The great Chicago fire Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The great lolly ignore - Research Paper ExampleWill moolah be able to return her royal title of the Queen of the West? The Great Chicago terminate It was like a snowstorm only the flakes were red instead of white. Bessie Bradwell Helmer 1. Chicago started as a small-scale settlement and grew to a very populated urban center during XIX. The population of Chicago had burst from approximately 4,000 souls when it true its first city charter in 1837, to 30,000 in 1850 and to an amazing 330,000 at 1871. It had passedSaint Louisas the fourth-biggest city in America and became a key player on the international scene. Modern for those days highly-branched railroad track was a very important element of Chicago city. No American city was linked to the butterfly of the railroad the way Chicago was. It resembled imperial European centers Paris, for instance where the stations, like the points of a gigantic compass, beckoned in all directions It was the railroad that made Chicago the ca pital of Americas heartland, its attainable metropolis, its possible dream. (Lowe, 2010, p.51). 2. This closely increase city growth, though, happened with little planning. Several brick-and-mortar constructions were already built, but thousands of buildings were factually thrown up to family unit the enormous flood of European immigrants. There, next to rich houses was built squatter settlement where buildings often were set apart up very close to each other, back-to-back. The growth of the city was so speedy and similar to the flying growing bones of a teenager, which often might be subject to easy breaking. The expansion of Chicago was far from being ideal and faultless. There were class conflicts, business upheavals and urban rivalry which became common in American cities. 3. On Sunday October 8th 1871 around 9 oclock in the eve in the small barn owned by Patrick andCatherine OLeary, that was on 137DeKoven Street, the fire started. Nobody knew for certain what caused it. Th e investigating by the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners has never before been fully researched and reported by the fire historians. The Boards final report published in Chicago newspapers on December 12, 1871, indicated that the commissioners were otiose to determine the fire cause. (Bales and Schwartz, 2005, p.4) 4. There were number of equally possible stories, from the owners cow the boot over the lantern to meteor shower which possibly caused 3 other fires in the same ara simultaneously. 5. accord to Owens (2007), The Chicago fire started in the OLeary barn but the OLeary Home survived. (p.8) 6. However, many historians forthwith believe that the true culprit of the fire was Daniel Sullivan, the one who told OLearys about the fire. They accepted as legality his story that he got inside the barn to steal their cows milk. Prior to his death, Daniel Sullivan admitted that he was accountable. There are some indications confirming it is true, yet it is not certain. A.T. Andreas, nineteenth-century historian wrote Nature had withheld her accustomed measure of prevention, and man had added to the jeopardy by recklessness. The fire spread very fast due to the draught for fourteen weeks, multiplicity of wooden houses, jacked-up plank streets and sidewalks and powerful southwestern wind. It was similar to hundreds of matchboxes set close