Floy Olson and Bessie Stafford died at Iroquois Theater

Website with 683+ pages devoted to 1903 Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago

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Fire in court	Stage workers
Life in 1903 pg 1 pg 2	Theater owners
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Olson and Stafford friends died at Iroquois theater Friends of the Congregational church

Floy Olson and Bessie Stafford probably looked forward to spending time together at the theater. They had become friends through their activities at the Warren Street Congregational church in the East Garfield Park community in Chicago. Since Floy's family moved to Minneapolis three years earlier, they had few opportunities to spend time together.
When a stage fire spread to the auditorium, they became two of nearly six hundred victims of America's worst theater disaster.
Both women's bodies were identified by their husbands. Their funerals were conducted by Reverend Frank Smith at the Congregational church at the corner of Warren and Albany in Chicago. They were buried close to one another at Forest Home Cemetery.

Floy I. Olson

Floy Irene Love (b.1873) and Oscar Olson had married in 1895. At the time of her death, they had two boys — Charles Olson (1898-) and Sidney F. Olson (1901-1929. The family lived in Chicago until early in 1900 when they moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. On December 30, 1903 they were visiting relatives in Chicago. After the Iroquois Theater fire, though their father remarried, Charles and Sidney were raised by their maternal grandparents, George M. Love and Elizabeth "Libbie" Amsden Love.

Oscar M. Olsen was a native of Norway who immigrated to America in 1880 with his parents. Throughout his life, Oscar worked in the telegraph industry, beginning as an operator and eventually becoming a Western Union branch manager in Minneapolis — an accomplishment for a man who left school after the seventh grade.

Floy was born in Illinois. She had one sister, Lotta Love. Floy's funeral was held on Sunday, January 3, 1904.

Some Minnesota newspapers reported it was suspected that Oscar Olson was also lost in the fire but I found no verification that he attended the theater with Floy and Bessie. If present, he survived to remarry three years after the fire. He and his second wife, Hilda, had one child, a boy named James Olson (1922-).

Bessie Stafford

Bessie M. Eastman Stafford (b.1874) was just twenty years old when she married. Her husband was a dentist, Dr. Frank Harrison Stafford D.D.S. (1866-1916). She was one of four children born to Mary R. Eastman (c.1850-1918) and the late Fred L. Eastman Sr. (1840-1901), a civil war veteran and railway freight agent. Bessie's three siblings were William F. Eastman, Fred L. Eastman Jr., and Gertrude L. Eastman.

Frank Stafford graduated from the College of Dental surgery in 1892 and married Bessie the following year. In 1895 he invented a dental light. I found no evidence that they started a family before Bessie's death. He remarried in 1909.

Bessie's body was found at Jordan's Mortuary. Her funeral was held on Sunday, January 3, 1904.

Reverend Frank G. Smith

Smith came to Chicago in 1903 from the First Congregational church of Dubuque, Iowa. He was a member of the Illinois state legislature in 1910, and around 1911 moved on to become pastor of the First Congregational church in Kansas City.

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Fire and Brimstone post-fire sermons

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Story 2690

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.

Judy Cooke 2024 All rights reserved ©