The Great Fires of October 8, 1871

Everyone knows about the Great Chicago Fire of Chicago, which occurred on October 8, 1871.  It was supposedly caused by Mrs O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern.  The fire killed 300 people, and left 100,000 people homeless. It burned about 3 square miles, or about 2100 acres.

But here is the rest of the story.  There were many other fires that started at almost the exact same time.  The Peshtigo fire of October 8, 1871, on both sides of Green Bay, Wisconsin (but not burning the city of Green Bay), was much larger, destroying 1875 square miles of forest, and it killed 1500 people.  This may have been two separate fires, because Green Bay is about 10 miles wide and fires burned on both sides of it.

Across Lake Michigan, separate fires burned in Holland, Manistee, Alpena, and Port Huron, collectively known as the Great Michigan Fire, which burned more than 3900 square miles, and killing and unknown number of people, probably less than 500.

Update: Here is another article about it.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/october-8-1871-the-night-america-burned-5897629