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America's worst theater disaster took
place at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago
on December 30, 1903. The
newly-built structure had opened five weeks previously.
The afternoon matinee of Mr.
Bluebeard had drawn an audience of
seventeen hundred people, a majority of
them women and children. When a
stage fire spread to the auditorium,
fueled by a backdraft, nearly six hundred
people were trapped in the balconies.
Among those who perished was
fifty-four-year-old Elizabeth Ann Adams
Davy (b.1849 ) and her sixteen- year-
old daughter, Helen Louise Davy
(b.1887).*
Hours later Elizabeth's body was identified by Margaret Peterson
at Rolston's Undertaking and Helen's at Jordan's Funeral Home
by Thomas W. Taylor. Taylor was also
administrator of Elizabeth's estate, probated in
March, 1904. He may have been a relative of
Elizabeth's. Elizabeth and Helen were buried
at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
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The Davy's lived on Roslyn Place in
Chicago. (Roslyn and Arlington is a
designated historic district in Chicago today but
there is no longer a 35 Roslyn Place so the
building was probably razed. )
Helen attended the Lake View high
school. She was one of five Lake View students who
died at the Iroquois, including the
Bickford,
Peck and
Pond children.
Elizabeth and her husband, insurance salesman Edward W. Davy (1849–1924),
married in 1875 and immigrated to America from Canada in 1882. Helen
was their only child.
Services for Elizabeth and Helen
were held on Sunday, January 3, 1904 at the
Episcopal Church of our Savior on 702 Fullerton
Avenue, conducted by Reverend
John H. Edwards. Edward's sister-in-law and
niece,
Caroline and Marjorie Edwards, were also victims
of the fire.
An Edward Davy was listed among the
missing on early reports, so he may have been at the
theater with his wife and daughter but survived.
Alternatively, those references may have been typos
referring to Mrs. Edward Davy.
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This clipping is one of several lists that
appeared in the January 1, 1904 issue of the
Chicago Tribune newspaper. Police used
such lists of belongings to crowd source
help in identifying nearly two hundred
remaining bodies. It cannot be known
with certainty if the pin belonged to Helen
Louise Davy but she is the only presently
known victim with those initials and of the
right age to have worn a class pin.
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Discrepancies and addendum
Some genealogical reports conflict with 1900 US
Census information as to Edward's age, also
reporting that Helen had a sister. The birth dates
reported above are from the 1900 US Census, where I
found only one Edward and Elizabeth Davy living in
Chicago. They had one daughter, Helen, and no other
children, living or dead.
* On some lists, Helen's name was reported as Louisa
Helen Davy, but the coroner issued the death
certificate for Helen Louise Davy.
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