After the war , the family went to Mobile , Alabama , where Charlotte opened an enormously profitable dry goods store , and Catherine ran multiple boardinghouses . Here , Charlotte met and eventually married Edward Smith , an Irish-born merchant . The marriage failed , and almost immediately after the birth of her second son , Charlotte moved to Chicago . The bookstore she started there was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1871 , and she fled with her children to St. Louis , where she published a book on the Fire , and was soon doing newspaper work
Great Fire of 1871
Great Chicago Fire
Charlotte Odlum Smith