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Fifteen-year-old Irma Weiskopf (b. 1888 )
lived in a six-room flat at
4939 Champlain in Chicago with her mother, siblings
and maternal grandfather. She was the daughter of
the Rosa Schwarz Weiskopf (1859-1951) and the late
Adolph Weiskopf (1854-1897). She had three siblings,
two older and one younger.
Irma's brother, David W. Weiskopf (1885-1970), found
her body at Rolston's funeral home. Burial was
probably in the Waldheim Jewish Cemetery in Forest
Park, Illinois.
Irma was one of eight hundred students at the South
Division High School at 26th and Wabash, and
probably a good student. She had received an
academic medal upon graduation from the Frances
Willard school in June 1903. A replacement for the
South Division High School was under construction at
Prairie and Thirty-third. Dubbed the Wendell
Phillips High School, striking galvanized iron
roofers delayed completion for three months.
Students were due to make the switch to the new
school in January 1904, after the Christmas holiday.
Irma did not have the opportunity to join her
friends at the new school.
In 1880 Irma's father, a young immigrant from
Czechoslovakia, had owned a hat store on the first
floor of the Honan's Block building at 108 Main
Street in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. He employed his
landlord and future father-in-law, Joseph Schwarz,
as the shop's manager.
Adolph and Rosa's two oldest children were born in
Rhode Island; Irma and the youngest son were born
after the family moved to Chicago, around 1886. A
fifth child died before 1900. Adolph worked as a
traveling salesman initially after relocating to
Chicago, for Louis Stein Hatters, and with Rosa in a
confectionary store. He later opened a grocery at
378 39th St. and 3510 Vincennes with a relative
named Harry Weiskopf. Their company was named H &
Co. Adolph was active in the Congregation B'nai
Abraham in Chicago. Adolph was only forty-three at
the time of his death, leaving Rosa with four
children aged six to fifteen.
In the years after the fire
After the death of Rosa's father, Joseph Schwarz, around 1911, the
Weiskopf family left Chicago. Rosa and her oldest
daughter, Amy Mae Weiskopf (1882-1963) relocated to
Kansas City, MO around 1919, returned to Chicago by
1930 and in 1940 lived in Queens, NY. At that time
they lived with Ezra and Margaret Moscrip and Rosa
was identified as Ezra's mother. Not sure what that
was about, maybe a census recording error. Both
Weiskopf sons, David and Edwin, married and moved to
California. David named one of his daughters after
his sister Irma. As a young woman, she too became a
teacher. Rosa lived just long enough to endure the
death of another of her children, Edwin, the
youngest.
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Sixteen-year-old Lillian
"Lilly" Doerr (b. 1887)
was the daughter of a German immigrant, architect
John P. Doerr (1854-1912), and Anna Rupp Doerr
(1866-1939). The family lived at 4924 Champlain
Avenue in Chicago, a few doors away from John
Doerr's brother and business partner, Jacob Doer.
Lilly was a student at the Xavier Academy. She had
three siblings. The year after the fire her sister,
Anna, named her firstborn after Lillian.
John Doerr and his brother Jacob operated J.F. &
J.P. Doerr architectural firm in offices at 138
Washington. A third brother, William, worked as a
draftsman in the company. He was the one who found
and identified Lilly's body.
Before starting the architectural firm, John Doerr
worked as a car designer for the Pullman company. A
month before the fire, the J.F. & J.P. Doerr firm
was working on large homes for William H. Morris on
Woodlawn avenue. Another architectural project that
year was the Chicago
Riding and Driving Club on 51st St. Among the
founding officers and the promoters of the club
were Will
J. Davis, manager of the Iroquois Theater at the
time of the fire.
Lilly's uncle William P. Doer (1870-1944)found and
identified her body at Rolston's funeral home.
Funeral services were held at the family home and
St. Clara's Church. Her casket was then transported
via a Grand Trunk train for burial in the family
plot in St. Mary Catholic Cemetery in Evergreen
Park, IL. After her funeral, her parents ran a
classified advertisement expressing their
appreciation for condolences of friends and
acquaintances. St. Xavier's Academy at 4828 Evans
Ave. held a memorial mass on January 16, 1904 for
Lillian, who had been due to graduate from the
school in June, 1904, and alumni
Florence Corcoran and Viola Delee, who were also
Iroquois Theater victims.
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