Were your Chicago ancestors impacted by the 1871 fire that destroyed much of the city? The fire that was started by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow?
WELL. A bit in the paper said that “The family is still mad
about how she was treated,” Peggy Knight, O’Leary’s great-great granddaughter.
“She did not deserve that.” The article continued: “How the immigrant from
Ireland came to be blamed is a familiar story: She was a victim of prejudice
and circumstance.”
The fire started in or near her house and
her family’s barn and while it destroyed much of the city, it miraculously
spared her own house. Mrs. O’Leary was easy to blame because of who she was and
what she represented…………. Irish immigrants were often considered the dregs of
American society in the 1870s and so were easy targets.
The blame continued for years, even though
the Chicago Fire Department held a hearing within weeks of the blaze in which
it concluded that the cause could not be determined. “She was exonerated but
the whole story kept going,” said Knight. “The family moved to the far southern
edge of the city and lived under the surname Walsh, Knight said.
How does knowing “the rest of the story”
make you feel?
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