# E. J. Goodspeed, History of the Great Fires in Chicago and the West (New York: H. S. Goodspeed, 1871), "Cradle of the Fire": the Chicago Times' account of the origin (the "old Irishwoman" pensioner story)
# Source: Internet Archive item historyofgreatfi00good, OCR text file historyofgreatfi00good_djvu.txt
# URL: https://archive.org/download/historyofgreatfi00good/historyofgreatfi00good_djvu.txt  (item page https://archive.org/details/historyofgreatfi00good)
# Printed pages: pp. 155-157 (IA leaves 171-173)
# OCR text lines 5896-5935 of the djvu.txt; uncorrected OCR (whitespace normalised only). Fetched 2026-09-14T06:22:15Z.
# This is the Times' hostile Oct. 1871 story, not inquiry testimony.

MEN are always anxious to search out the origin of things that
interest and concern them. They spend their energies in the inves-
tigation of the origin of the human species, and some are even will-
ing to trace their ancestry back to the monkey, or to lower animals.
The old Scripture remark is verified once more — " How great a
matter a little fire kindleth ! " and we are reminded of the in-
definite influence of trifles upon human destiny. To a very
humble and mean source must we trace the fire that consumed
the great city ; and we confess that if God had any retributive
design, He employed an instrument well calculated to humble

156 HISTORY OF THE GREAT FIRES

our pride. The reporters are doubtless disposed to throw an aii
of tragedy around what is commonplace, or to set forth by ludi-
crous description the comedy of the

CRADLE OF THE FIRE.

The Times said : — Flames were discovered in a small stable in
the rear of a house on the corner of De Koven and Jefferson
streets. Living at the place indicated was an old Irishwoman,
who had for many years been a pensioner on the county. It was
her weekly custom to apply to the county agent for relief, which
in all cases was freely granted her. Her very appearance
indicated great poverty. She was apparently about seventy
years of age, and was bent almost double with the weight of
many years of toil, and trouble, and privation. Her dress corre-
sponded with her demands, being ragged and dirty in the extreme.

One day an old man entered the county agent's office and
asked that a load of wood be sent to his house, on the West
side. On being questioned, he acknowledged the ownership
of considerable property, but said he was no better off than
Mrs. So and so, referring to the old woman. This remark led to
further inquiries, when the agent learned to his astonishment that
his supposed pauper owned the ground and the house in which
she lived, arid was besides the proprietor of a famous milch cow,
which furnished enough of the lacteal fluid to supply innumera-