{"id":51,"date":"2020-11-05T09:25:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T14:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2020-12-17T16:54:42","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T21:54:42","slug":"your-choosing-i","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/your-choosing-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow"},"content":{"rendered":"

“A Hot Time in the Old Town”<\/h4>\n

Some may remember learning a song when they were younger that went something like this\u2026 give or take a few words\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cOne dark night, when we were all in bed, <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Mrs. O\u2019Leary left a lantern in the shed. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0And when the cow kicked it over,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0She winked her eye and said, <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019ll be a hot time in the old town tonight!\u2019\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Spoofs and Spinoffs<\/p>\n

\"\"

Mrs. O’Leary & her cow \u2013 allegedly the cause of the fire<\/p><\/div>\n

This song, \u201cA Hot Time in the Old Town\u201d was originally written with similar lyrics, but no involvement of a cow in any way. As the song became popular near the end of the 19th<\/sup> century, musicians started to make spoofs and spinoffs of the hit song, which is precisely where Mrs. O\u2019Leary\u2019s cow comes into the picture, or better yet, the song.<\/p>\n

Flossie Nash…<\/h4>\n

Sources say that the lyrics about the Great Chicago Fire (above) were apparently written by Flossie Nash in March of 1898, almost 27 years after the fire itself, which was when the hit song \u201cA Hot Time in the Old Town\u201d (the original) was at its peak popularity (Loerzel 2020).<\/p>\n

…proof?<\/h4>\n

However, there is no evidence proving that Nash is the one that wrote these lyrics as there has been no record of any sheet music of the version of the song about Mrs. O\u2019Leary and her cow. As far as we know, the only way that the song has spread from the time it was \u201cwritten\u201d is simply by word of mouth, from tradition, from being passed from parent to child and beyond (Loerzel 2020).<\/p>\n

Location, known. Source, unknown.<\/h4>\n

Regardless of who wrote the song, it\u2019s important to know the backstory and the legend that goes along with it. The location where the Great Fire began is known, but the actual source of the fire remains unknown and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future. There are only suspicions as to how the fire started, and one of them revolves around a cow on the O\u2019Leary’s property, where the fire is known to have begun.<\/p>\n

The Cow Legend<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Legend has it, on the night of October 8, 1871, one of the cows in the O\u2019Leary\u2019s barn kicked over a lantern that had been lit, knocking it over and causing the fire that destroyed 17,000 structures, killed 300 people, and left 100,000 homeless. Catherine and Patrick O\u2019Leary immediately denied this rumor and claimed that they, and their cows, were innocent and not to blame for this tragedy (History.com, “Chicago Fire of 1871”, Aug. 2018).\u00a0Although there is a good amount of certainty regarding where<\/em> the fire began, there is still so much uncertainty regarding how<\/em> the fire started.<\/p>\n

Catherine O’Leary Exonerated<\/h4>\n

For so many years, the O\u2019Leary\u2019s were overwhelmed with accusations, frustration, and most of all, even guilt. Catherine O\u2019Leary passed away in 1895, but relatives continued working on exonerating her of guilt, which wasn\u2019t successful until 1997, 102 years after her death and 126 years after the fire itself (Wilson 2017).\u00a0It was then that Chicago\u2019s Committee on Police and Fire officially cleared her of all guilt in connection with the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that claimed 300 lives and affected the lives of hundreds of thousands more (Wilson 2017).<\/p>\n

Other Myths<\/h4>\n

There are plenty of other ideas, or myths, as to what caused the fire, some of which are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Milk thieves<\/li>\n
  • Drunken neighbors<\/li>\n
  • Spontaneous combustion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    But again, the true cause may never be known.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “A Hot Time in the Old Town” Some may remember learning a song when they were younger that went something like this\u2026 give or take a few words\u2026 \u201cOne dark night, when we were all in bed, \u00a0Mrs. O\u2019Leary left a lantern in the shed. \u00a0And when the cow kicked it over, \u00a0She winked her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-51","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mtrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}