MRS. O LEARY'S COW
The pressing question before us is this: Did Daisy do it? That was the cow's name in question, the bovine accused, as it were. The answer is most likely no. The fire that rendered 3.5 square miles of Chicago proper to ashes in 1871 did start, or so the rumor went, in Catherine O'Leary's barn—both Daisy and her owner were later cleared. The thing about rumors, though, is that they spread; this rumor spread as fast and as aggressively as the fire that it sprang from. You might say it spread like a wildfire. There was even a song made up about it. It was determined in a later investigation by the police and fire department that a stray spark from a chimney started the fire. Mrs. O'Leary and her cow were officially not responsible.
The pressing question before us is this: Did Daisy do it? That was the cow's name in question, the bovine accused, as it were. The answer is most likely no. The fire that rendered 3.5 square miles of Chicago proper to ashes in 1871 did start, or so the rumor went, in Catherine O'Leary's barn—both Daisy and her owner were later cleared. The thing about rumors, though, is that they spread; this rumor spread as fast and as aggressively as the fire that it sprang from. You might say it spread like a wildfire. There was even a song made up about it. It was determined in a later investigation by the police and fire department that a stray spark from a chimney started the fire. Mrs. O'Leary and her cow were officially not responsible.