In the mid-1850s, Chicago became a major city thanks to the newly constructed railroad system that connected the United States, causing the once small city of 100,000 people to over a million within 30 years. Due to such rapid expansion, structures appeared with little permits and regulation, causing inconsistencies in the housing quality for multiple future decades. Wood built structures and oil lamps became more common, and also led to the city’s downfall on October 8th, 1871. Multiple events caused the leveling of most of the business district of Chicago and the forced …show more content…
O’Leary’s cow?” mentions that a confession to the fire has emerged in the 20th Century. In “Who Caused The Great Chicago Fire? A Possible Deathbed Confession” by Anthony DeBartolo, further explains Louis M. Cohn’s confession in 1942. Louis Cohn was assumed to be 18 at the time of the fire, DeBartolo quotes that Cohn and a couple other neighborhood boys were playing dice in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn that night and he knocked the lantern into the hay. A direct quote from Cohn himself states, “When I knocked over the lantern, I was winning.”, afterwards, Cohn further detailed his statements in that he collected the money after the others had left for safety from the fire. The downfalls in Cohn’s claim comes from not being mentioned in his own will, as DeBartolo further investigates, but [DeBartolo] rebuttal laid in disagreeing with the validation of the will, because the legal paper lacked Cohn’s signature. This confession differs from “Peg-Leg” Sullivan, whose statement was more consistent and relevant to the time the fire had