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Cause And Effect Essay On Chicago Fire

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Before now, I hated the city of Chicago. I thought it was an awful place that no one like me should be going to. I based this on my family’s experience with the city. Back in 1871, my family lived there. It was growing to be an important city (Marx 7).Then, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed it. They blamed for our cow starting the fire. After that people treated us like trash. That is why I hate the city so much. I refuse to go, but Emma, my daughter, wants to go for her birthday. It occurred to me that I had never told Emma the full story about the Great Chicago Fire. Before, I didn’t think Emma was old enough to understand. Catherine O’Leary was the person everyone blamed. Catherine was my great-grandma. She didn’t live to see me born, but my mom named me Cathy in honor of her. I wasn’t alive when the fire happened, but I can see how much it has affected my family. My mom and grandma told me many stories about everything that happened. It was so bad that, when the fire was over, our family had to get away from all the reporters . They wouldn’t leave us alone. We had to sell everything we had and get away from that town (Abbot, “What Caused the Great Chicago Fire?”). Our family has moved around since then. We now live in a small town in northern Mississippi. From stories I have heard, people in the city blamed our family because …show more content…

Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. On the night before the fire, in the West Division, there was a good sized fire. Four blocks were destroyed. It took the firemen eighteen hours to finally put out the fire. Because of this, they had lots of injuries and damaged equipment. There was not enough time for them to recover to fight the bigger fire the next day (Marx 14). On top of that, Chicago had about two fires every day and in the week before the fire, there were twenty (Marx 11). You would think that they would get the hint that something needed to be

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Their city was growing and was awarded the chance to host the World’s Columbian Exchange. Chicago was becoming a prideful place. Officials and citizens were not concerned when people went missing because their city was thriving. Because Chicago was a selfish city, people dying in Chicago was not a concern. “Chicago was nothing more than a greedy, hog-slaughtering backwater.”

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The great Chicago was the biggest botheration ever. This has killed 300 souls there is legend Mrs. O’Leary was milking her cow and the cow kicked over and started the great Chicago fire but there is a another theory would you think Mrs. O’Leary did it well don't think she did do it. Mrs. O’Leary was a greedy woman she only cared about money. One day he money was taken away by the government then she wanted revenge on government. Mrs. O’Leary was on welfare and when the government found out that Mrs.O’Leary was selling milk the government put Mrs. O’leary off welfare then Mrs.O’Leary wanted revenge on the government.

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The city was able to be repaired to the city it is today, but the events that happened that day left people with horrible memories, but if it wasn’t for the fire who knows how Chicago would be like

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“Late one night, when we were all in bed, Mrs. O’Leary lit a lantern in the shed. Her cow kicked it over, then winked her eye and said, ‘There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight!’ (Abbott)” In 1871, a disaster arose in Chicago and reshaped the city permanently: a fire scorched around three square miles of land, leveled thousands of buildings, and stole hundreds of lives (“Chicago Fire of 1871”). Although the effects of this tragedy were harrowing, it actually served as the catalyst which allowed Chicago to become one of America’s largest, most influential cities.

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