Louis M. Cohn was a Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 importer who claimed to have been in Mrs. O'Leary's

Catherine O'Leary

Catherine O'Leary was an Irish immigrant living in Chicago, Illinois in the 1870s. She was married to Patrick O'Leary...

 barn the night the Great Chicago Fire

Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...

 started there in 1871.

According to Cohn, on the night of the fire, he, then 18, was gambling in the O'Learys' barn with one of their sons and some other neighborhood boys. When Mrs. O'Leary came out to the barn to chase the kids away around 9:00 on October 8, they knocked over a lantern in their flight, although Cohn states that he paused long enough to scoop up the money.

Following his death, Cohn bequeathed $35,000 which was assigned by his executors to the Medill School of Journalism

Medill School of Journalism

The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It has consistently been one of the top-ranked schools in Journalism in the United States...

 at Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

. The bequest was given to the school on September 28, 1944, along with his confession.