Ada E. Folke (b.1882) was only ten years older than Lucile Mead (b.1893) so when Ada worked as a live-in nursemaid for the Meads in 1900 she may have seemed more like a seventeen-year-old big sister to Lucile.  By 1903 Ada had become a telephone operator and lived elsewhere but she and Lucile were still close.

Ada Elfrida Folke had emigrated to America from Sweden in 1892 with her parents, Carl J. Folke (1857-) and the late Kristina Folke.  Like her younger brother, Carl Folke Jr. (1884-1922), who left school at fifteen to work as an office boy, Ada left school early and became a domestic servant, later getting a job as a telephone operator.  Carl Folke Jr. lived with his father and Annie Odell Folke (1861-) whom their father had married in 1884 after the death of their mother.  A Swedish immigrant who came to America in 1892, Carl Folke's hard work had paid off.  He owned his home on Carroll Street in Berwyn and was a valued clerk at a dry goods store there.  He and Annie had a five-year-old daughter, Edna.

Lucile Mead (b. 1893)was ten years old at the time of her death.  She was the oldest child in the family, with a younger brother, Walter and baby sister Gertie.  The family lived at 3301 Elloitt in Berwyn, a village in Cicero township southwest of Chicago with a population of around 5000.

Husband and father Clayton B. Mead (1866-1937) got his PH.G degree in pharmacy from the University of Illinois and operated a drug store throughout his life.  Both he and his wife, Lucy D. Roberts Mead (1865-1960), were natives of Ohio.  They married in 1893.  His drug store in Berwyn was on the corner of Windsor and Grove.  He was one of the first automobile owners in Berwyn.

Theodore C. Roberts (b. 1859)

Forty-four-year-old Theodore Roberts was a farmer and coal dealer in Woodford, Ohio. He had traveled to Chicago to spend time with Lucy and her family over the 1903 holiday.  According to the 1900 U.S. Census, Theo and Lucy's sister, Mary Roberts Carr, along with her husband and children, lived with him in Townsend, Ohio south of Sandusky.  A passel of Laylin and Roberts kinfolks lived in Norwalk and Townsend.

Interment

The bodies of Ada, Lucile and Theodore Roberts were found and identified by Ada's brother, Charles D. Folke,* and Clayton B. Mead, Lucy's husband.  Ada and Lucile's bodies were found at Jordan's Funeral Home; the location of Theodore's body was not reported.  Reportedly Ada and Lucile were alsoboth buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois but I was only able to find Lucile's grave marker there.  Theodore Roberts was buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Norwalk, Ohio.

In the years after the fire

In the years after the fire, Clayton Mead co-owned a drugstore and was a director of the Lyons State Bank in Berwyn.  Son Walter Mead also owned a drugstore, with his mother, on Quincy & 5th in Maywood, Illinois in Cook county.   He and his mother continued to work at the drugstore until at least her 89th year.  Lucy outlived Clayton by many years.  She spent her last years in a nursing home, passing at age ninety-four.  Her obituary did not mention her daughter lost at the Iroquois Theater, but Clayton's did.  His was a much longer obituary than his wife's.

Discrepancies and addendum

Lewis C. Laylin, an Ohio state representative, Secretary of State in Ohio from 1901 to 1907, was Lucy and Theodore's uncle and their maternal grandfather, John Laylin, fought in the American Revolution.

* Charles D. Folke was the reported name and I first thought it was a clerical error that should have read Carl D. Folke, but Charles was also the name reported in 1897 city directories so perhaps Carl went by Charles to avoid confusion with his father.  A first-day newspaper list miss-spelled Ada's name as Adam.

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