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Leaning to either side meant certain death. If Eliza Johnson had known three of her daughters and two of her grandchildren were dead, would she have kept going? As it was, the
fifty-five-year-old likely hoped some or all of her loved ones would survive. She kept moving, carefully
placing her hands, knees and feet to
adjust the weight of her body and
maintain her balance on the narrow
plank, not daring to look down. It would
be weeks before she learned what she'd
lost.
A native of England, fifty-five-year-old Eliza Berry
(or Phelps) Johnson (1848-1917), wife of James G.
Johnson (1842-1922), was one of about fifty people who
escaped from the Iroquois Theater fire by
crawling on a plank sixty feet off the ground,
and of only a dozen who survived after doing so. She
crossed from a third-floor fire escape landing at
the Iroquois to a window at Northwestern University
on a plank stretched across Couch Place alley.
Eliza's burns kept her at St. Luke's hospital for
weeks while family and physicians concealed that
most of her children and half her grandchildren had died at the theater. Only later would she learn that her sons-in-law searched for three
days before finding the bodies of her three daughters and
two grandsons at four different morgues. She was still in the hospital when five hearses met the
train that carried the five bodies to Lowell, Indiana, and when nearly six hundred guests attended the funeral by pastor Descom D. Hoagland.* Coincidentally, almost the same number as the number of fatalities from the fire.
At days end on December 30, 1903, thirty-four-year-old
William H. Johnson (1869-1912), Eliza and James'
oldest, was their only surviving child. Eliza and
James would live to eventually see him die as well.
Twenty-nine-year-old Lillian "Lillie" Johnson Frady (b.1873/1874), a native
of New Jersey, and her ten-year-old-son, Leon
Edgar Frady (b.1893) Their bodies were found at
Sheldon's and Carroll's (or Gavin's) funeral
homes. Lillian and Leon were the wife and son of
Edgar Charles Frady (1870-1923). Lillian was the
youngest daughter of Eliza Johnson (above). Four
years prior to the theater fire, Lillian and
Edgar, married in 1893, had lost a son, Floyd
Frady. Having recently relocated to Chicago from
California, the Frady's lived at 4356
Forestville Ave. Edgar was president of Strohber
Piano at the time of the fire, and an officer in
the Colonial Club.
Thirty-year-old Jennie E. Johnson Rife (b.1873)
was the wife of William Rife, head plumber at the
Palmer House hotel in Chicago. She was Eliza
Johnson's middle daughter and had a
fifteen-month-old child at
home. The Rife's lived at 516 E. 46th St.
Thirty-two-year-old Etta / Ella B. Johnson
Spindler (b.1871) and her nine-year-old
son, Burdett Spindler (b. 1894) were the third
wife and son of John H. Spindler (1861-1921).†
They were visiting from Valparaiso, Indiana,
staying with the Frady's. Etta was Eliza
Johnson's oldest daughter. Like her sister
Lillie, Etta had also lost a son, she and John's
first-born, Raymond. No mention was made of
their third son, Cecil, being in the theater
party. At age five, he may have been left at
home. Etta's body was found at Jordan's funeral
home and Burdett's at Carroll's. In the years
after the fire, John Spindler remarried and had
three more children.
In the years after the fire
Edgar Frady remarried
in 1905, to Dorothy "Dolly" C. Thompson
(b.1872), sister of
John R. Thompson, a wealthy Chicago restaurateur
who owned a chain of diners
in Chicago, including the one next to the
Iroquois Theater. Thompson's became
a triage center in the first hours after the
fire. Edgar and Dolly had two children, of which one,
Edgar Jr., survived. The marriage was troubled and Dolly left in
1922, fleeing to Miami. Fifty-two-year-old Edgar
followed and they quarreled long into the
night about mutual infidelities. When
they scuffled over a gun, Dolly was shot.
In response, Edar slashed his throat. With her dying breath, Dolly told her
story to her maid but Edgar asserted it was
self defense, that Dolly had once again
tried to kill him.
Edgar survived the
throat slashing for eleven months
,
with multiple health problems, dying while awaiting trial for murder,
leaving behind a $50,000 trust for his son. Some
friends attributed his violence to a 1903 concussion
but many admitted he'd always been odd. Edgar
founded several businesses besides the piano
factory, including a picture frame manufacturing company and a
grocery store. For a half dozen years prior to death, he was
president of the Chicago dealership for Cole Motor
Car of Indianapolis.
Discrepancies and addendum
† Hoadland was a 1900 graduate of Northwestern University in
Evanston.
† Sometimes identified as Ella, other times as Etta,
but Etta was inscribed on her gravestone.
Ella Warley Lawrence
taught at the Farragut school
Stillman women at
Iroquois Theater
Minnie
Robinson died before family's prosperity
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 2772
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.
,
with multiple health problems, dying while awaiting trial for murder,
leaving behind a $50,000 trust for his son. Some
friends attributed his violence to a 1903 concussion
but many admitted he'd always been odd. Edgar
founded several businesses besides the piano
factory, including a picture frame manufacturing company and a
grocery store. For a half dozen years prior to death, he was
president of the Chicago dealership for Cole Motor
Car of Indianapolis.
