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Sixteen-year-old Anna C. Waldron (1886-1958) was a
middle child with two older sisters and two younger
brothers. All three girls were born while the family
lived in New York City; the boys were born after the
move to Chicago, around 1890.
James H.
Waldron (1862-1923) and Mary J. Bolger Waldron (1852-1920)
emigrated to America in 1879 before their marriage,
boarding the Wyoming in Queenstown and arriving at
Ellis Island in New York on November 26, 1879.*
In 1903 the Waldron family lived at 667 W. Jackson Blvd.
(miss-reported in some 1903/4 newspapers as 1667
Jackson) but like many in the early 1900s, the
Waldron's moved often. In 1899 they lived at
670 W. Monroe, four years later at 677 W.
Jackson, in 1904 at 635 W. Jackson and three years
later at 3910 Prairie. James worked in 1903 as a
salesman at The Fair department store. By 1910 he
owned his own candy store and in his later years
worked as an insurance investigator. At the
time of his death, he was the financial secretary for the
local Chicago Knights of Columbus Catholic Order of
Forester's fraternal insurance organization,
Annunciation Court #28.
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Newspapers in 1903/4 did not
report anything about Anna's experience at the
Iroquois other than that her hospital visit was
brief. It is
unlikely she attended the theater by herself but her
sisters Helen and Josephine were working. Anna may
have taken one or both her younger brothers to the
matinee. They were William and James, ages twelve
and seven.
In the years after the fire
As an adult, like her sister
Helen, Anna became a stenographer and clerk,
sometimes working at hotels. The sisters lived
together until Anna's marriage in 1944 at age
fifty-six to electrician Raymond H. Bentley
(1892-1971). His widowed mother had died one month
earlier. Anna and Raymond moved to Los Angeles for
the remainder of their lives. Anna may have made a
good match. As a high school senior at St. Albans
Academy in Knoxville, IL in 1911, Raymond won a
medal for his character, influence and achievement.
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Discrepancies and addendum
* I found a log of James and Mary's passage on the
Wyoming and arrival in NYC November 26, 1879, but
failed to find evidence of their 1880 marriage or New York City births of their three
daughters.
Anna may have been named
after her aunt Anna Bolger.
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