Catherine O'Leary

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Catherine O'Leary (also known as Cate O'Leary) (ca. 1827 - July 3, 1895) was an Irish immigrant living in Chicago, Illinois in the 1870s. It was alleged that on the evening of October 8, 1871, a fire started in her barn at 137 DeKoven Street which went on to burn a large percentage of the city, an event known as the Great Chicago Fire. She was married to Patrick O'Leary. The couple's son, James O'Leary would grow up to run a Chicago gambling hall.

After the Great Chicago Fire, she was used as a scapegoat by Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Ahern, who admitted in 1893 that he had made up the story of a cow kicking over a lantern because he thought it would make colorful copy. This story took the population's imagination and many still believe that the fire began with the O'Learys' cow knocking over a lantern. More recent theories posit that Daniel "Pegleg" Sullivan or Louis M. Cohn, who may have been gambling in the barn with the O'Leary's son, James, were involved in the start of the fire.

However, the story of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow has garnered the attention and imagination of generations as the cause of the fire. Popular culture, such as Gary Larson's cartoon The Far Side or Brian Wilson's song "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow," have referred to the story with the expectation that the populace will understand the reference.

Years later, people would sing a parody to the minstrel song There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight[1]:

Late one night, when we were all in bed,

Old Mother Leary left a lantern in the shed;

And when the cow kicked it over, she winked her eye and said,

"There’ll be a hot time in the old town, tonight."

Catherine O'Leary died on July 3, 1895 of acute pneumonia at her home at 5133 Halsted Street and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery. In the PBS documentary, Chicago: City of the Century, a descendant of O'Leary stated that she spent the rest of her life in the public eye, in which she was constantly blamed for starting the fire. Overcome with much sadness and regret, she "died heartbroken".