like Catherine O'Leary.
Though the official investigation had cleared her,
books about the fire continued
to pin blame squarely on her shoulders.
- She must have felt, okay, you know,
let's get on with our lives here.
And it was after that that all of this, you know,
this blame kind of came down on her again, again, and again.
- [Narrator] O'Leary was branded a welfare queen
who had sought revenge for being taken off the relief rolls.
She had never accepted a penny in her life.
- She was a woman.
She was an immigrant.
And I think it was so easy to pick somebody like that.
And I think we see that today.
immigrants are always the first ones accused of things,
accused of crimes, accused of wrongdoing.
- [Narrator] Reporters hounded O'Leary
on every anniversary of the fire.
They faked interviews with her and even fabricated photos.
- They were always trying to snap her picture,
photographers were always coming to the house
and she was always closing the blinds.
She would not pose with anybody.
So, these are some of the examples
of the way she was depicted.
She looks like some kind of a witch, really.
She looks like she doesn't even look human.
It's definitely the stuff that myths are made of.
- [Narrator] The O'Learys sold their cottage in 1879
and left their beloved Holy Family Parish,
moving to South Halsted Street on the city's outskirts.
Catherine O'Leary became a recluse,
only leaving the house to attend mass and run errands.
- I believe her life became sadder and sadder
really because she was, you know,
being accused on all sides, really,
it started with the newspapers and then that story spread.
- [Narrator] Catherine's husband, Patrick, died in 1894.
She passed a year later, reportedly of pneumonia.
- I think she just couldn't get over it.
And my grandmother said Mrs. O'Leary died of a broken heart.
- [Narrator] But even in death,
O'Leary couldn't escape the abuse.
- People would not allow anybody to go to her grave
because when people would it was actually desecrated
and people would leave garbage there
and awful notes and signs.
♪ One dark night when we were all in bed ♪
♪ Mrs. O'Leary left a lantern in the shed ♪
- [Narrator] A vaudeville parody called
"A Hot Time in the Old Town"
became a hit in the years after her death.
♪ There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight ♪
♪ Fire fire fire ♪
♪ There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight ♪
♪ Fire fire fire ♪
- [Narrator] The song cemented Mrs. O'Leary's
place in history as the villain
who burned Chicago to the ground.
- I think the song is part of our culture.
Kids sing it at camp.
That perpetrates the myth for sure.
- Catherine O'Leary becomes a myth
and the city embraces that myth.
For decades after, Chicago would officially
celebrate the anniversary of the fire.
And they would have Catherine O'Leary reenactors
you know, walk through town with a cow.
- [Narrator] To this day,
nobody knows who or what started the fire.
Some suspect one of the O'Leary's tenants,
the McLaughlins, may have snuck into the barn
to steal some milk for a celebratory punch.
- Another story is that a group of neighborhood kids
were playing poker in the O'Leary barn
and somebody knocked over a lantern.
There's theories of a guy with a nickname Peg Leg Sullivan
was smoking a pipe and lit the barn on fire.
- [Narrator] While the cause of the Great Fire was disputed,
most Chicagoans agreed on one thing,
it changed their city for the better.
Rubble and debris were shoved into Lake Michigan,
creating part of what is now Grant Park.
By clearing away old wooden buildings,
the fire made way for a new, more modern city.
- You should look at the fire
like a Chicagoan would look at it.
Not as a total disaster.
I mean it takes out a lot of bad stuff
as far as housing goes.
Wooden buildings that are haphazardly put up.
All that stuff disappears overnight.
- [Narrator] Young architects soon arrived
with a startling new vision
and within a decade Chicago was reaching for the sky.
- [Bill] And soon enough we get the skyscraper.
Because Chicagoland is so valuable,
you build up instead of out.
And that kind of innovation
and that kind of spirit really does exist in Chicago.
It's not just a myth.
- [Narrator] And yet while the city's
physical character would change dramatically
in the years following the fire,
its spirit remained intact.
Even as it grew into a modern metropolis,
it retained the soul of a frontier town.
- Chicago was something that was built,
and I say this with the ultimate respect,
with hustle and chutzpah, and energy
and people acting with great
independence, creativity, pragmatism, get something done.
If there's a problem, solve it, move on.
So, the Chicago fire is, to me,
just another example of this
Chicago dynamic mind spirit in action.
- [Narrator] As for the O'Leary cottage,
it would eventually be demolished.
Nearly a century after the fire,
the city of Chicago bought the site
and put it to a fitting use.
- You saw how the water traveled through it.
It's ready to go.
- [Narrator] Lieutenant Rory Ohse
trains future fire-fighters here at Chicago's fire academy.
He always makes sure to explain the location's significance.
- I'll bring them out here
and I'll ask them to look at the whole skyline.
It's a beautiful skyline,
one of the most beautiful skylines in the world.
Imagine on that day in 1871
that the entire thing was on fire.
All they saw was smoke and flames.
- [Narrator] Though it took well over a century,
Catherine O'Leary's family would finally be vindicated.
Chicago's City Council voted on a resolution
that officially absolved her of blame in 1997.
- My grandmother, Mrs. O'Leary's granddaughter,
and she didn't really talk about it too much
'cause they knew the rest of the city
thought that they were guilty.
This is a copy of the official resolution
drawn up by the City Council
to exonerate my relative, Mrs. Cate O'Leary,
of any wrongdoing associated with the fire.
I just wish that she could have been there
to be presented with the resolution herself.
I think she would be thrilled.