Don’t blame Mrs. O’Leary’s cow for the Great Chicago Fire

By DON BABWIN
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — The 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 will mean more talk about Mrs. O’Leary and her cow. But historians as well as Catherine O’Leary’s descendants want you to know that the woman who has long been blamed for starting the blaze actually had nothing to do with it. They say the cause of the fire remains a mystery but there is no evidence that the woman’s cow kicked over a lantern that started it. They say she was just a woman who lived near where the fire started and was a made a scapegoat, in large part because she was a poor Irish immigrant.