Chapter 5: Reduced to Ashes

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• Chicago’s population tripled in 10 years.

• Chicago takes the lead in lumber, grain and cattle trade and is manufacturing many goods.

Chicago is Now a Major City

• 300,000 people in 1870

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GRAIN

LUMBERCATTLE

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Chicago had grand hotels, theaters, opera houses, a lakefront, and boulevards.

“Nicholson Pavement” was a special kind of construction for its streets.

The streets were made of wood and coal tar.

They thought it was stronger and less expensive.

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The Streets of Chicago

• Chicago had one of the best big-city fire departments in the nation.

• Fires happened every day. They were considered no big deal.

• In 1870, the Chicago Fire Department (CFD) put out over 700 fires.

Before the Great Fire

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• In 1871, Chicago was in the middle of a terrible drought.

• In the first week of October (October 1-7), there were 28 major fires. This was 2 times more than normal

Before the Great Fire

Drought

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A City Catches Fire

A couple, Mr. and Mrs. O’Leary, owned a home and a barn south of the city center.

On the evening of October 8, 1871, A fire started in the O’Leary barn, and Daniel “Peg Leg” Sullivan was the first to spot it.

A man ran off to ring the fire alarm but courthouse never received the signal.

• From the top of the courthouse someone spotted smoke from the fire.

• They made a mistake and thought that it was a fire that had been put out the day before.

• There was much confusion about where the fire was..

A City Catches Fire

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• By 10:30 P.M. the fire is officially considered “out of control”

• At first, they thought it would be stopped by the river or the large open parks and streets.

• Chicagoans took to the streets packing their possessions

• The fire was spreading and people had to evacuate the southwest part of the city.

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Primary Source Analysis:

“I went through to Wabash Avenue and here the thoroughfare was utterly choked with all manner of goods and people. Everybody who had been forced from the other end of the town by the advancing flames had brought some article with him, and, as further progress was delayed, if not completely by the river – the bridges of which were also choked, most of them, in their panic, abandoned their burdens, so that the streets and sidewalks presented the most astonishing wreck. Valuable oil paintings, books, pet animals, musical instruments, toys, mirrors, and bedding, were trampled under foot.”

In your notebook, please answer the following questions:

Whose point of view is this document representing?

What was the author’s purpose in writing the article?

How can I verify the information in this document?

The Rush for Life Over the Randolph Street Bridge, 1871 (Harper's Weekly, from a sketch by John R. Chapin)

The courthouse bell crashes to the floor and the fire jumps the main branch of the Chicago River.

• The fire approaches Fullerton Avenue and a light rain begins to fall.

• Finally, on October 10, around 3:00 A.M. the rain becomes stronger and it puts out the fire.

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Much of Chicago is burned in the fire.

The Toll of the Great Fire

• 300 presumed dead

• 100,000 homeless

• 17,500 buildings destroyed

• $200-$400 million in property damagehttp://chicagohistoryonline.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/greatchicagofire.jpg?w=400&h=271

Effects: