October 8th, 1871

Many of us have heard the song about O'Leary, but how many of us know what this song is actually about? On October 8th, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire started. As the song says, the fire is believed to have been started in the barn, but as for the cow starting it, no one really knows. This events caused more than 300 people to lose their life and left over 100,000 homeless, showing the devastating effect it left on the city. The fire in Chicago forced large areas to restart and construct buildings from scratch since it had destroyed over four miles long. Although it seems pretty obvious that the Great Chicago Fire was demoralizing, there is a positive. The fire gave the people a chance to reconstruct their city and make necessary changes to the city to help it support a growing population and become an economic center.