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1896 Chicago Fire 25th Anniv medal? Any help from Chicagoans?
jonathanb
Posts: 4,115 ✭✭✭✭✭
I snagged this because I thought I could figure out some more about it, but I'm finding surprisingly little. October 9, 1871, was the date of the Great Chicago Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's cow, etc). The other date on this medal is 25 years later. The phoenix-rising image seems like it would be appropriate, so I jump to the clever conclusion that this has something to do with the 25th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire.
...and that's about all I have. The medal itself is really crappy. It's 2 3/8 inches in diameter, and clearly was cast rather than struck (there's seam along the edge sharp enough to cut your finger on, plus a pour mark at the 6:00 edge). Whatever metal it's made of is junky and obviously prone to corrosion. I don't see anything about a manufacturer.
I would have guessed that there was some commemorative event on the 25th anniversary, but Google yields nothing.
Have any Chicagoans ever seen this medal and can tell me more about it?
Thanks!
...and that's about all I have. The medal itself is really crappy. It's 2 3/8 inches in diameter, and clearly was cast rather than struck (there's seam along the edge sharp enough to cut your finger on, plus a pour mark at the 6:00 edge). Whatever metal it's made of is junky and obviously prone to corrosion. I don't see anything about a manufacturer.
I would have guessed that there was some commemorative event on the 25th anniversary, but Google yields nothing.
Have any Chicagoans ever seen this medal and can tell me more about it?
Thanks!
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My quick yahoo search came up with this. October 9 is Chicago Day, as was celebrated at the Columbian Expo, the anniversary of the Chicago Fire. But I'll keep searching.
there's a dealer that i see at some of the larger regional shows, saw him last at the Michigan State show last Thansgiving Day weekend. he belongs to a historical organization and has done some research into the actual cause of the fire which he asserts was almost cetainly not some legendary cow!! the evidence he's been able to uncover leads to a meteor shower which caused fires in western Michigan as well as other parts of the country and from what i recall has even been traced to as far away as Europe.
The current theory is that the neighbor, a known drunk, and his drinking buddies were playing cards in Mrs. O'Leary's barn without permission, and that one of them knocked over a lantern and started a fire. The neighbor made up a story to cover his arse, and the newspapers picked it up.
TD
<< <i>A couple of years ago, somebody did a computer-generated recreation of the property based upon the old plat maps, and proved that the next-door neighbor who said he saw the cow kick over the lantern had to have been lying. He could not have seen the cow from where he said he was standing on his property; there was a building in the way.
The current theory is that the neighbor, a known drunk, and his drinking buddies were playing cards in Mrs. O'Leary's barn without permission, and that one of them knocked over a lantern and started a fire. The neighbor made up a story to cover his arse, and the newspapers picked it up.
TD >>
He covered is arse? So now they are blaming in on a donkey?
Mayor Richard J. Daley (father of the current Mayor, Richard M. Daley) was planning a big centennial celebration. The city's special events director, Col. Jack Reilly, a colorful character who wore an eye patch, conducted the news conference that featured a live cow. Col. Reilly told the reporters -- who simply ate it up -- that the cow was from a dairy farm in Wisconsin owned by a family named O'Leary, and so, therefore, this cow was a descendant of the infamous bovine of kicked-lattern fame.
Sorry, though, no word about the medal that is the subject of this thread. However, I do recall from visits to the Chicago Historical Society that there is a Chicago Fire medal made from metal (silver?) melted by the fire. They also had on display at one time a group of silver coins fused together and partially melted from the 1871 fire.
-donn-