Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,803

This is the grave of Catherine O’Leary.

Born in 1827 in Ireland, Catherine Donegan married Patrick O’Leary, had three children, and moved to Chicago.

There’s only one thing to know here–and in fact, we don’t really have a lot of information on what was a working woman’s life. Like lots of families in the 19th century city, the O’Learys had animals. That included at least one cow. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire broke out and it was a bad one. To be honest, fires in cities were tremendously common and the Great Chicago Fire was a big one, but not an anomalous one. It had been a super dry summer when a fire broke out for some reason in or near their barn. No one knows how, no one ever will. But their barn was the first building to be consumed. It was not the only fire in the Midwest that day. The fire spread rapidly, killed more than 300 people, burned 17,000 structures, and left 100,000 people homeless. It burned most of Chicago. Terrible, but again, this happened in 19th century. It was shortly after this that cities began to move away from wood in construction, built real water and fire systems, and created more sustainable cities that didn’t allow fires every few years to burn huge parts of them.

Well, a reporter named Michael Ahern for the Chicago Republican wrote a story saying it was Mrs. O’Leary’s cow that knocked over a lantern while she was milking it that started the fire. He had no idea if that was true. O’Leary now became infamous and had to live with this. In 1893, Ahern admitted making up the story. She claimed she was asleep when it started and that her neighbor ran into the barn to save her animals upon seeing it. This all led to a big uprising in anti-Irish sentiment in the city and the nation. Evidently, these accusations basically ruined her life, at least according to family stories passed down. Once again, an idiot journalist destroyed the life of an innocent person. If you think journalism is a disaster now, I suggest reading up on it in the nineteenth century. Trust me, there’s nothing new under the sun with what is happening today. It’s just that too many people still have Cronkite and Brinkley as VOICES FROM GOD on their mind. That’s the anomaly.

O’Leary died in Chicago in 1895. She was 68 years old. Her son James became an infamous saloon operator and gambling boss in the city.

Catherine O’Leary is buried in Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois.

If you would like this series to visit other Irish-Americans of the 19th century, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. William Russell Grace is in Brooklyn and Mary “Mother” Jones is in Mount Olive, Illinois. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.