This is nonfiction, specifically 977.3, and was the November selection of the History Book Club, which is a joint venture between the McLean County History Museum and the Bloomington Public Library. While this book was close to 400 pages long, it was a surprisingly easy to read and engaging book, and I don’t think anyone should be intimidated by the page count.
Author Berg creates a vivid portrait of the hot, dry and windy conditions that had been ongoing since summer that helped make this fire so devastating. He also discussed a fire that had occurred the day prior to the onset of the big fire called the Red Flash, which no one ever hears about. That fire had been quite large and had so exhausted the men that much of the fire equipment was put away without making it ready to go again.
Berg also discussed the most likely cause of the fire that started on the night of Sunday, October 8th. 1871, which was probably the careless discarding of a cigarette. But Berg also explained how the urban myth, that Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started the fire, got started. Amazingly, the Leary’s home (not O’Leary as the myth would suggest) remained standing, though the barn and all its contents (the family’s livelihood) were destroyed. As Berg described the efforts to combat the fire, and its spread across the city, he also introduces the reader to real life characters, including Marshall Field, Civil War general Phil Sheridan, William Butler Ogden, Chicago Tribune owner Joseph Medill, and others less well known.
In the aftermath of the fire, Burke discussed how the Chicago elites wanted to control the money pouring in from other cities to aid in the city’s recovery. When Joseph Medill was elected mayor in November of 1871, one of his main platforms was to rebuild the city to be fireproof, mandating brick for all new residential construction. This effectively put replacement homes out of the financial reach of the poor and many immigrant families who had been homeowners before the fire. This ongoing conflict between the elite and the working class, and the city’s immigrant population is a fascinating part of the story.
Amazingly, another fire that occurred the very same day in Peshtigo Wisconsin killed up to 2,400 people and destroyed multiple communities while another fire called the great Michigan fire destroyed many acres of ground in that state. (Amazingly, the “official” death toll for the Chicago fire is only about 300 people.) And in an interesting coincidence, a major fire occurred in Urbana, Illinois at about the same time, October 9th, 1871, which destroyed a large part of the city and led to the creation of Urbana’s first fire department, though this latter fact was brought out in the discussion of the book rather than in the book itself.
Overall, this was a fascinating discussion of the destruction and rebirth of the city of Chicago, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in Illinois history.
