Keyword search
(Iroquois-specific results
will appear at bottom of
search list):
Note: If this tab has been open in your browser for hours
or days, a new search may bring an access error or unproductive results. When that happens, position the cursor in the
"Enhanced by Google" search box above, then refresh your screen
(F5 on PC, Cmd-R on Apple, 3-button symbol at top right of screen on Android or iphone) and
re-enter your search words.
A party of at least three, possibly four, from
Michigan and Chicago, attended an afternoon matinee
at Chicago's newest luxury playhouse, the Iroquois
Theater on Randolph St. They were
forty-eight-year-old Chicago school teacher, Melissa
"Millie" J. Crocker, a forty-two-year-old friend,
Della (Belle) Pierce from Plainwell, Michigan, and
Della's daughter, ten-year-old Gretchun / Gretchen
Pierce. One newspaper story reported that Millie's
nine-year-old nephew, Harold Carter, son of her
sister, Miriam Crocker Carter, was also in the party
(see above story from Princeton, Illinois
newspaper), but mention of his inclusion in the
theater party did not occur elsewhere. When a stage
fire spread to the auditorium, nearly six hundred lost
their lives, including Millie, Della and Gretchun.
Harold Carter lived until 1953 so the story that he
was among the victims was incorrect, as was
a reference in the Marshall Everett Iroquois disaster
book that Della was related to the Crockers.
Canadian-born Millie Crocker (b.1852) immigrated to
America with her family when she was a year old. In
1903 she was teaching at Chicago's Oakland school
and living with a younger sister and her family —
Florence Crocker Cook (1870-), George Cook (1863),
and their two young children. A successful hardware
dealer, George owned his home on Lake Street and
employed a servant. He was the person who identified
Millie's body.
Isabel and Florence's widowed mother,
Isabel Crocker (1828-), also lived with the Cook family.
Isabel, an 1840 Scottish immigrant, bore
thirteen children, of which eight survived in 1900.
She and her husband seem to have moved to Canada for a
time in the early 1850s.
Millie's funeral was held at George's home at 3830
Lake Avenue and burial was in Princeton, Illinois.
Another of Millie's sisters lived just a couple
blocks away. Miriam Crocker B. Carter (1868-),
married to Raymond B. Carter (1867-). She had
planned to attend Mr. Bluebeard with her sister's
theater party but changed her mind at the last
minute. Her boy, Harold, was miss reported as
an Iroquois victim.
Della Sidall Pierce (b. 1861) and Gretchun
Pierce (b. 1893) were the wife and daughter of Dr. Lyston
Hull Druett Pierce (1861-1930). How they
became acquainted with Millie Crocker is not known
but it is likely the connection was through Miriam
Crocker Carter or her husband, Raymond B. Carter.
Della and Gretchun were
buried in the Hillside Cemetery in Plainwell,
Michigan. Lyston remarried in 1905, had another
child, and moved to Pensacola, Florida.
The Oakland elementary school was located at 40th
street and Cottage Grove Ave. Three of the
Oakland school's students,
Dwight, Donald and Helen Hull, were also
Iroquois Theater fire victims.
Discrepancies and addendum
Another George E. Cook was related to an Iroquois
Theater victim, Sadie Cook, but does not seem to
have been related to this Crocker-Cook-Carter
family.
Iroquois deaths and
multiple suicides
Iroquois Theater grand
jury trials
Kenosha industrialist
survived Iroquois to face another kind of fire
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 1117
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.
