On this day October 8, 1871, the barkentine BUTCHER BOY was partially burned in the great Chicago fire.
The fire, which spanned October 8th through the 10th, reportedly killed 300 people and destroyed 3.3 square miles of the city. I am sure the most famous cow is not Elsie from our Borden milk cartons but that of poor Mrs. O’Leary. The story is told that Mrs. O’Leary was milking the cow when it kicked over a lantern and started the fire that spread quickly due to the very dry conditions, winds, and the wooden construction of Chicago. The fire crossed the south branch of the Chicago River, consumed much of central Chicago and the jumped the main branch of the river burning the near north side. Finally the night of October 9th, it started raining and the fire had basically run out of buildings to burn.
There were other thoughts on how the fire began. Here are just a few of them:
A few men were gambling in the barn and when discovered, knocked over the lantern fleeing.
A man was trying to steal milk from the now famous cow when he knocked over the lantern.
A meteor shower hit the barn.
And according to Rita Hayworth in Gilda -Put the blame on Mame=”Mame kissed a buyer from out of town, and that kiss is what burned Chicago town down………”
In the end, the poor cow was the easiest to blame. But justice prevailed. In 1997, Chicago’s city council officially exonerated the O’Learys and their cow.
As stated, the BUTCHER BOY was in Chicago at the time, sustained damage, but survived.
The BUTCHER BOY was built as a three-masted barkentine in 1868 at Depere, Wis., by Elmo. Sorenson for Chicago parties. She measured 147 feet in length and 29 feet in beam. She carried grain in her early years but later was mainly in the Lake Michigan lumber trade.
On September 30, 1872, she sunk in a gale off Bar Point in Lake Erie after colliding with the schooner ANNIE VOUGHT. In October, a diver reported the wreck of the BUTCHER BOY to be a danger to vessels passing over her. She was abandoned to the underwriters. In November, the schooner OWASCO ran into the wreck and went ashore where she sunk. In May of the next year, the BUTCHER BOY was raised. She was rebuilt into a three-masted schooner and returned to service that August.
The BUTCHER BOY sailed on for many years. She was finally abandoned in 1916 due to age – at Chicago.
Suzette Lopez
Photo credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
