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On December 30, 1903 a group of Thompson family members left their
three-bedroom, two-bath apartment on the left side of this duplex, then five years old, for an
afternoon theater matinee at Chicago's newest luxury playhouse, the Iroquois Theater. They
found seats in the third-floor balcony. When a stage fire spread to the auditorium, three
of the family were among nearly six hundred fatalities in America's worst theater disaster.
They
were: Robert Thompson, his son, Clarence Thompson, and his son-in-law, George Banshaf. (It
seems highly likely that two others of Robert's children were in the theater party, Clarence and
Vernon; if so it was not reported in newspapers. I've found enough incidents of "survivor
shame" to know that it was common.)
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Seventy-year-old Robert Solomon Thompson (b.1833), a Tennessean, had lost his wife of thirty-six
years eighteen years earlier. She was Louisa Cornelia Rudisil Thompson
(1843–1902), with whom he had eight children, all born in Arkansas, of which three
lived with him in 1903. A retired merchant, Robert was the son
of Joseph W. Thompson and Mariah Antoinette Wynne
Thompson.
Twenty-two-year-old Clarence Jonas Thompson (b.1880) was a
single, traveling salesman who had recently relocated to Kansas City, Missouri and was in
Chicago visiting for the holiday.
Thirty-five-year-old George Banshaf (b.1868) was married to Edith Ann Thompson
(1869–1950), Robert Thompson second-oldest daughter. He may
have immigrated from England. He worked as an
electrician.
Vernon Clyde Thompson (1886–1962), Robert's
seventeen-year-old son, identified the bodies of his
father and brother. Stenographer Marie L. Thompson
(1877–1954), Robert's twenty-three-year-old
daughter, identified the body of her brother-in-law George Banshaf. The
family lived at 4847 Forrestville Ave. in Chicago.
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In the years after the fire
At
the time of the Iroquois Theater fire, another Thompson son, thirty-two-year-old Robert Lee
Thompson jr (1871–1949), was traveling in the northwest
with his wife, Bertha Miller Thompson (1878–1920). The family knew that Robert
and Bertha were in Portland, Oregon but did not know
their address. They placed an advertisement in
The Oregonian newspaper. Before the ad ran, however, an employee
at the Oregonian who coincidentally
had met Robert and Bertha during their brief time in
Portland, saw the incoming
advertisement, remembered the couple he'd met, and contacted Robert to inform him of
the death of his father, brother and brother in law.
In a December 1904 case brought by banker Charles L. Boyd on behalf of Robert
Thompson and nine other plaintiffs,
judge Charles Walker upheld a July ruling from judge Holdom freeing the city of
Chicago from liability in the Iroquois Theater fire.
Vernon Thompson married in 1907, to Ruth E. Martin (b.1890)
In 1909, after all other legal efforts had been dismissed by the courts, attorney
Charles C. Spencer helped reach settlements of $750 each (inflation adj.:$26k) for
thirty-five victims, including the Thompson party members.
Edith Banshaf died in 1950 in New York City.
In 1910 Marie Thompson married Stanley Makepeace.
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