"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater Horror — John Shaqi
"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater HorrorEverett, Marshall
History
"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
Everett, Marshall
Iroquois Theater, Chicago -- Fire, 1903; Theaters -- Fires and fire prevention
There was a pathetic scene at Rolston's morgue when the body of John Van
Ingen, 18 years old, of Kenosha, Wis., was identified. Friends of the Van
Ingen family had spent the entire evening searching at the request of Mr.
and Mrs. Van Ingen, who were injured. At midnight four of the Van Ingen
children, who were believed to have perished in the fire, had not been
accounted for. They were: Grace, 2 years old; Dottie, 5 years old; Mary,
13 years old; and Edward, 20 years old.
In the undertaking rooms of J. C. Gavin, 226 North Clark street, and
Carroll Bros., 203 Wells street, forty-five bodies swathed in blankets
were awaiting identification at midnight. Of the fifty-four brought to
these places only nine had been identified by the hundreds of relatives
and friends who filed through the rooms, and in several cases the
recognition was doubtful.
An atmosphere of awe appeared to pervade the places, and no hysterical
scenes followed the pointing out of the bodies. The morbid crowds usually
attendant on a smaller calamity were absent, and few except those seeking
missing relatives sought admission. Only one of the men, James D. Maloney,
wept as he stood over the body of his dead wife.
"I can't go any further," he said. "Her sister, Tennie Peterson, who lived
in Fargo, N. D., was with her, and her body probably is there," motioning
to the row of blanket-covered forms, "but I can't look. I must go back to
the little ones at home, now motherless."
In Inspector Campbell's office at the Chicago avenue station Sergeant Finn
monotonously repeated the descriptions, as the scores of frantic seekers
filled and refilled the little office. Several times he was interrupted by
hysterical shrieks of women or the broken voices of men.
"Read it again, please," would be the call, and, as the description again
was read off, the number of the body was taken and the relatives hurried
to the undertaking rooms. The bodies of Walter B. Zeisler, 12 years old,
Lee Haviland and Walter A. Austrian were partly identified from the police
descriptions.
The list of hospital patients also was posted in the station and aided
friends in the search for injured.
Sheldon's undertaking rooms at 230 West Madison street were the scene of
pathetic incidents. Forty-seven bodies, some of them with the clothing
entirely burned away, and with few exceptions with features charred beyond
recognition, had been taken there. Late in the night only four had been
identified. The first body recognized was that of Mrs. Brindsley, of 909
Jackson boulevard, who had attended the matinee with Miss Edna Torney,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P. Torney, 1292 Adams street. Mr. Torney could
find no trace of the young woman.
Of the forty-seven bodies thirty-six were of matured women and five of
men. There were bodies of six children, three boys and three girls.
Dr. J. H. Bates, of 3256 South Park avenue, was searching for the bodies
of Myrtle Shabad and Ruth Elken, numbered among the missing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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