Horace P. Dewey

For our first stop of the day, we find the tombstone of Horace Pease Dewey. Check out the inscription there on the stone.

Chicago has regrettably experienced a number of horrible tragedies over the centuries; the Eastland Disaster, the Iroquois Theatre fire, and others. Many of the victims of those sad events are buried here. In the case of the infamous Great Chicago Fire, we’ve turned that story into a point of inspiration for the city.

It was October 1871. A fire broke out on the near West side of the city. They had been experiencing a terrific drought and a strong wind from the Southwest blew the flames tall. To make matters worse, The firemen were given the wrong address and arrived at the fire very late, which caused things to get out of control.

The fire grew as it consumed every wooden thing in its path, and in Chicago that was everything; not just the buildings, but the roads and the sidewalks. When it reached, at last, the south branch of the Chicago River, it was sure to meet its end. But the wind gusted strong and soon embers began floating to the other, more populated side of town. It ripped mercilessly through the unsuspecting Loop. Building after building imploding under its hellish wrath. 

At this point, witnesses of the mayhem described a massive tornado of flames shooting the fire high into the sky and beyond sight. Every single building was aflame. A massive wall of death had made its way to the North branch of the Chicago River. Flaming debris was hurled into the sky by the fire tornado. It landed on the other side of the river, on a truck filled with kerosine. And so, after that explosion, the fire continued up the Northside until it finally ran out of city to burn.

Though the wild flames of October, 1871 would claim the lives of over 300 Chicagoans and destroy over a third of the city, leaving 100,000 people homeless, we were the city that pulled ourselves up out of the ashes, like a phoenix, and made ourselves better.

Many people who know of the fire understand that it began in a barn on the near-west side of Chicago. The barn was owned by an Irish immigrant family known as the O’Leary’s. Catherine O’Leary’s name would be cemented in history when she was accused of starting the fire by milking her cow too forcefully and causing it to kit over a lantern. This was not the truth. It is an example of anti-Irish sentiment of the time. But, we do not know what, in fact, started that fateful blaze, and 150 years later people still proclaim the false narrative the Great Chicago Fire was started by Mrs. O’Leary and her agitated cow.

You may play the next track for directions.

Lithograph: Chicago in Flames by Currier & Ives, 1871 (cropped).jpg