# Mrs. Catherine O'Leary, 137 DeKoven street, owner of the cow
# Testimony before the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners, session of Friday 24 Nov. 1871 (day 2), as reported in the Chicago Tribune of 1871-11-25, page 6
# Source: Library of Congress, Chronicling America (lccn sn82014064): https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-25/ed-1/?sp=6 ; OCR text https://tile.loc.gov/text-services/word-coordinates-service?segment=/service/ndnp/dlc/batch_dlc_clark_ver03/data/sn82014064/no_reel/1871112501/0006.xml&format=alto_xml&full_text=1
# Page-OCR lines 57-86; uncorrected OCR; written 2026-09-14T06:29:58Z.
# STATUS: NEWSPAPER REPORT (reported speech with some direct quotation) -- not the stenographic transcript. Bales: Inquiry vol. [1], pp. 59-78. Compare the verbatim Q&A extract from greatchicagofire.org.

mbs. o’leaht,
{he owner of the cow, which, it was claimed,
kicked over the lamp and started the fire, testi
fied that she and her family—her husband and
five children—were in bed, but not asleep, on that
Sunday night. They know nothing of tho fire
until Mr. Sullivan, a drayman, who Uvea on the
south side of DeKoven street, awoke them and
said their bam was on fire. She took a look at
the bam and saw tliat It could not bo saved- She
became almost crazy on account of losing all her
property—a bam, wagons, harness, six co ws. and
a horse—and was very much excited. There
were thiee barns—two besides her own—oa tiro
at the same time. A family named McLaugh
lin lived in the same house with her.
and she understood they were having a ‘‘social
time” on that Sunday night: that they had an
ovster supper, and a Mrs. White had told her that
one of the family went Into the ham to milk one
-of the cows. She had no knowledge of it, and
could not soy whether it was true or not. The
first idie saw of the fire engines was one playing
on Turner’s Block, on the comer of Jefferson and
DeKovcn streets. She thought it was a good
while between the time the fire brpse out and
when she saw the steamer, but It might have
4>een working some time before she saw it. She
was so excited in looking after her family and
property that she didn’t take notice of much cl=e.