They carried bodies, controlled a crowd of frantic family members, fended off thieves intent on tearing or cutting rings from the deceased, and blocked rubber-neckers who wanted to go inside an unsafe structure to look around.  They were Chicago policemen at the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire.

I suspect it was mostly patrolmen who carried hundreds of dead from the Iroquois Theater.  Will see.  On this page I'm going to gather up what I can find in period newspapers about the police involved in the Iroquois.  I know going in that only a fraction of the men will be represented here.  Maybe if we're lucky some Chicago police historians will pitch in.

Patrolmen

Joseph Benjamin Beutel (1872–1922)
— Testified at grand jury in Feb, 1904; testimony not reported.  A native of Missouri, son of Frederick and Mary Murphy Beutel, Joseph married Margaret G. Conley in 1903.  That was also the year he passed the bar exam and on December 30 was working traffic at the corner of Lake and Clark when the Iroquois Theater caught fire.  Three months before the Iroquois fire the Inter Ocean newspaper ran a large story about Joseph.  He had left his parent's Missouri farm to come to Chicago during the 1893 Worlds Fair.  He worked as a clerk while attending night school to learn bookkeeping, then passed the civil service exam to become a police officer, and went on to law school.  He decided his elementary education was lacking so dropped out of law school to return to high school, returning to law school and passing the bar in 1903.  He contemplated eventually leaving the police department and wanted to relocate in the west, when he'd set aside a nest egg.  He wasn't counting then on having ten children, including two sets of twins, the last, Frank and Francis, born five years before his death.  Frank would serve in the army during WWII.  Joseph was promoted to desk sergeant at the Chicago avenue precinct by 1909 and left the Chicago police department between 1917 and 1919, dying of rectal cancer two years later.   He did make it a bit further west before he died, to St. Paul, Minnesota where he worked as a checker in a packing plant.

John T. or Thomas J. Brady
— According to one January, 1904 newspaper report, John testified at the coroner's inquest about carrying an Eisendrath family member from the third floor at Northwestern to St. Lukes hospital where Eisendrath later died.  The newspaper reported it as having been Leonard Eisendrath from Lincoln, Illinois but the only Eisendrath fatalities were Henrietta and her daughter, Natalie and the only boy from Lincoln was Leander Diffenderfer and he was not carried into/from Northwestern .  A Jacob Leonard Eisendrath identified Ettie Eisendrath's body but he did not die at the Iroquois.  Safe to say only that Brady was at the fire and saw to getting a victim to St. Lukes but even that has to be qualified: I could not find a policeman or fireman by this name.  It may have been forty-two-year-old Canadian native, Thomas J. Brady, a Chicago policeman.

James Clune (1869–1945)
— Served on the force for thirty-six years.  Married to Bridget with three children.

William N. Ferguson (1865–1938)
— Ferguson was sent home from the fire scene by assistant chief Herman Schuettler (at right) for refusing a request from a physician to help carry a body from a balcony at the Iroquois.

Ferguson did not recognize a nearby man as a superior officer and when Schuettler approached, covered his badge, presumably to prevent a citizen from reporting his conduct.  To his surprise Schuettler said, "get out" and brought him up on charges.  In a subsequent hearing before the police trial board Ferguson denied that he refused to help, asserting he only wanted to remove his outer coat first, because it was new.  Sounds reasonable, right?  But he was unable to offer a reason for having covered up his badge.  The board took the case under advisement and newspapers did not do a follow-up report but he was still on the force seventeen years later.  He had married Margaret Sinclair Ferguson earlier in 1903 and the pair would have two children.  By 1925 he and his second wife, Lois Sayer, relocated to his home state, Iowa, where he worked as a gardener.

John T. Finn (1859–1936) — Spent 38 years as a patrolman at the Damen Avenue station, retiring in 1922.  During the first hours after Iroquois fire he accepted the painful task of reporting the morgue location of bodies retrieved from the theater.  Finn was married to Mary O'Brien. Of their five children, three sons joined the police department.

Frank Funk (1855–1935)
— Joined the department in 1895 and retired in 1912.  At the Iroquois Theater, he helped carry bodies.  In the late 1890s he married Franziska Pauline Bethke, a widow with two children.  Together they had two sons, Frank jr. and Walter.

Henry T. Norris
— lost his wife and child in Iroquois fire

William Gibbons
— One of first at Iroquois fire scene, Gibbons was implicated in case of valuables missing from a deceased theater victim.

Timothy L. Haynes (1859–1920)
— Patrolman Tim lived at 760 N. Ridgeway in Chicago.  He was with officer William Gibbons (above) when two envelopes containing Iroquois victim's jewelry disappeared.  Tim was a native of Wisconsin, married to Anna Riordan, with six or seven children, one of whom served in the military in WWI.  He was the son of Irish immigrants, William and Bridget Caton Haynes.  His wife, Anna, had died eighteen months before the Iroquois fire.  In January, 1901 while with the 38th precinct, he was injured.  Was still on the force in 1920.

John H. Keele (1854–1927)
— John was a traffic cop at Randolph and State, within sight of the Iroquois Theater, who turned in a fire alarm. In 1903 his family lived at 615 W. 63rd St. in Chicago. He wasmarried to Elizabeth Edge Keeley, a native of England.  John was born in Maquoketa City, Iowa north of Davenport, Francis and Mahala Keeley.  He and Elizabeth had one child who survived to adulthood, a daughter named Florence.  By 1920 he and Elizabeth relocated to Lansing, Michigan where he worked as a deputy sheriff in the circuit court, living with their daughter's family.  John was a sharp shooter with his revolver, hitting the bulls eye forty-nine times out of fifty shots during a 1901 practice session preparatory to a competition between police departments of other cities.  He was also the conscientious sort who spoke out about dangerous practices of street cars at the busy Clark and Madison streets intersection.

Andrew D. Pidgeon (1868–1940)
— In his obituary thirty-seven years after the Iroquois Theater fire, it was said sergeant Pidgeon had been one of the first to arrive at the theater and helped with rescues in Couch Place.  He may have been assigned to the Harrison St. station at the time.  In a 1902 newspaper story he was described as a champion pistol shooter.  A Canadian immigrant, Pidgeon was married to Delina "Lena" Girrard and fathered two Chicago police detectives, Walter and Marshall.  Six months after the Iroquois fire when trying to stop a run-away horse on Lake and Clark streets, he was dragged one hundred feet.  Earlier in 1903, after engaging in gunfire with the suspect, he captured purse thief, Missouri Williams.  In 1908 he apprehended accused cop killer Horace Simmons.  Later that year he was shot in the leg while arresting bookie saloon keeper, Cyrus Lawrence.

James T. Quinlan (1877–1943)
—Worked out of the 22nd street station in 1903, apparently on the night shift. At a 1934 gathering of the Iroquois Memorial Association, by which time he was a sergeant at police headquarters with special responsibility for radio messaging, he said he was sent to the Iroquois when he got to work that day. "I took out a 3-year-old girl with light blonde hair. I remember her hair, which was beautiful. It was not even singed. Her face was the color of a lobster. I hoped to save her but the doctors pronounced her dead. We wrapped the bodies in blankets which the State street stories sent over by the hundred. We laid the bundles on the sidewalk. Later I drove an express wagon loaded with bodies to St. Luke's Hospital, then came back for another load. It was grim work. All around were husbands and fathers wanting to see if they could find their wives and children." Quinlan married school teacher Lillian Lynch in 1916 and they had one child.  Heart disease forced his retirement.  His parents were James and Elizabeth Quinlan.

Frank Richter (1865–1921)
— According to a newspaper obituary Frank was credited with saving fifteen people and removing around forty bodies from the Iroquois Theater.
Frank was married to Ellen Missett and the pair had five daughters and one son. He also participated in the Eastland disaster and was twice wounded in the line of duty. He served the department for thirty-one years.

Albert F. Simsrott (1864–1930)
— Patrolman Simsrott (inaccurately spelled Sinsrott in newspaper) testified before the coroner's jury in January, 1904 that he carried out six bodies found on the foyer stairways, later identified as Sarah Day, Helen Dyrenforth, Marie Dicker (newspaper error; no victim by that name), Anna Radcliffe, Olga Berg and Mamie Schreiner.  Prosecutors at that early stage were anxious to learn the identity of victims for whom a specific cause of death could be established that could be attributed to fault on the part of theater personnel and that a defense attorney could not position as self-inflicted.  Presumably Simrott's carry-outs would not have qualified because a defense attorney could point out that there was no way to know the degree to which their deaths were caused by stampeding crowds, either through trampling or inability to evacuate the structure.  Albert was married to Anne O'Connell and they had three children.  He was the son of a Chicago policeman, Henry Simsrott (1817–1886).  Boat loads of arrests between he an his father.

1903 Rank unknown

John Becker
— (were two Chicago cops by this name) Testified at grand jury in February, 1904; nature of testimony not reported.

Henry Patrick Grady (1864–1920)
— Grady of the Central station testified at grand jury in Feb, 1904; nothing was reported about the nature of his testimony.  He was scheduled to testify again in the criminal trial against Will J. Davis in February, 1907 to describe finding an unidentified female toddler in the second floor balcony, sounded by dead victims.  She had survived by hiding her head in the coats of deceased women on either side.  Grady carried the child downstairs and over to Thompson's diner next to the Iroquois.  Grady lived at 478 S. Robey in Chicago with his widowed mother, Bridget McMahon Grady.
At her death he married Katherine O'Brien and they had one child.  In 1906 Grady was brought up before the police trial board for refusing to help defend a Jewish peddler when he was attacked by a group of medical students.

Philip A. Naughten (1869–1946)
— Naughton testified before the grand jury in Feb, 1904; the nature of his testimony was not reported.  He had immigrated to America from St. Martins in Middlesex, England in the 1880s.  Four years after the Iroquois fire he was a detective and married a woman named Celenia Guibord.  He was one of eight children born to Phillip and Jeanett McDonald Naughton.  His last name was sometimes spelled as Naughton.

The following officers reportedly testified in the grand jury inquest in February, 1904

Detectives and supervisors

Alexander Fergus Campbell (c1853–1913) — inspector at Chicago Avenue station.  His office was used to contain family members searching for information. There officer Finn repeated information about victims over and over.  As a college graduate (Monmouth College) Campbell was unusual to the department when he joined in the late 1880s.  While working as the assistant business manager of the Chicago Times newspaper he caught the attention of the newspaper owner, Chicago mayor Carter Harrison I, who hired him as secretary of the police department.  Campbell was considered for Chief in 1901 when the appointment instead went to Francis O'Neill.  Campbell left the police department in 1904 to become a special agent for the Chicago Underwriters.  Married to Carrie Graham.

Michael Farrelly — arrested Iroquois manager Will J. Davis Was one of 8 officers selected to guard president Theodore Roosevelt during his visit to Chicago in 1905.

Edward Flaherty — police detective who arrested Iroquois stage carpenter Cummings

Dennis Haye — sergeant who found his son's body at Rolstons funeral  home

Simon "Si" Mayer (1871–1953) — Appointed in 1899 by Chicago mayor Carter Harrison I.  Served for thirty years as police department secretary and went on to become an alderman.  At the Iroquois disaster, according to a report from a Chicago dentist who spoke to him the night of the fire, David A. Hare, Si removed one hundred bodies from the Iroquois.  Son of  Solomon and Helena Mayer.

Patrick D. McWeeney — lieutenant who jailed bad-tempered rigger Kerr

Andrew Rohan — lieutenant participated in arrest of coroner's defendants

Herman F. Schuettler (1861–1918) — assistant police chief

Active at Iroquois Theater scene and subsequent theater closings.  Herman joined the department in 1883. Famously bit off the finger of Louis Ling, maker of Haymarket riot bombs, to prevent Ling from shooting him. His career highlights came when he identified critical evidence in a much publicized homicide involving a sausage maker named Luetgert and in 1903 when he forced a confession from a suspect in a series of car barn thefts.  He was Chief of the department at death.
Schuettler was a lifelong Chicago resident. Married to Kate Flint with whom he had three children.

John V. Sederberg — Detective Sederberg testified at coroner's jury in January, 1904 that he had taken an Elizabeth Bushwald from Couch Place alley where she had fallen from the fire escape and that she later died.  Prosecutors at that early stage were anxious to learn the identity of victims for whom a specific cause of death could be established that could be attributed to fault on the part of theater personnel and that a defense attorney could not position as self-inflicted.  Bodies in Couch Place alley probably would not have qualified because they had jumped, fallen or been shoved.  The newspaper paragraph mentioning Sederberg's testimony, however, is one of the most error-filled three inches in thousands about the Iroquois disaster: it referenced three non-existent victims.  I've found no evidence of a victim named Elizabeth Bushwald.  There was a teenaged fatality named Louise Alice Buschwahl but she had no family relatives named Elizabeth. The only reliable take from that story is that Sederberg probably helped transport a woman from Couch Place to a hospital where she might have died.

George M. Shippy (1856-1913)

Helped clear Thompson's diner of non-essential people so that doctors and nurses could care for  victims.  In 1907 Shippy was named Chief of Police by Chicago mayor Fred Busse  but was forced to resign two years later for health reasons. He spent his last days confined in an asylum as an Alzheimer's victim (described then as "dementia paralytica progressiva" and "softening of the brain." His death was caused by a paralytic stroke, however, and he suffered from paralysis for several years before his death. In 1908, he was stabbed in his home by a disgruntled activist, angry because Shippy had prevented a labor protest. The chief, his chauffeur and his son Harry all shot back and the assailant was killed, but not before Harry took a bullet in the chest. (Harry survived the gunshot but died at age twenty-six of complications from appendicitis surgery seven years later.)
The son of Richard Shippy, also a police officer, and Mary Shippy, George joined the police department the first time around 1887 after working as a fireman and running his own business. In keeping with Chicago tradition then, Shippy's police career was suspended and resumed a few times when political parties changed. He was a staunch Republican who refused to warm to Democrat administrations -- so said the anti-Republican Ocean-Pacific newspaper.
George was married to Sadie Randall Shippy with whom he had two children.

Chief Francis O'Neill Bio

John Tobin — one of detectives who arrested defendants named in coroners inquest

James H.Van Natta — credited with saving the lives of two children at Iroquois.

Other discussions you might find interesting