings under almost every house, and I had some in my barn. Sure I did, and took a basinful and spread under me cows to keep me shoes clean. The first engine I seen was on Turner's block, and it wasn't very quick at all. My whole barn was burned down before I seen an engine. There was a new waggin between our barn and the other side of the alley, and both sides of the alley was on fire, and the new waggin was all afire. I got so excited I couldn't tell them things that happened, and I didn't know the fire went down till next day. I never had a cent of insurance, and one of our cows was in the alley, and it went away, and my husband was looking for it two weeks, and never a sight did he get at it, at all.' Mrs. O'Leary finished her peroration in tears, and the commissioners sobbed audibly upon their manly breasts." Against the Tribune's third-person summary this version adds: six cows (the Tribune, the Journal interview and the affidavits say five); "Kate, the barn's afire" as Patrick's words; Sullivan "a one-legged man that works at the oil works"; the calf sold for $8; the shavings she herself spread under the cows; the wet wash-tubs; the strayed cow; and it has her *ask* Mrs. McLaughlin, who "had no supper that night". Its details match the transcript excerpt (§2.12) more closely than the Tribune's do, which suggests a reporter working from the stenographer's text or a very full note. ### 2.3 Session 3 — Saturday 25 Nov (Tribune, Sun 26 Nov, p.1; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-26/ed-1/?sp=1 ; also Fulton scan pages/fulton/Chicago_IL_Tribune_1871_-_0577.txt) Heading: "THE GREAT FIRE. Third Day of the Investigation by the Board of Police. Testimony of the Man Who Rescued a Burning Calf from Leary's Barn. Interesting Statement of Mr. Conway, of the Steamer Chicago…" "The Inquisition was held in Captain Miller's room at the Union Street Police Station, and the testimony was taken in full by a short-hand writer." **Louis Fieke** (truckman, No. 2): found "a small barn fronting on [the alley] was on fire. He chopped a hole in the fence so that the firemen could get through … He was positive that only one building was on fire at that time." **Catharine McLaughlin**, "of No. 137 DeKoven street, testified that she had lived in the front part of Leary's house, but did not reside there now. She knew nothing about the origin of the fire. Some one cried out 'Fire,' and she looked around the side of the house and saw Leary's barn was burning, and the rear part of Mr. Dalton's house just igniting. There were five young men and two young women at her house that night. A 'greenhorn' cousin of hers had just arrived from Ireland, and her friends and cousins came in to see him. Her husband played two tunes on his fiddle, and one of the women danced a 'bout' and another a polka. That was all the dancing that was done. One of the company went out once or twice during the evening, and brought in half a gallon of beer. They didn't eat anything, and she did not cook anything—did not start the stove. 'Before God this day,' she didn't cook anything. The company was in the house at the time the fire broke out. She got along pleasantly with Mrs. Leary, and assisted in saving the house from being destroyed. Boys could go into the alley near the barn, as there was nothing to prevent them … She did not know whether Mrs. Leary was in the habit of milking her cows at night … Mrs. Leary generally did the milking about 5 o'clock. The barn was about 40 feet from the house. None of the company went out to get milk for punch. She never had such a thing in the house." **Patrick Leary**, "whose wife owned the alleged kicking cow, said he was in bed and didn't know anything about the start of the fire. When he saw it, only his barn was ablaze … Dan Sullivan called him out of bed, and told him his barn was on fire … He did not know how the fire started. He had no knowledge of it. 'If he was to be hanged for it he couldn't tell. He didn't blame any man in America for it.' His woman went to bed about 8 o'clock, and he followed her half an hour afterward. He was asleep when Sullivan woke him, or he would have saved a cow. Both doors of the barn were open — the alley door and the one on the south side of the building. The latter was nailed back so that it could not be shut. On the right hand side of the barn, going north, there were some shavings and wood, and in a shed outside were some coal and more wood. He sometimes sprinkled shavings in the barn for his horse to stand on." **Daniel Sullivan**, "of No. 134 DeKoven street, was in Leary's house about 8 o'clock in the evening, and remained there about one hour. Leary, and all his 'young ones,' except two, were in bed. He asked the old woman why she went to bed so early, and she said she didn't feel well … He left the house, and, while on the opposite side of the street, at twenty or twenty-five minutes past 9 o'clock, he saw fire in Leary's barn. He ran across the street as fast as he could — he has a wooden leg — and cried out 'Fire' as loud as he could, which was very loud, he has strong lungs. He entered the barn, intending to cut the ropes with which the cows were tied. He cut two of them loose, but as they did not seem inclined to leave, and the fire was increasing, he thought he had better depart. As he was making for the door, his wooden leg went between two boards, and he half fell over … just then saw a calf with a rope around its neck. The hair on its back was on fire … He pulled it out of the barn; and, when he reached the yard, he looked back and 'felt like a whipped dog,' because he hadn't saved the cows. Leary's house was, by this time, on fire, and a man named Regan came along and shoved in the door, and awoke the inmates. Leary came to the door, and scratched his head as if there was a foot of lice in it. His wife came out also, and clapped her hands for grief on account of her cows being burned up. The fire appeared to be on the right side of the barn [where, Leary said the shavings were kept—REP.] He did not notice any one leaving McLaughlin's house. If any one had, he would have seen him. His mother kept a cow, and he frequently went to Leary's barn to feed; and thus knew how the cows were tied … Quite a time elapsed before the engines arrived—from ten to fifteen minutes … The Leary barn was 16x20 feet and 14 feet high. There was a vacant shed, fronting on the alley, opposite Leary's barn, in which the boys of the neighborhood were in the habit of congregating. In front of it, facing Taylor street, was a vacant house, which, he understood, was often occupied by vagrants and loafers as a lodging-place. The alley between the shed and barn was about twelve feet wide." Fieke recalled; then **Michael W. Conway**, pipeman of the Chicago, at length on the South Side (fire seen coming "from the basements of the stores"; $200 offered by Mr. Baker; "Commissioner Sheridan (eagerly). What was it? Conway. Two cigars."). Adjourned to Monday 10 o'clock. Out-of-town wire summary of this session: Troy (N.Y.) Daily Times, 1 Dec 1871, p.[?] (pages/fulton/Troy_NY_Daily_Times_1871-1872_-_0465.txt) — a condensed version of Patrick Leary's and Catharine McLaughlin's evidence ("Catharine McLaughlin of No. 137 DeKoven street testified that she had lived in the front part of O'Leary's house … 'before God this day' she didn't cook anything"), using "O'Leary" where the Tribune has "Leary". ### 2.4 Session 4 — Monday 27 Nov (Tribune, Tue 28 Nov, p.2; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-28/ed-1/?sp=2) Heading: "Continuation of the Investigation by the Board of Police—Did the Gas Companies Empty Their Reservoirs into the Sewers?" "The Board of Police, yesterday, continued the [inquiry into] the origin and progress of the fire. Charles J. Hambleton, a lawyer, was examined, but divulged nothing not already known. John Dorsey, foreman of the American Hose, was at the fire, and did not see any member of the department who was drunk. No engines were at the fire when he reached Taylor and Clinton streets, and none made their appearance for five minutes after his arrival. He saw Marshal Williams and Assistants Schank and Benner, the two latter on the South Side. Leo Meyers, foreman of the Tempest Hose, saw the Marshals frequently, and thinks everything possible was done to stop the progress of the conflagration … Thomas Burns, of the Fire Escape … The fire seemed to come from the basements of the buildings on Washington street before the upper stories were on fire. He had heard that the Gas Company let the gas run into the sewers to avoid an explosion." Adjourned to 10 next morning. (A short session; nothing on the barn.) ### 2.5 Session 5 — Tuesday 28 Nov (Tribune, Wed 29 Nov, p.4; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-29/ed-1/?sp=4 ; Fulton scan pages/fulton/Chicago_IL_Tribune_1871_-_0600.txt) Heading: "INVESTIGATION. Continuation of the Examination of Witnesses by the Board of Police. Testimony of the Man at the Crib and Firemen—How the Gas Reservoirs were Emptied." Witnesses: **Captain Michael Hickey** (police; did not attribute the fire to drunken firemen; the gas smell in the Armory cells); **John Tolland**, keeper of the crib (sparks from 11:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.; "brands from 3 to 6 inches in length"); **George E. Fuller**, night telegraph operator (statement "precisely the same" as already published in the Tribune); **D. J. Swenie**, foreman of the Fred Gund (in the department since 1849; went at the third alarm "exactly an hour and five minutes after the first alarm"; "as he earnestly believed, the fire spread to the South Side from [Bateham's mill]"; "some of the companies were without officers, and were very slow"; "there was no plan of action adopted for fighting the fire"; "no great amount of wind when he started to the fire, but afterward it blew a hurricane" — "the most important evidence obtained during the morning session"); afternoon: **John McMonagle** (foreman, Long John; denies money paid to divert the stream — "Mr. Sheridan said citizens were complaining that such was the case, but the witness denied it most unqualifiedly"); **Henry Ulrich** (policeman at the Armory; the gas works); **John Doyle** (engineer); **Nicholas Dubach** [?]; **Peter T. Burtis**, superintendent of the Chicago Gas Light and Coke Company (valves, gas sent to the North Side; "no explosion in the works"; "no means by which the gas could be turned into the sewers"). Adjourned "till 10 o'clock this morning" (i.e. a session on Wed 29 Nov was intended). ### 2.6 Session 6 — Wednesday 29 Nov (Tribune, Thu 30 Nov, p.4 — NOT in LoC; recovered from fultonhistory.com scan "Chicago IL Tribune 1871 - 0607.pdf"; text at pages/inquiry/tribune_1871-11-30_p4_fulton0607.txt and pages/fulton/Chicago_IL_Tribune_1871_-_0607.txt) LoC holds only pp.1–2 of the Tribune of Thu 30 Nov. Fulton's scans 0604 and 0605 are those two pages (trigram match with LoC 30 Nov p1/p2), and the four following scans 0606–0609 all carry the running head "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1871" and match no LoC page — i.e. they are pp.3–6 of that issue. Scan 0607 (p.4, the editorial page, where the Tribune printed every other day's inquiry report too) carries the report of the Board's sixth sitting. The OCR layer is column-interleaved; the headline was read from a rendering of the scan (pages/fulton/0607_head.png): "THE GREAT FIRE. Continuation of the Investigation [by] the Board of Police. Examination of the Superintendent of the Gas Works. Interesting Statement of the Man [who] Blew up the Buildings." The text below is quoted from the extracted OCR (source URL: https://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%2023/Chicago%20IL%20Tribune/Chicago%20IL%20Tribune%201871/Chicago%20IL%20Tribune%201871%20-%200607.pdf). Opening: "The Board of Police and Fire Commissioners resumed their investigation yesterday morning. The first witness called was Mr. Thomas B. Burtis, brother of the witness examined on Tuesday, and day Superintendent of the Gas Works. He was examined with a view to ascertaining the condition of the gas-holder at the time of the fire." Witnesses and substance: - **Thomas B. Burtis** (day superintendent, Gas Works): the holders were low; "the gas was shut off from the distributing main early in the morning"; gas "leaked out from the joints as fast as it was made, from the effects of the fire"; "They were manufacturing, at the time, at the rate of about 800,000 feet in 24 hours"; it was not feasible to let the gas out "with the sparks flying"; "No gas escaped into the air from the holders or the sewers." (This continues the gas-works line of questioning of 28 Nov — the Board was testing the rumour that gas from the works fed the fire.) - **Charles Anderson**, "foreman of the America hose cart, was the first man to have a stream on the blazing barn. A still alarm had been given at the house, and he had fixed the hose to a hydrant and thus threw a 'plug-stream.' The wind was blowing heavily, but not sufficiently so to prevent his throwing a good stream on the barn 20 feet away. In five minutes twenty or thirty buildings were on fire." (Compare Sullivan's and the Board's later finding that the barn was already fully involved before any engine arrived.) - **John C. Smith**, foreman of the Lincoln Hose Company (Webster avenue): reached the fire "nearly an hour after the third alarm"; "his testimony was valueless, except to give Mr. Sheridan an opportunity to remark that, though all the carts took a full supply of hose, they all appeared to have devoted the greater part of their time to looking for hose." - **Ex-Alderman [James H.] Hildreth**, fetched from the sergeants' room ("He had considerable objection to be interviewed by the city authorities and reporters. The Commissioners told him that they were accused of hearing only the Fire Department, and would like to hear his statement"): a long narrative of his attempts to get powder and authority to blow up buildings — Marshal Williams "said he did not understand how to do it, neither had he the power or the means"; the Mayor's written order, amended by Judge Miller to read "under the orders of the Fire Marshal"; the blowing up of the Union National Building and Smith & Nixon's; then on Monday the line on Harrison street/Wabash avenue/Congress street ("If the Harrison street buildings had not been blown down he had no doubt that the fire would have continued"; "thirty or forty" buildings blown up); Commissioner Sheridan's interjection that "there was a talk of suing the city" and that "the utmost care was taken not to blow down a building unless it was absolutely necessary"; the crowd wanting the church blown up ("Let her rip"); the Mahoney/General Sheridan powder incident (Mahoney "drew a revolver and said he would have to wait until the pistol was emptied before he got it"). Hildreth's evidence is about the spread and the checking of the fire, not its origin. - (A displaced OCR fragment, "Mahoney, a man employed in … elevator, Driscoll, a policeman, and others", is part of Hildreth's evidence — the rendering pages/fulton/0607_frag.png reads "He received assistance from Mahoney, a man employed in Munn [& Scott's] elevator, Driscoll, a policeman, his own [brothers], and others. Commissioner Sheridan, [whom he] met, gave him every encouragement" — not a list of further witnesses.) - Close: "The board then adjourned until 10 o'clock to-morrow morning" — i.e. a sitting on Thanksgiving Day (Thu 30 Nov) was intended. Whether it took place cannot be shown from the Tribune: the 2 Dec report opens "yesterday resumed their inquiries" without mentioning a Thursday sitting, and no out-of-town dispatch dated Chicago 30 Nov or 1 Dec mentioning the inquiry was found (search of all harvested pages dated 30 Nov–8 Dec for Chicago datelines; only a 2 Dec dispatch on the new city government). The word "resumed" and the absence of any Thursday testimony in the 2 Dec and 3 Dec reports make a Thanksgiving recess the likelier reading. No Tribune was issued on Fri 1 Dec (the day after Thanksgiving; the issue is absent from both LoC and Fulton, as is 26 Dec, the day after Christmas), so nothing is missing from the daily series between §2.6 and §2.7. No evidence about the origin at the O'Leary barn was taken at this sitting apart from Anderson's "first stream" statement. ### 2.7 Session 7 — Friday 1 Dec (Tribune, Sat 2 Dec, p.4; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-12-02/ed-1/?sp=4) Heading: "THE GREAT FIRE. Continuation of the Investigation by the Board of Police. Testimony of Firemen and Citizens—Nothing Important Elicited." **F. T. Sweeny**, foreman of Hook and Ladder No. 1: arrived at the second alarm; "Even on his arrival he believed the fire could have been stopped. He asked Assistant Marshal Schank why Bob Williams did not move the engines to the north of the fire. Schank said he had made the suggestion, but Williams told him to 'go to h—ll.' No engines were to the north of the fire before the third alarm had been given"; several engines "left a warm place before there was any necessity". "The Fire Marshal then cross-examined the witness. The replies tended to show that there was very little affection wasted between the [two]." **William Frazer**, citizen ("beyond stating that Omnipotence could not check the fire, and that he rode down to it on a hose cart, he informed the Commissioners of nothing"); **Charles G. Knox** [?], of the Insurance Fire Patrol (powder, blowing up of buildings; "Commissioner Sheridan and Mat. Benner seemed to be directing things"); **Henry J. Rittorff**, jeweler (the loss of the steamer Fred Gund); **Henry Bulwinkle**, foreman of the Insurance Patrol ("The third alarm was given at 9:15"; blowing up; got $10 for saving trunks); **George S. Dorsey**, driver of the fire escape. Adjourned to 10 next morning. ### 2.8 Session 8 — Saturday 2 Dec (Tribune, Sun 3 Dec, p.4; https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-12-03/ed-1/?sp=4 ; Fulton scan pages/fulton/Chicago_IL_Tribune_1871_-_0620.txt) Heading: "THE GREAT FIRE. Continuation of the Investigation by the Board of Police. Examination of Fire Marshal Williams and His Three Assistants." Morning: **Sergeant Charles French**; **Thomas Ockolby**, night superintendent of the South Side Gas Works (saw "a large brand fall upon the tar house"; opened the valves himself to send the gas to the North Side); **Charles G. Wicker** (blowing up "absolutely necessary"); **Isaac L. Milliken**, ex-police justice (Rock Island depot cars); **Sergeant Louis J. Lull** ("nothing new"; fire finally checked on Harrison and Congress "between 11 and 12 o'clock on Monday"). Afternoon (from 2:40): **Matt Benner**, Third Assistant Marshal: "many of the engine companies … worked on the Saturday night fire for eighteen hours. He told the Economy's foreman to go to the north of DeKoven street and left one stream in the rear. He went to the Little Giant's stream, and found it east of Mrs. O'Leary's cottage. In passing to the barn he was compelled to tear down a fence." (The reporter: "From this point for a long time the statement was superfluously tedious, dry, uninteresting, and irrelevant.") On money: Ryerson's foreman paid Benner $300 and made "presents" of $300 to the Giant and Wabansia and $200 to other companies; "There was no understanding for any special services to be rendered." **Lorenz Walter**, Second Assistant (went at the second alarm; "the Water Works had a composition roof"). **John Schank**, First Assistant ("His statement has already been published in The Tribune … He didn't remember that Williams told him 'to go to h—l,' as Sweeny stated"). **Robert A. Williams**, Chief Fire Marshal: "did not know anything of the origin of the fire. He did not go down until the second alarm. He did not go to bed till 7 o'clock on Sunday morning … When he got to Harrison he found he had gone the wrong way, and had to drive to Halsted street, thence to Taylor. Two houses, two barns, and a lot of little outhouses were on fire. There was a regular nest of fire there. He encouraged the boys, saying, 'Hang on to her, she's gaining on us.'" The water was cut off by the Wabansia's foreman; "Before it was on again the whole centre of the block, between Taylor and Forquer streets, was on fire in about a minute and a half. Four streams were on Ewing street, and he thought it was all stopped, when the church got afire. That was three blocks away." On the men: "Many of them looked pretty hard. Their eyes were bleared. Some people might think they were tipsy, but he didn't"; citizens wearing firemen's hats were drunk, "and so the impression got abroad that the firemen were intoxicated." He had recommended a floating engine; "But for the destruction of the Water Works the fire never would have gone west of Wells street." Concluded at 6:23; "The board then adjourned till Monday morning at 10 o'clock." ### 2.9 Session 9 (last) — Monday 4 Dec (Tribune, Tue 5 Dec, p.2 — NOT in LoC; recovered from fultonhistory.com scan "Chicago IL Tribune 1871 - 0631.pdf"; text at pages/inquiry/tribune_1871-12-05_p2_fulton0631_4dec_session.txt; headline rendering pages/fulton/0631_head.png) LoC has four pages of the 5 Dec Tribune (they match Fulton scans 0632, 0633, 0634, 0636 — i.e. printed pp.1, 3, 4, 6); printed p.2 (Fulton 0631, folio "2" visible on the scan) and one more page (Fulton 0635) are absent from LoC. Page 2 carries, between the Common Council report and the New York telegrams: "THE GREAT FIRE. Conclusion of the Investigation by the P[olice] and Fire Commissioners—Testimony of [Ryer]son's Foreman—Money Paid to Firemen[, Etc.]": "The Board of Police and Fire Commissioners met at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon, for the purpose of continuing their investigation as to the cause of the fire, and the other circumstances connected with it needing investigation. At 3 o'clock the foreman of Ryerson & Co.'s lumber yard had not appeared, and, he being the only witness left to examine, the board declared that the examination was concluded, and dismissed their official stenographer. After the board adjourned from its regular session the foreman arrived, and was subjected to an examination as regards the money paid to firemen. He testified that at the time of the fire the Chicago and foreign companies had done such excellent service that the owners of property determined upon making up a purse for them. The sum raised was $3,900, which was distributed among five or six companies. Mat. Benner, the Third Assistant Fire Marshal, received $200, while the Chicago companies received [$…]. A Pittsburgh and [a] Bloomington company were presented with [$…] respectively. When asked if any agreement was made by either of the companies the witness said there was nothing of the kind. He believed they paid no more attention to Ryerson's yard than to any other property, but did their best throughout, and the property owners whose property had been saved by them felt [grateful] … This ends the investigation. The board have now all the testimony before them, and will, after due deliberation and consultation, prepare a report upon it." So the last sitting (Mon 4 Dec) took no evidence about the origin; the only witness was heard informally, after the record was closed, on the "money paid to firemen" (the Ryerson purse — cf. the McMonagle denial of 28 Nov, §2.5). The same day's p.3 (in LoC) reports the Board's separate business meeting of 4 Dec (Gund retires, Rehm installed), which is why the LoC copy alone suggested that nothing but business was done on 4 Dec. ### 2.10 Tuesday 5 Dec – Saturday 9 Dec Board business only (Brown's resignation as Police Commissioner "to take effect on Tuesday, December 5" was read to the County Commissioners on 5 Dec, Tribune 6 Dec p.2; the Board's 6 Dec meeting on fire-alarm poles, Tribune 7 Dec, Fulton scan `Chicago_IL_Tribune_1871_-_0654.txt`). ### 2.11 The report — presented Monday 11 Dec, printed Tuesday 12 Dec Tribune 12 Dec p.4 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-12-12/ed-1/?sp=4; extract saved as pages/inquiry/tribune_1871-12-12_p4_report.txt), headed "POLICE AND FIRE. Report of the Commissioners on the Great Conflagration. Conclusions Arrived at by Messrs. Brown and Sheridan. The Responsibility for the Calamity Quietly Shifted to the Mayor, Council, and Newspapers…": "A regular semi-weekly meeting of the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners was held at the Madison Street Station yesterday afternoon, President Brown in the chair. There were present—Commissioners Sheridan and Rehm. The following is the report of the board on the origin and progress of the great fire. It was submitted and placed on file: The Board of Police, as required by law, investigated the origin of the fire of October 8 and 9. We have heard the sworn testimony of fifty-one witnesses, and had the same taken down by a stenographer, and subsequently transcribed. As written out it makes 900 pages of foolscap paper. As a large part of the testimony was published in the daily papers as it was taken from day to day, and, as the original is on file for reference, we deem it unnecessary to recapitulate the evidence to any great extent, but proceed to give the result of our investigation, briefly, and place it upon record. The board find that the fire originated in a two-story barn in rear of No. 137 DeKoven street, the premises being owned by Patrick Leary. The fire was first discovered by a drayman by the name of Daniel Sullivan, who saw it while sitting on the sidewalk on the south side of DeKoven street, and nearly opposite Leary's premises. He fixes the time at not more than twenty to twenty-five minutes past 9 o'clock, when he first noticed the flames coming out of the barn. There is no proof that any persons had been in the barn after nightfall that evening. Whether it originated from a spark blown from a chimney on that windy night, or was set on fire by human agency, we are unable to determine. Mr. Leary, the owner, and all his family prove to have been in bed and asleep at the time. There was a small party in the front part of Leary's house, which was occupied by Mr. McLaughlin and wife. But we failed to find any evidence that anybody from McLaughlin's part of the house went near the barn that night." The report continues (first alarm 9:30 on Box 342 given by Schaffer from the Court House cupola; "If any person set the fire, either by accident or design, he was careful not to give any alarm"; nearest engine-house six blocks away; "Intelligent citizens who lived near the place of the fire testify that it was from ten to fifteen minutes from the time they first saw the fire before any engines came upon the ground"; the firemen "were sober, and did all that men could do"; the blame placed on wooden building, the water-works roof, and years of ignored recommendations). The same text, with the same "Patrick Leary" and "Daniel Sullivan", is printed by the Chicago Evening Post of 12 Dec 1871 (chicagology `fire052`), which prefaces it: "The Board of Police and Fire Commissioners has made a report. Of course they have nothing new to disclose or even to suggest for this is an age when all valuable information of public affairs is first harvested and conveyed by that enterprising avant courier, the press." Andreas's later reprint (greatchicagofire.org "The Official Report") reads "Patrick O'Leary" and "Daniel [Dennis] Sullivan". greatchicagofire.org's timeline entry for 11 Dec is headed "The Verdict: No Verdict" and quotes the same "spark blown from a chimney … or … human agency" sentence. ### 2.12 The transcript excerpt for comparison greatchicagofire.org ("Kate the barn is afire", pages/gcf/oleary-legend-library_%e2%80%9ckate-barn-afire%e2%80%9d.txt) prints an excerpt of Catherine O'Leary's testimony from the handwritten transcript in question-and-answer form: "Q. What do you know about this fire? A. I was in bed myself and my husband and five children when this fire commenced. I was the owner of them five cows that was burnt, and the horse wagon and harness … Only that Mr. Sullivan got out a little calf … Q. Do you know how the fire caught? A. I could not tell anything of the fire only that two men came by the door. I guess it was my husband got outside the door and he ran back to the bedroom and said 'Kate the barn is afire.' … Q. Was there any other family living in your house? A. Yes sir. There was Mrs. Laughlin … Q. They had a little party there? A. Yes sir. Her husband was a fiddler … Q. Have you heard from any person who was there anything in relation to anybody's going out to the barn with a light? A. Yes sir. I have heard of it. I have heard from other folks … There was one out of the party went in for to milk my cows. Q. Who did you hear say that? A. Mrs. White … Q. What did they want to milk for? A. Some said it was for oysters … Q. Did you have any talk with Mrs. Laughlin about it? A. I did. Q. What did she say about it? A. She said she never was in the stable … She said she had no supper that night … Q. Had you any insurance upon your barn and stock? A. Never had five cents insurance—I had those cows one of them was not in the barn that night. It was out in the alley … I had six cows there. A good horse there." This lets the Tribune's 25 Nov summary be checked against the transcript: the Tribune's "six cows", "oyster supper", "Mrs. White", "Turner's Block" and "did not know whether it was true" all correspond; its "awoke by Mr. Sullivan" compresses "two men came by the door … my husband … said 'Kate the barn is afire'". ### 2.13 Out-of-town wire and editorial coverage of the sessions (Chronicling America harvest; to be read against §§2.1–2.11) The Associated Press sent almost nothing of the testimony itself. What the country read of the inquiry was (a) a short Chicago night-dispatch after the second and fourth sittings, (b) a widely reprinted humorous digest built from the Tribune's reports of 24–25 Nov, and (c) editorial paragraphs. In every case the substance is Mrs. O'Leary's evidence of Fri 24 Nov (§2.2) and the McLaughlin "oysters" rumour; not one out-of-town item found reports the firemen's evidence, the gas-works questions or Hildreth, and none reports the Board's finding correctly except by silence. - **The Associated Press dispatch of Sat 25 Nov on Mrs. O'Leary's evidence** — preserved verbatim in the Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu), 20 Dec, p.3 (mail news): "Chicago, Nov. 25. The Board of Police are engaged in an investigation of the origin and progress of the great fire. Yesterday, Mrs. O'Leary, who owned the cow that kicked the lamp over that set the barn on fire, was examined and testified that she and her family were in bed when the fire broke out, but that there was a 'shindig' going on in a portion of her house occupied by a fiddler, and that she was told, when aroused by the fire, that one of the party went out to the barn with a light to procure milk for cooking oysters, and that the lamp was kicked over" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83025121/1871-12-20/ed-1/?sp=3). This is the wire text behind every out-of-town account: it already calls her "the owner of the cow that kicked the lamp over", and it converts "Mrs. White told her" into "she was told … that the lamp was kicked over". - **Chicago dispatch of Mon 27 Nov, printed Tue 28 Nov** — Eureka (Nev.) Daily Sentinel, 28 Nov, p.2: "FROM CHICAGO. Chicago, November 27.— Investigation relative to the origin of the great fire continues. Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of the famous cow, says her family were all in bed. Dancing was going on in a neighboring house and parties went out to the barn with a lamp to get some milk to cook oysters. The lamp was kicked over and the fire started" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84022044/1871-11-28/ed-1/?sp=2). The same paper's editorial column: "In Chicago the origin of the great fire is being investigated. There is no doubt that the famous crumple-horned cow of Mrs. O'Leary dealt the damaging kick." Here the hearsay that Mrs. O'Leary attributed to Mrs. White (and that Catharine McLaughlin denied on 25 Nov) has become, on the wire, a statement of fact. - **Cairo (Ill.) Daily Bulletin, 28 Nov, p.2** (Springfield legislative letter): "the only other item of real importance that has been revealed is the fact that Mrs. O'Leary has been shoved into fame and has barely escaped the fate of marching down the page of history as a person of some moment on a false accusation. It wasn't herself at all that milked the cow that kicked the lamp that fired Chicago. Mrs. O'Leary is a respectable lady and the hard-working mother of five children, and long before the hour at which the fire broke out, she was in bed and fast asleep. And so, although the public are loth to give up the theory that the fire was caused by the bursting of a lamp and the lamp was kicked over by a cow and the cow was milked at nine o'clock at night, who milked it is again a mystery since Mrs. O'Leary swears on oath that she did not" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn88074142/1871-11-28/ed-1/?sp=2). - **"Cow or How?" — the digest that went round** — Washington Evening Star, Wed 29 Nov, p.1: "The Chicago commission to investigate the origin of the recent fire, and the responsibility for its extensive spread, has so far only developed the facts: That Mrs. O'Leary went to bed at half-past eight o'clock on the night of the fire, on account of her 'sore fut;' that Pat McLaughlin, the fiddler, resides in the front part of O'Leary's mansion; that Mrs. O'Leary heard Mrs. White say that McLaughlin had a party, and the party wanted oysters, and the oysters wanted milk to be 'shtewed' in, and that they went out and milked her (O'Leary's) cow. The McLaughlins admit that they were having a little jollification over a 'green horn' just arrived from Ireland, but deny the oyster 'shtews,' or having milked Mrs. O'Leary's cow after Mrs. O'Leary had gone to bed. All the witnesses seem agreed that there was a pile of shavings in the barn, and that the fire was first observed on the side of the barn where the shavings were stored; but none of them have an idea how it came there or how long it burned before the engines got there" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1871-11-29/ed-1/?sp=1). Reprinted, with an added clause "that Mrs. Sullivan, who lives opposite the O'Learys, did not save as much from the fire as she could twist around her finger", in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, 30 Nov, p.1 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026844/1871-11-30/ed-1/?sp=1) and the Marshall County (Ind.) Republican, 30 Nov, p.2 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84038034/1871-11-30/ed-1/?sp=2). The "sore fut" is Dennis Regan's phrase in the Tribune of 25 Nov ("He asked the woman why she went to bed so early, and she said it was because she had a sore fut", §2.2), so the digest was compiled from the Tribune's reports of the 24 and 25 Nov sittings. - **New Orleans Republican, 30 Nov, p.3**, quoting "The Golden Age": "It is all very well for the owners of the stable in which Mrs. Leary's cow resided, to publish an affidavit to the effect that the fire did not originate on those premises, and was not caused by the upsetting of a lantern, and could not have proceeded from the kick of a cow at milking, as that delicate operation was always performed by daylight. Affidavits were always cheap in Chicago, and the conspiracy to cheat poor Mrs. Leary's cow out of the honor of setting the greatest fire in modern times is so evident that no kerosene lamp could make it plainer. The only affidavit that will have any weight with the impartial public will be that of the cow herself" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83016555/1871-11-30/ed-1/?sp=3). - **Troy (N.Y.) Daily Times, Fri 1 Dec** (fultonhistory.com; pages/fulton/Troy_NY_Daily_Times_1871-1872_-_0465.txt): a wire condensation of the 25 Nov sitting (McLaughlin and Patrick Leary), already quoted in §§2.3/3.12 — the only out-of-town item found that summarises witnesses other than Mrs. O'Leary. - **Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republican, 1 Dec, p.1**: "The Chicago authorities are trying to find out how their fire started. Among other witnesses, they have had up Mrs O'Leary, — the owner of the historical cow. This lady testified that on the eventful night she, her husband and her children had all gone to bed, when a neighbor rapped at their door and told them their barn was on fire. She had heard since that the McLaughlins, who lived in the same house with her, were having 'a social time,' that night, and a Mrs White had told her that one of these McLaughlins went into the barn to milk one of the cows. But she didn't know whether it was so or not. This evidence of Mrs O'Leary goes far to silence the skeptical critics who have undertaken to relegate the cow-and-kerosene-lamp story to the domain of fiction" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83020847/1871-12-01/ed-1/?sp=1) — a fair summary of her evidence, followed by an unwarranted conclusion. - **Emporia (Kan.) News, 1 Dec, p.2, "Settled"**: "That dignified body, the fire commissioners of Chicago, have been in session, and before them it was ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt, that the aforesaid cow did give the fatal kick. It is but proper to state, however, that the commissioners allowed that Mrs. O'Leary had 'no more responsibility in the matter than what was afforded by her ownership in the cow' … [McLaughlin] wishing to cook some oysters in the highest style of the culinary art for his social friends, he undertook to steal the milk from Mrs. O'Leary's cow. Becoming indignant at this attempt to pilfer her milk, the cow aimed a fair blow at McLaughlin, which unfortunately missed him and struck the lamp which the 'spalpeen' had near by, and that's the way the fire started" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82016419/1871-12-01/ed-1/?sp=2). - **Painesville (Ohio) Journal, 2 Dec, p.2** (the paragraph the Middletown Transcript also printed, §1): "From evidence taken from the Fire Commissioners, it has been ascertained that Mrs. O'Leary's cow was the cause of the great fire, although that lady had no more responsibility in the matter than what was afforded by her ownership in the cow. It appears that her friend and co-tenant McLaughlin, the fiddler, had a social time that evening and, that wishing to cook a few oysters for the social crowd and being short of milk went for Mrs. O'Leary's cow, and while engaged in surreptitiously obtaining the lacteal fluid the cow kicked over the lamp" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84028193/1871-12-02/ed-1/?sp=2). This paragraph — "it has been ascertained" — is the form in which most weeklies reported the inquiry, and it is the opposite of what the Board found. - **Later reprints.** The Post (Middleburg, Pa.), 7 Dec, p.2, reprints the "Cow or How?" digest (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026106/1871-12-07/ed-1/?sp=2); the Holt County (Mo.) Sentinel, 8 Dec, p.2, the "it has been ascertained … oysters" paragraph, with the cow "indignant at their dishonest practices" (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85034039/1871-12-08/ed-1/?sp=2). - **No wire report of the sittings of 29 Nov, 1, 2 or 4 Dec was found** in any harvested out-of-town page (searched 30 Nov–12 Dec for Chicago datelines and for Hildreth, powder, gas works, Ryerson, "examination concluded"); a fultonhistory.com search for "Hildreth" and "powder" and "Chicago" and "fire" (1871) returned only a New-York Tribune page whose "Hildreth" is a court-calendar entry (pages/fulton/New_York_NY_Tribune_1871_Sep_-_Dec_Grayscale_-_0768.txt), and searches for "Ryerson"/"O'Leary" with "commissioners" returned only Brooklyn and Albany pages about other O'Learys (pages/fulton/Albany_NY_Evening_Journal_1871_-_0371.txt, Brooklyn_NY_Daily_Eagle_1871_Grayscale_-_0826.txt). For those four sittings the Tribune reports (§§2.6–2.9) are the only press record found. - **Chicago's German press.** The Illinois Staats-Zeitung weekly (the only 1871 Chicago paper besides the Tribune in Chronicling America) printed nothing on the inquiry in its issues of 28 Nov, 5 Dec, 12 Dec or 19 Dec — no session reports, no mention of the Board's report — although its issues of 24 Oct–7 Nov had discussed the origin at length (§1; `sz_scan.py` over `pages/loc/sn85033492_*.txt`). The daily edition, which might have carried short local items, is not in LoC. - **Eastern dailies, and the Board's report.** The New-York Tribune, New York Herald and Sun pages harvested for 23 Nov–31 Dec carry no daily report of the sittings (the Tribune of 29 Nov quotes the Chicago Tribune only on iron ceilings), and none of the eastern dailies harvested for 9–31 Dec reports the Board's report of 11 Dec (searched for Commissioners/report/origin/Chicago in every page dated 9–31 Dec). The finding did reach the country press, accurately, by ready-print: see §2.14. What the country printed in December was jokes: the Sun, 20 Dec, p.2, "In Chicago it is becoming popular to get vaccinated with virus from Mrs. O'Leary's cow"; the Chicago Post's paragraph that "the bell worn by the cow that kicked over the lamp that set fire to Chicago is on exhibition in that city in sixty-one different places" (Cheyenne Daily Leader 11 Dec p.1, Jeffersonian 21 Dec p.2, Edgefield Advertiser 28 Dec p.4); and the State Rights Democrat (Albany, Ore.), 22 Dec, p.3, "the cow that kicked over the lamp that fired the straw that spread the flames that burned the stable that started the Chicago conflagration". The only misreport of the report found is the Schoharie Union's of 15 Dec (§1). ### 2.14 Targeted December searches for the late sittings and the report (incomplete) A second Chronicling America campaign was run for wire coverage of the sittings of 29 Nov and 4 Dec and of the Board's report: 24 queries (Hildreth; Hildreth/powder; gas works/investigation; Ryerson; "investigation concluded"; "Board of Police investigation"; Fire Marshal Williams; commissioners' report (three forms); "unable [to] determine"; testimony/firemen; "fire inquiry"; Benner/firemen/money; Sullivan testimony; "investigation closed"; and Illinois-, Wisconsin-, Indiana-, Ohio- and Iowa-only sweeps), windows 23 Nov 1871–15 Jan 1872, all logged in `SOURCES.md` ("search q=…"), results in `search_results_dec.json` (1,222 unique pages, 1,009 outside the Tribune). Because LoC's search matches the words anywhere on a page, the hits were fetched in order of specificity (`fetch_dec.py`: tier 0 = pages matching the Hildreth/Ryerson/gas-works/Board-of-Police/concluded/Marshal/Benner/testimony/state-sweep queries; tier 1 = the report queries and the Illinois sweeps; tier 2 = "Chicago fire inquiry" only). **The fetch was stopped with 478 of the 1,009 pages in hand: tier 0, 427 of 622; tier 1, 44 of 296; tier 2, 7 of 91** (per-query coverage at the stop: "Chicago Board of Police investigation fire" 160/171; "investigation concluded" 142/177; "Fire Marshal Williams" 104/177; "gas works" 87/111; "commissioners report" 66/168; "fire inquiry" 62/154; "report commissioners cow barn" 28/105; "police commissioners report fire origin" 41/92; "investigation closed" 50/55; "Sullivan testimony" 32/43; Illinois sweeps 18/33, 7/29, 10/28; Benner 17/26; Ohio 19/23; testimony/firemen 17/17; Wisconsin 9/11; "unable determine" 8/9; Hildreth 6/8; Iowa 4/7; Ryerson 6/6; Indiana 2/2). Findings in the 478 pages: - **No wire report of the sittings of 29 Nov, 1, 2 or 4 Dec** — no out-of-town page mentions Hildreth, the gas-works evidence, Burtis, Ryerson's foreman, the stenographer or the close of the examination; the Chicago dispatches of 29 Nov–5 Dec found are markets, the Dubuque hotel fire, the cold snap and Mayor Medill's inaugural (Portland Daily Press 30 Nov p.3 and 5 Dec p.3; Nashville Union and American 5 Dec p.1; Connecticut Western News 8 Dec p.2). - **A second newspaper's version of Mrs. O'Leary's evidence of 24 Nov** — Richmond Daily Dispatch, 29 Nov, p.3 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84024738/1871-11-29/ed-1/?sp=3), quoted in full in §2.2 and compared in §3.14: first person, "six cows", "Kate, the barn's afire", the one-legged drayman, the calf sold for $8, the shavings under the cows, Mrs. Laughlan "had no supper that night". - **The Board's finding did circulate, correctly, by ready-print** — an identical news-summary paragraph in the Iowa Voter (Knoxville, Iowa), 21 Dec, p.6 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84027183/1871-12-21/ed-1/?sp=6) and the Wyandot County (Ohio) Republican, 21 Dec, p.1 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85038238/1871-12-21/ed-1/?sp=1): "An official report of the Commission appointed to investigate into the origin of the Chicago fire has been published. They find that the fire originated in a two story frame barn in the rear of 137 DeKoven street, the premises being owned by Patrick Leary. They were unable to determine whether the fire was caused by a spark blown from a chimney on that windy night, or was set on fire by human agency. Mr. Leary and all of his family prove to have been in bed and asleep at the time. The Commission state the area burned over at 2,050 acres. The total loss of property burned is estimated at about $200,000,000. The number of buildings burned is between 17,000 and 18,000. The number of lives lost at the fire is supposed to have been about 200, although only 117 bodies had been found." This is the Board's own language (compare §2.11: "whether it originated from a spark blown from a chimney on that windy night, or was set on fire by human agency, we are unable to determine"), ten days after the report; it says nothing of the McLaughlins or the cow. The same paragraph presumably ran in every paper taking that ready-print service in the week of 18–23 Dec. - The "Cow or How?" digest (§2.13) turned up in two more papers: Marshall County (Ind.) Republican, 30 Nov, p.2 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84038034/1871-11-30/ed-1/?sp=2) and Charleston (S.C.) Daily News, 5 Dec, p.2 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026994/1871-12-05/ed-1/?sp=2). ## 3. Discrepancies between papers (and between press and record) 1. **Who was milking.** AP 10 Oct: "a boy went into a stable … to milk a cow, carrying with him a kerosene lamp". Milwaukee 10 Oct: only "a cow kicking over a lamp". Kenosha Telegraph 12 Oct and Harper's Weekly 28 Oct: "a woman was milking"/"a woman went into a stable". Chicago Times 18 Oct: "an Irish hag of 70" (by report). Tribune 19 Oct: Mrs. Leary herself, denying it. Lakeside Monthly Jan 1872: she "admitted" it — unsupported by any contemporary text found. 2. **Where.** AP: "a stable on Dekoven street, near the river, on the west side"; Milwaukee/Kenosha: "corner of Twelfth and Dekoven" (wrong: Twelfth is a block south); Herald 10 Oct: "corner of Jefferson and Dekoven"; the West Side paper of 10 Oct: "a small barn on Farquahr street, near Jefferson"; from 19 Oct: 137 DeKoven, east half of Lot 12, Block 38. 3. **When.** Evening Post/Ledger 10 Oct: "about nine o'clock"; Milwaukee: 9½; Sullivan (affidavit 15 Oct): "about half-past 9"; Sullivan (testimony 25 Nov and the report): "twenty or twenty-five minutes past 9"; Schimmels: gong "about 9:30" — box 342; Bulwinkle: "The third alarm was given at 9:15" (irreconcilable with the Board's 9:30 first alarm); the report: first alarm 9:30, fire burning "ten to fifteen minutes" before the engines came. 4. **The cause offered.** 10 Oct West Side paper: incendiarism or "a carelessly used pipe or cigar"; wire: cow and lamp; Mrs. Leary to the Journal: "It must have been set afire … a strange man"; 20 Oct letter: "love of plunder, Divine wrath, etc."; 24–25 Nov: the McLaughlin party/oysters rumour (Mrs. White via Mrs. O'Leary), denied by Catharine McLaughlin; the report: spark from a chimney or human agency, undetermined; the San Francisco "confession" of 27 Dec. The Journal of 21 Oct records two forms of the rumour current "that night": the milking-by-lamplight kick, and the lamp set down by the door while she "went back for her salt dish"; the Cincinnati Gazette correspondent (11 Oct) adds the "Bohemian tailors" quarrel across the alley. 5. **Sullivan's Christian name and address.** Affidavit (Tribune 20 Oct): "Denis Sullivan, of No. 134"; Tribune 26 Nov and the report: "Daniel Sullivan" of No. 134; Andreas: "Daniel [Dennis]". The Troy Daily Times (1 Dec) and other wire texts follow the Tribune. The Nashville Union and American (27 Oct, p.2), digesting the affidavits, has "Mr. Sullivan" with no Christian name — the earliest out-of-town naming of him found. 6. **Who woke the O'Learys.** Affidavit (Patrick): "awakened by Denis Ryan, of No. 112 DeKoven street" (McDermott's letter gives Ryan's number as 112 — OCR in one place reads "118"); Tribune 25 Nov, Mrs. O'Leary: "Mr. Sullivan … awoke them"; Catharine Sullivan: "Her son and Dennis Regan woke the O'Learys"; Dennis Regan, "of No. 112 DeKoven street", testified in person (so "Ryan" in the affidavit = Regan); Tribune 26 Nov, Patrick: "Dan Sullivan called him out of bed"; Sullivan: "a man named Regan came along and shoved in the door, and awoke the inmates"; transcript excerpt: "two men came by the door … my husband … said 'Kate the barn is afire'". 7. **Asleep or not.** Tribune 25 Nov: "in bed, but not asleep"; transcript: "I was in bed"; Patrick (26 Nov): "asleep when Sullivan woke him"; the report: "in bed and asleep". 8. **Number of animals.** Affidavit: five cows, a horse and wagon; Tribune 25 Nov: "six cows, and a horse"; transcript: five burnt plus one out in the alley ("I had six cows there"); Journal interview: five cows; Sullivan: saved a "half burned calf". 9. **Leary / O'Leary.** Tribune 19 Oct: "Mrs. Leary"; 20 Oct affidavits: "O'Leary"; the inquiry headings and Benner use "O'Leary"; the witnesses' names as printed on 26 Nov and the Board's report use "Leary" (Patrick Leary; "Leary's barn"); the Evening Post 12 Dec: "Patrick Leary"; Andreas: "O'Leary". chicagology's directory extracts show "Leary Patrick, lab. r. 137 DeKoven" in the 1869–71 directories. 10. **How the testimony was recorded.** Tribune 24 Nov: no short-hand writer could be procured, Brown wrote in longhand; Tribune 26 Nov: "the testimony was taken in full by a short-hand writer"; the report: "taken down by a stenographer, and subsequently transcribed … 900 pages of foolscap" — so the first day's evidence (Brown, Schaffer) may exist only in longhand. 11. **What the Board concluded, as reported.** Tribune 12 Dec: responsibility "quietly shifted to the Mayor, Council, and Newspapers"; Evening Post 12 Dec: "nothing new to disclose"; greatchicagofire.org: "No Verdict"; Schoharie Union 15 Dec: the cow "was the cause … after all" (wrong). 12. **Out-of-town condensation.** Wire summaries substitute "O'Leary" for "Leary", drop the reporter's asides, and compress several witnesses into a paragraph (Troy Daily Times 1 Dec); several weeklies print the oysters rumour as fact (Middletown Transcript). 13. **Rumour into fact on the wire.** Mrs. O'Leary's hearsay of 24 Nov ("Mrs. White told her …", which she "didn't know whether it was so or not") and Catharine McLaughlin's denial of 25 Nov became, in the Chicago dispatch of 27 Nov (Eureka Sentinel 28 Nov), "parties went out to the barn with a lamp to get some milk to cook oysters. The lamp was kicked over and the fire started", and in the weeklies of 1–2 Dec "it has been ascertained that Mrs. O'Leary's cow was the cause of the great fire" (Painesville Journal, Middletown Transcript, Emporia News). The Cairo Bulletin (28 Nov) and the Springfield Republican (1 Dec) got her evidence right; the Springfield Republican still drew the wrong inference from it. 14. **Two press versions of Mrs. O'Leary's testimony.** Tribune 25 Nov (third person): five children, in bed "but not asleep", knew nothing until Sullivan woke them, "understood" the McLaughlins had an oyster supper and that Mrs. White said one of them went to the barn, first engine seen playing on Turner's block. Richmond Dispatch 29 Nov (first person, uncredited Chicago source): "six cows", "Kate, the barn's afire", the one-legged drayman from the oil works, the burned calf sold for $8, shavings spread under the cows, the McLaughlins' "music and a little dancing", Mrs. Laughlan "had no supper that night", a cow lost in the alley. The AP dispatch of 25 Nov (§2.13) compresses all this into "one of the party went out to the barn with a light to procure milk for cooking oysters" — a statement neither version has her make. ## 4. Gaps and shortfalls - **December wire search left unfinished**: 478 of the 1,009 hit pages of the targeted December campaign were fetched and scanned (§2.14); the remaining 531 — mostly pages matching only the broad "commissioners report"/"fire inquiry" queries — were not fetched. - The Chicago Times (18 Oct), Evening Journal extra (9 Oct), Republican and Evening Post of October are not online in any source reachable here; their content is known only at second hand. - The Tribune of 1 Dec and pp.3–6 of 30 Nov are missing from LoC. **Addendum (Fulton scans):** fultonhistory.com's "Chicago IL Tribune 1871" scans nos. 0592–0614 were downloaded (`pages/fulton/`, text extracted with PyMuPDF) and mapped to LoC pages by shared word-trigrams (`match_fulton.py`): 0592–0594 = 28 Nov pp.4–6; 0595/0596 = 29 Nov p.1 (duplicate scans); 0597 = 29 Nov p.2; 0598 = p.3; 0599/0600 = p.4 (duplicates); 0601 = p.5; 0603 = p.6; 0602 = a want-ads/hotel-arrivals page (no LoC match, no inquiry content); 0604/0605 = 30 Nov pp.1–2; **0606–0609 = 30 Nov pp.3–6 (absent from LoC)** — 0607 (p.4) carries the report of the 29 Nov sitting, now §2.6; 0606, 0608, 0609 have no inquiry content (poetry/local, markets, local); 0610–0614 = 2 Dec pp.1–5 (0613 is an ads page); 0626–0629 = 4 Dec pp.3–6; **0631 = 5 Dec printed p.2 (absent from LoC) — carries the report of the 4 Dec sitting, now §2.9**; 0632/0633/0634/0636 = the four LoC pages of 5 Dec; 0635 = a further 5 Dec page absent from LoC (legislature, farm and foreign news; no inquiry content). Fulton, like LoC, has no 1 Dec issue: the scans run straight from 30 Nov p.6 (0609) to 2 Dec p.1 (0610), so the Tribune evidently did not publish on the day after Thanksgiving (it also has no 26 Dec issue). The daily series of Tribune inquiry reports, 24 Nov–5 Dec, is therefore complete: every sitting from 23 Nov to 4 Dec has its next-day Tribune report in hand (§§2.1–2.9). - IDNC (downstate Illinois papers), Papers Past and Trove could not be searched (Cloudflare/Incapsula/API-key barriers; no working headless browser through the proxy). The New York Times could not be searched (403).