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The Kavanaugh sisters, Ella Cantwell and
Louise O'Donnell, were from Springfield, Illinois.
The identity of their parents is uncertain with some
genealogy researchers citing Patrick and Ellen Kavanaugh and others citing John and Ellen Kavanaugh.
On December 30, 1903 they died together in America's worst
theater disaster. A stage fire at Chicago's luxurious new
playhouse, the Iroquois Theater, spread to the auditorium and
within minutes nearly six hundred people perished.
Ella Kavanaugh Cantwell
Louise Kavanaugh O'Donnell
Forty-six-year-old Ellen Mary Kavanaugh Cantwell,
nicknamed Ella, was born in 1856.
Forty-six-year-old Margaret Louise Kavanaugh O'Donnell was born in 1857 and was called Louise.
In 1877 Ella married New York native, Thomas A. Cantwell (1847-1920), an
American Civil War vet who became a postal clerk.
In 1886 Louise married Irish immigrant, Patrick P.
O'Donnell (1850-1914). Patrick's family first
settled in Springfield, Illinois; he came to Chicago
around 1872.
There were conflicting stories about the
identification of Ella's body.
One list reported that her husband, Thomas, identified
her body husband, but the Everett disaster book said
James H. Roche, a cousin, identified her body.
(That may have been James H. Roche, a plumber born
in 1857 in Pennsylvania, married to Annie.). A
newspaper reported that her body was found at Buffram's funeral home.
There were conflicting stories about the
identification of Louise's body.
The Inter Ocean newspaper reported that her
husband, Patrick, identified her at a morgue based
on a ring he had given her for Christmas. The Everett disaster book said
Coroner Traeger identified her body and sent it to the O'Donnell's home on Woodlawn Ave. If
the Traeger story is correct, it suggests her body
was not so badly burned as to make identification
difficult.
Following a double funeral at Louise's
home, burial was in the family plot at Calvary Cemetery
in the Evanston, IL.
Ella's husband co-founded the Eagle Brewing company
in 1891. The company ended in receivership in
1897. He was also a lumber merchant and twice
served as a Democratic state senator.
Louise's husband co-founded the O'Donnell & Duer
Bavarian Brewing company in 1882. In 1903 It produced
sixty thousand barrels.
Ella had no children of her own but raised three children from her husband's prior marriage to Sarah Gallagher.
Louise gave birth to six children in nine years, all of whom were living at the time of her death, ages six to fifteen.
Ella and Thomas rented at 733 W. Adams St. in
Chicago. That structure was many years later razed to make way
for the Kennedy Expressway.
The O'Donnell's owned their home at 4629 Woodlawn Ave,
northeast of Washington Park. I was not able to find
a photo but it was probably large because the lot
size was 120' x 170' and the home was said to have
sold for $35,000 (around $900,000 today). The man who owned it
before O'Donnell — an attorney named Patrick W. Snowhook —
may have contracted for its construction.
In 1900 one of Louise's nephews from Springfield lived with
them — Robert Riordan (1882-). He was the son
of their sister, Emma Kavanaugh Riordon
To care for their large home and many children,
Patrick and Louise employed three live-in servants,
all from Ireland — a coachman, cook and maid.
By 1910 Patrick had trimmed that back to one.
He died in the home in 1914 and four of his children
continued living there
until at least 1920. Today there is a vacant
lot at the address.
In 1894 Ella and Thomas's oldest son, Thomas Jr., nicknamed
"Allie," was shot to
death by a bartender when he and an
accomplice tried to rob a saloon.
Another of Ella and Thomas's sons, Robert E.
Cantwell, became a prominent Chicago attorney and
was said to have represented over five hundred murder
defendants. He was most notorious for knocking
out a baseball umpire at a Chicago White Sox
game. In 1941 Charles Collins of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, reported
that Robert had been scheduled to join his grandmother in the Iroquois Theater excursion
but was kept home but a stomach ache.
Daughter Loretta "Retta" married a fellow named
Tisdelle who was twice accused of fraudulent
financial activities in banking and real estate.
At his death, Patrick left $175,000 to each of his
surviving five children, "to be held in trust 40
years." With inflation, that would be about
$4.5 million today.
Patrick and Louise's youngest daughter, Helen,
graduated from the University of Chicago in 1916.
Two of their sons were on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Discrepancies and addendum
Grammar teacher in Piper City, IL, Helen M. Kavanaugh, a cousin of
Ella and Louise, was visiting in Chicago and
planned to attend the Mr. Blue Beard
matinee too but was unable to get a ticket.
Tragedy
intensifies both good and bad emotions,
strengthening bonds and deepening chasms in
relationships. For the husbands of the Kavanaugh sisters it would be the latter.
In September 1905, two years after the fire, a case
made it to the probate
court, brought by
Thomas Cantwell against his brother in law, Patrick
O'Donnell.
Cantwell accused O'Donnell of having sent one of his
sons to pilfer a key from Ella's purse in the hours
immediately after the Iroquois fire (while the purse
was held at the morgue or in the coroner's office --
reports varied). According to Thomas, Patrick
then went to the bank and removed documents from a
safety deposit box shared by Ella and Louise.
According to bank policy, the manager should have restricted box access to a
court-appointed administrator, who had a
password with which to identify himself. The
bank marked the box to alert bank personnel that
special access restrictions were in effect.
Cantwell claimed that the bank manager intentionally
looked the other way for a short time, thereby
granting O'Donnell unsupervised access to the box.
Patrick said Cantwell was fabricating in his
accusation but admitted going to the bank and
attempting to access the box. He claimed the
bank prevented him from doing so because he did not
know the password. If he testified as to his
reason for trying to access the box, it was not
reported in the newspaper.
The bank admitted they had fired the on-duty manager for drunkenness a year
later.
Newspapers did not report whether the dismissed bank manager
or another bank employee testified as to whether O'Donnell had
unsupervised access to the box.
In January 1906, the judge ruled that since there was no proof the will or
promissory notes existed, O'Donnell could not be
held liable.
The missing promissory notes were allegedly written by Patrick O'Donnell
to Ella Cantwell for $9,000 (or $18,000 — reports
varied) and Ella's will reportedly bequeathed $20,000 in
unidentified property to a "poor" sister of Ella and Louise.
If Patrick was guilty of removing documents from the
box, he might have grabbed Ella's will to be on the
safe side, in case it made specific reference to the
promissory notes. $18,000 in 1904 would be nearly a half-million
dollars today, thus a tempting sum for even a
wealthy man like O'Donnell.
It seems possible Thomas and
Patrick may have had a combative relationship prior to the deaths
of their wives, perhaps a
by-product of their mutual past involvement in the brewing
industry. If so, without Ella and Louise to keep the
men's animosity in check, conflict might have been
inevitable.
On the other hand, Cantwell and O'Donnell might have
concocted the deposit box caper as a mutually
beneficial solution. Cantwell's son, a
celebrated defense attorney, was certainly capable of
helping to craft a scenario that minimized the chance
of prosecution. The disappearance of the
will and promissory notes meant that Cantwell did
not have to cough up $20,000 from Ella's estate to
give the sister and O'Donnell didn't have to pay $18,000
to Ella's estate.
I was unable to learn how Ella Cantwell came to have
such a large sum to loan her brother-in-law.
Ella and Louise's sister, Emma Kavanaugh Riordan, heir to the $20k,
anticipated an attempt to pilfer the box and warned
the bank that it should only permit a
court-appointed agent to open it.
Iroquois injury made him kill wife
Two
children in party survived
Newspaper coverage
Iroquois Theater fire
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 1076
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.
court, brought by
Thomas Cantwell against his brother in law, Patrick
O'Donnell.
