Anita was born in the East but the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 pulled the McCormicks back to Chicago to help rebuild the family franchise . Her early education was by means of private tutors . . From her early teenage years , McCormick was educated at Misses Grant 's Seminary , a conservative Presbyterian religious institution financially supported by McCormick and his fortune , and at Miss Kirkland 's Academy , a pedagogically progressive , though economically elite private school , from which she graduated high school . Her enlightened ideas about education in later life seem to have begun there
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Anita McCormick Blaine