In Chicago, 1903

In 1903 three of Polly's girls and one of her granddaughters lived at Orlena and Alfred's home in Chicago, at 278 Belden St, and another granddaughter was visiting over the Christmas holidays. In 1900, Orlena and Alfred's home had been occupied by ten people--a servant, six boarders, Mary Mead and themselves. It is not known how many boarders there were in 1903, but with Anna and Clarissa living there, there may have been fewer non-family boarders. The six Belden Street family occupants were:

• Iroquois fatality Orlena A. Moak Lake (b.1841) was Polly's youngest daughter, age sixty-two. Orlena sometimes went by "Lana"or "Lena."
• Husband, Alfred Lake (1838–). Alfred was an English immigrant who worked as a bookkeeper.
• Clarissa "Clara" Moak Hurd (1832–1911), nicknamed Clara, was the oldest of Polly's girls. Clara was the widow of Theodore Hurd (1824–1899), a respected judge in Leavenworth, Kansas.
• Iroquois fatality Mary E. Moak Mead (b.1836) was Polly's sixty-year-old middle daughter. Mary was the widow of Charles Mead (1835–1895), a dry goods merchant.
• Iroquois fatality Anna Moak (b.1875) was the twenty-eight-year-old daughter of Polly's youngest son, Edwin Moak (1846–) and Ella Cushman Moak (1845–1914). Anna worked as a legal stenographer while living in Watertown, Wisconsin and may have worked in that capacity after moving to Chicago.
• Iroquois fatality Orlena J. Moak (b. 1872) was Anna Moak's sister, nicknamed Lena, age thirty-one. Named after her aunt Orlena, Lena was a first-grade teacher in Watertown, Wisconsin, where she lived with her widowed mother, Ella Cushman Moak, and Ella's widowed stepfather, Thomas Martin. She was visiting from Watertown, Wisconsin over the 1903 holiday.

Reuban and Mary Moak

Reuben Moak's hotel and mercantile, located five miles east of Sharon, NY, was located in Moak's Hollow. Reuben was a local man, born in Sharon in 1799. His wife, Mary Moak, the former Mary Taylor, nicknamed "Polly" (1807–1900), gave birth to their nine children in and around Sharon, Summit, and Norwich, New York, an area southeast of Syracuse.

Polly and her children

Polly had passed at age ninety-three, outliving three of her children.† One son had settled in Minneapolis, but most were in Watertown, Wisconsin, and Leavenworth, Kansas. The nine Moak children produced only nine grandchildren, but Polly probably felt proud of her children. One daughter had married a judge, another a postmaster, and a third the owner of a dry goods store.

Funerals and Interment

Mary Mead's body was identified by Clarence G. Mead 1874–1963, nephew of her late husband. She and Orlena's funeral was held on Sunday morning, Jan 8, 1904. They were buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. A separate funeral was held in Watertown for Anna and Lena. They were interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery there.

In the years after the fire

In 1909 a $750 settlement was awarded from Fuller Construction, builder of the Iroquois Theater, for Orlena Moak Lake. The thirty-five Fuller settlements were the only victim compensation for the Iroquois Theater disaster.
Clara Hurd moved to Leavenworth, Kansas to live with her daughter.

Discrepancies and addendum

The known and unknown
Despite much effort, I've been unable to find a familial connection to another Mead Iroquois fatality — eleven-year-old Lucille Mead. I was also unable to find a connection between Orlena's husband, Alfred Lake, and an Iroquois survivor named Ada B. Lake.

Orlena's husband, Alfred Lake, spoke to a reporter after the fire, reportedly saying, "Yesterday a happy group of five; today a broken-hearted and lone old man. Mother, daughter and nieces at one blow." Alfred's reference to a group of five presumably included Clara, suggesting that she was in the theater party but survived.

I've spent much time trying and failing to determine which of the four victims was a mother. I found no evidence that any of the women had children. Clarissa Moak Hurd had a grown daughter, Clara May Hurd, but Clarissa lived until 1911. Anna and Lena's mother, Ella Cushman Moak, lived until 1914.

* Another Iroquois Theater fire victim from Watertown was Bertha Burke in the Garn/Wolff party. The odds seem remote that two of 600 victims came from one town with a population of around 8,000 two hours distant.

† Surviving of the nine Moak offspring in 1903 was a brother in Wisconsin, another in Minnesota and, in Chicago, widowed sister, Clarissa Moak Hurd, as well as Orlena's husband, Alfred Lake. In Wisconsin was Anna and Lena's widowed mother, Ella Cushman Moak.

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