Did a Cow Really Cause the Great Chicago Fire?  Image credit: 
Getty Images  1871 illustration from Harper's Magazine.
Wikimedia Commons   In all of American, and even world, history,
no bovine is more infamous than a cow, belonging to Patrick and
Catharine O’Leary, that was accused of starting what Fire
Marshall Robert A. Williams called a "hurricane of fire and
cinders.” Even as the fire cut a swath through the city,
neighbors and newspaper reporters quickly placed the blame on
the O’Learys and their cow. In the early hours of October 9,
newspapers first reported that the blaze started when the cow,
as Catharine milked it, kicked over a kerosene lantern.  After
the fire was put out, the story evolved and more blame fell on
the O’Learys. Some papers reported that Mrs. O'Leary had been on
welfare, and that when city officials discovered that she’d been
selling her cows’ milk on the side, they cut her off. The fire,
it was implied, was an act of revenge.  Other newspapers
maintained that the fire was an accide