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Photos of Walter and Jack were taken several years prior to 1903
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This poem was one of Walter Bissinger's last, written in November,
1903,
a month before the Iroquois Theater fire.
The Spring at Eagle Rock*
A bubbling fountain from the rock doth leap,
From bold faced cliff doth rise a dainty spring,
Which ever to itself doth laugh and sing,
Unmindful of the mass of stone so steep,
Which towering high above it, guard doth keep.
From Horseshoe island do the wavelets fling
Themselves upon the shore; but hear the ring
And tinkling; 'tis as if around do peep
Invisible sprites and spirits, airy forms
Upon the brink of some pure fairy lake;
For in a hewn log basin it doth fall,
A tiny, shaded pool, a liquid mirror,
Where silver lights and shadows gleam and quake
From overhanging pines and birches tall.
At the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago, twenty-year-old Tessie Bissinger tried valiantly but failed
to save her fifteen-year-old brother, Walter Bissinger
(top), and ten-year-old cousin, Lafayette, Indiana
resident Jacob "Jack" Pottlitzer (center).
Walter and Tessie were the children of realtor Benjamin Bissinger
(1848–1930) and Leah Felsenthal Bissinger
(1859–1911) of Chicago. Their mother was the sister of Jack Pottlitzer's
late mother, Emily Felsenthal. The Bissingers
lived at 4934 Forrestville in Chicago.
One newspaper reported that Walter was an usher who
died at his post but that seems unlikely; nowhere
else was he listed as one of the Iroquois ushers.
It is possible, however, that he was working at the theater
temporarily over the holidays.
He had attended the Morgan Park Academy in the 9th grade,
then gone on to Howe Military
academy in Indiana and in 1903 was home for the Christmas break.
Walter had begun writing poetry at age seven.
His poems were published after his death. His grandmother Henrietta Pottlitzer Diamond had
also been a poet.
Jack Pottlitzer, also nicknamed "Jackie," was the only child of
Max Pottlitzer (1867–1907) and the late Emily M.
Felsenthal Pottlitzer (1873–1903). He lived in Lafayette, IN and was
visiting Chicago during the holiday. His mother had
died from surgery complications nine months
before her son's death at the Iroquois.
Max Pottlitzer was secretary-treasurer of the Lafayette Cracker Co., and a principle in Pottlitzer
Brothers Fruit wholesalers in Fort Wayne, both firms co-owned with his brothers, and
held several patents on tools and
engine components.
In the chaos of nearly one thousand dead and
injured it was rare for a first responder to recognize a
victim. Jack was one of the
exceptions. Surgeon
Dr. Daniel Eisendrath was working in an
emergency triage center next to the
theater, John Thompson's diner, trying to
save victims who showed signs of life. Eisendrath had been Emily Pottlitzer's
doctor and recognized Jack's body. Jack attended the Centennial School in
Lafayette, IN.
In the years after the fire
Theresa Bissinger (1882–1960)
married Sidney Henry Bernheim in 1906, a
fellow graduate of the University of
Kentucky. The pair settled in Louisville
where Bernheim became advertising manager
for the Louisville Herald newspaper.
They had three children, two daughters and a
son named Jack Walter after Tessie's
cousin Jack and brother Walter. Max Pottilitzer remarried two years after the
death of Jack's mother but in 1907 was laid aside Emily in the family plot.
Another Iroquois survivor name emerged eight years after the
Iroquois Theater fire when she survived a second history-making fire
In July,
1911 the Lake Huron towns of Oscoda and AuSable, Michigan were destroyed by a forest
fire. Residents of the lakeside town fled into the lake and many escaped
on trains. Among those was a woman referred to as Mrs. Doris Diamond, at this
moment in time believed to have been Dorice Rene Diamond of Fort
Wayne, Indiana (1886–1981) who went by the name Doris prior to marriage,
Dorietta as a performer and Dorice after marriage. There are iffy spots in this identification.
The Doris of Oscoda reportedly escaped with her four children but Dorice had not yet married.
Doris of Oscoda and the children accompanied an
unnamed woman said to be Doris' sister but none of Dorice's sisters had children in
1911. One possibility is that the four children were Dorice's siblings, of which four were of minor age in 1911,
though not age six to twelve as stated in the newspaper. According to the
story, Doris and the children were blackened with soot, their hair and clothing in
disarray. Could soot and tangled hair made twenty-five-year-old Dorice look old enough to have four
children? Reportedly Doris of Oscoda was going to return to her home in Knox,
Indiana, a city northwest of Indianapolis. Dorice spent much time in
Lafayette, Indiana with her Pottlitzer relatives and Knox County, Indiana is
just north of Lafayette. There were several women named Doris in Dorice's
family but none had four children.
Upon the train's arrival in Bay City, MI, Doris was interviewed by a newspaper and the interview appeared in
newspapers worldwide. The quotation in her interview that captured the
attention of editors was, "The awful scenes were more terrifying and impressed me more than my
experience in the Iroquois Theater fire." To be sure, the loss of property
in the 1911 fire was severe but only five people died versus early six hundred
in the Iroquois Theater fire, including two of Doris' nephews.
The most plausible explanation for Doris' remark is that
as a seventeen-year-old in 1903 she had escaped early in the progress of the
Iroquois fire thus did not feel the same sense of terror that she felt in Oscoda
in 1911.
The responsibility of seeing to the safety of
four
children would have increased the emotional duress in Michigan. Despite
heavy publicizing of the Bissinger-Pottlitzer losses in 1903/1904 newspapers, I find
no references to Doris Diamond being at the Iroquois. I suspect Doris was not
seated with the Bissinger and Pottlitzer children, and that she was seated on the
first floor, from which came less than one percent of the fatalities. Escape
from the first floor was so uneventful for many first floor survivors that
they were surprised to read in newspapers about the massive loss of life.
A cousin to the Bissingers and Jack Pottlitzer, Doris was the oldest daughter of Henrietta Pottlitzer Diamond and Adolph Diamond.
Henrietta's brothers, including Jack Pottlitzer's father, Max, had became prosperous
with the Pottlitzer Brothers Fruit and cracker wholesalers in Fort Wayne. Her
father, who passed months before the Iroquois Theater fire, was a co-owner in
the company. In her younger years, with support from her mother and uncles,
Doris struggled to become an actress. In 1904 two of her brothers joined her
in forming a theater act, The Three Diamonds," that briefly went on the road. In 1919 she married Loring Krickbaum and the pair settled in
Lincoln, Nebraska. Before marriage and after Krickbaum's death in 1937, Doris offered piano and vocal music lessons.
Other than the 1911 interview, I found no other newspaper references to Doris
speaking of her experience at the Iroquois or in Oscoda.
Discrepancies and addendum
* Eagle Rock was a spring in northern Wisconsin.
William, Katie, Howard
and Richard Palmer
Aunt
Falkenstein and Niece Rothe Iroquois victims
Hull family of 4 perished
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 1047
A note about sourcing. When this
project began, I failed to anticipate the day might come when a
more scholarly approach would be called for. When my
mistake was recognized I faced a decision: go back and spend years creating source lists for every page, or go
forward and try to cover more of the people and circumstances
involved in the disaster. Were I twenty years younger, I'd
have gone back, but in recognition that this project will end when I do, I chose to go forward.
These pages will provide enough information, it is hoped, to
provide subsequent researchers with additional information.
I would like to
hear from you if you have additional info about an Iroquois victim, or find an error,
and you're invited to visit the
comments page to share stories and observations about the Iroquois Theater fire.
