Chicago People
- The mayor of Chicago was Rosswell
B. Mason. He wired saying "Chicago is burning. Send your fire
department."
- Daniel "Peg Leg" Sullivan
went to the O'Leary's to do his job as a laborer. He milked their cows
and than he would deliver it to neighbor. When Sullivan was standing up
that's when he first saw the fire. A flame was shooting out of the side
of the barn. He didn't waste a second. He just started yelling " Fire!
Fire! Fire." Sullivan had to save himself so he was trying to find
the door when he noticed that his wooden leg came unscrewed and the O'Leary's
calf bumped into Sullivan and they both ran out the door together.
- Rob A. Williamas was the fire chief.He was delayed with a lot of
small fires. So the fire department didn't get to the fire before it got
out of hand.
- John B. Drake owned a hotel that burned. He took some valuables. Then he saw
that there was one hotel standing. He went in and bought it. If the hotel
did not burn Drake would give the owner $1,000. After the fire Drake went
to the hotel because it was the only one standing. Drake put his watch
on the table and told the owner he had to sell it or Drake would throw
him in Lake Michigan. The owner did sell the hotel to Drake. Drake named
the hotel Tremont House.
- William J. Brown, the fire alarm operator, refused to correct Schaffer's
original signal to Box 342
- It is said that Mrs. O'Leary and her
cow are the cause of the fire. The paper started: "The fire broke
out on De Koven Street being caused by a cow kicking over a lamp in a stable
in which a woman was milking.
- General Philip Sheridan immediately volunteered the mussel power of his
troops to help distribute tents, and other emergency supplies. They must
have worked very efficiently since one citizen wrote" the city was
in darkness, no gas , but 50,000 army tentswere being pitched to house
the poor."
- Tht heat and dry air had left twelve-year-old
Claire Innes tired and listless all day. She went yo bed sometime between eight
and eight-thirty only to be starteled awake later when a horse-and-wagon
clattered past her window at high speed. This was followed by loud voices
from the street below her window.
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