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Margaret "Mary" Carson Arthur (1860-1925) was widowed in 1898.
Her husband, Alfred Henry Arthur,
had traveled to New Mexico in hopes a warmer climate
would improve his health but to no avail. At his passing in
May, the newspaper reported he left behind a
life insurance policy of $3,000 (about $85,000 in
2017 dollars). With five
children aged three to sixteen, she'd need
it. The family lived at 217 Cagwin in Joliet, Illinois, a community about
forty miles southwest of Chicago with a 1903
population of around 30,000.
None of Mary's three daughters were named Annie but one
may have been nicknamed Annie or had Annie as a
middle name. Later in life, daughter Marguerette
(1888-1973) went by Marjorie so she was the "Miss
Marjorie Arthur " listed as an Iroquois survivor.
Mary's daughter Florence Arthur (1894-1966) is sometimes reported
as having had the middle name Mary but is more often
recorded with A. as her middle name. It was
common in the early 1900s for married women to use
the first initial of their maiden name as their
middle initial but in Florence's case, the A might
have stood for Annie.
Marguerette/Marjorie
was about fifteen in 1903, and Florence ten, so an
adult accompanied the
girls on the train ride from Joliet into Chicago, and
on the theater excursion. It was most
probably their mother but if Mary Arthur was at the Iroquois, she
escaped injury and was not listed in newspaper
reports.
Mary's younger brother,
William Sherman Carson, was an attorney living and
working in Chicago so Margaret and her children
could have been visiting he and his wife,
Bertha. There were no Carsons referenced in
conjunction with Iroquois
newspaper stories.
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In the years after the fire
By 1910 Marjorie was working
as a truant officer, appointed as a state
representative at the annual Compulsory Education
League convention. She was memorialized by the
organization for her contribution. She
later worked as a bookkeeper. In the 1950s
, still single at fifty-nine, Marjorie lived
with Florence's family (consisting of husband
Albert and daughter Marjorie).
Florence married Albert L. Cutler (1894-1973)
and they had three children.
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