Chicago Great Fire (1871)

In 1871 Chicago was the fastest growing city in the United States. Buildings went up every day—most made out of wood. The summer of 1871 had been very dry with little rain.

Shortly before 9pm on Sunday, October 8, 1871, a fire started in a barn owned by Patrick and Catherine O’Leary of 13 De Koven Street. On that day, they went to bed early to be well rested for the next day, when they were going to have much work to do.

Mrs. O’Leary had to milk the cows, and Mr. O’Leary had to go to work. That evening, a neighbor, Daniel Sullivan came by to visit and saw that the O’Learys were in bed. He started to walk home, but from the corner of his eye, he saw a yellow flame dancing out of the O’Learys’ barn.

It was tiny at first, a glowing dot, some wisps of white smoke. But then flames reached up.

Meanwhile, a fireman named Mathias Schaffer was stationed at the city courthouse. From the courthouse tower he could see much of the city. When he saw smoke in the distance, Schaffer quickly told his assistant to signal the fire engines.

His assistant sent a message to the fire stations, but he mistakenly directed horse-drawn fire wagons to a location about a mile from the burning barn. When the fire department finally reached the barn, its equipment was no match for the blaze.

Although firemen responded within minutes, the fire had already spread to nearby barns and houses, engulfing thirty buildings in as many minutes.

By that point the scarcity of fire personnel combined with the strong winds sweeping through the dry, wooden environment effectively doomed the city. The fire department could do nothing to stop the fire. Around 4 A.M. the next day, the fire destroyed the city’s waterworks, shutting off water to the fire hydrants. Firefighters had to drag water in buckets from Lake Michigan and the Chicago River.

The Great Fire burned until October 10, when rain finally fell. Fire Marshal Robert A. Williams later described the blaze as “a hurricane of fire and cinders.” Over the course of the next thirty hours, the fire consumed nearly 18,000 buildings, killing over 300 residents and leaving another 100,000 homeless.
Chicago Great Fire (1871)

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable – Father of Chicago

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable is regarded as the first permanent resident of Chicago. Jean Baptiste’s French father married a black woman in St. Marc Sainte Domingue. She gave birth to Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable around 1750.

For formal education, his father took him to France. Later, Jean Baptiste worked on his father’s ships as a mariner.

Jean Baptiste traveled to America in 1770s, and he headed north to explore the region near the shores of the Great Lakes. He settled on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Chicago River.

He recognized its potential as a settlement and built the city’s first permanent home, where the Tribune Tower now stands.

The Indians called this land  ‘Eschikagou’, the place of bad smells due to the odor of the swampland  Since Jean Baptiste was a fur trader, it served as a trading post. He sold his own milk, cheese, beef, and corn throughout the region, eventually reaching markets as far as Louisiana and Quebec.

His trading post became the main supply station for trappers and traders en route to the west.

After a few years, Jean Baptiste also supplied destalked food items to trading posts in Canada and Detroit.

Jean Baptiste became well known for trading goods throughout the Midwest. As a result he became very wealthy.

In 1814, Jean Baptiste filed for bankruptcy and he died, penniless, on August 29, 1818.
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable – Father of Chicago