Website with 696+ pages devoted to 1903 Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago

Fatality Mary Adele "Adella" Hammon Strawbridge (b 1839)

Sixty-four-year-old Mary was a teacher from Sharon, Pennsylvania, the widow of Alfred Gwinn Strawbridge (1849-1888) from Sharon, Pennsylvania. Her parents were from New York. Mary taught industrial sewing at the Farragut school. Her body was found at the Rolston morgue and identified by one of her ten siblings — Dr. Glenn M. Hammon.* The Jan. 4, 1904, funeral was held at the Centennial Baptist Church on Lincoln St. and Jackson Blvd.  The family shipped the body to Sharon, Pennsylvania for burial.

Mary's relatives filed a wrongful death suit in December 1904

Survivor May C. Young (b. 1869, Canada)

May worked as a milliner and draftsman.  She had come to America in 1880. Her parents were from England and Canada. She helped save the life of Mabel Strawbridge (see below).  She was one of two boarders at Luella Aldridge's home and a descendant reports that Luella's daughter, Mabel Aldridge, referred to her as "Aunt Jimi."  Luella Aldridge's mother's maiden name was Young so May may have been a relative.

Survivor Mabel Hammon Strawbridge (1884-1948)

Eighteen-year-old Mabel was the daughter of Mary Adele Strawbridge, born in Rugby, Tennessee. A decade after the fire Mabel married Nathan R. Wakefield II with whom she bore two children. Mabel followed in her mother's footsteps and became a domestic science teacher.  She credited May Young with helping her escape from the Iroquois Theater.

Fatality Luella "Lulu" McDonald Aldridge (b. 1859, Virginia)

Lulu's parents were from Kentucky and Tennessee. Her husband, thirty years her senior, whom she had married in 1883, was a merchant, John G. Aldridge (1829-1911).  He was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade for many years.  They owned their own home and had a daughter named Mabel McDonald Aldridge (1885-1985). A second child, Donald John Aldridge (b. 1887-1892), died in childhood.  In some early newspaper notices Luella's last name was given as Goldbridge.

Discrepancies and addendum

The threesome people at coroner's office in clipping at top of page were probably Mabel Aldridge, Mabel Strawbridge and John Aldridge.

*  Glenn Gammon (1857–1936) graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago then joined the staff for ten years as an instructor in diseases of the chest, nose and throat. He practised medicine in Chicago for thirty years before moving to California.

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