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Edith and Ella were two of
nine children born to Irish immigrants, William John
Freckelton (1854-1937) and Sarah Jane Collins
Freckelton (1849-1930), of which six were living in
1900. In 1903 the family lived at 5632 Peoria St. in
Chicago. William Freckelton's first business was
making saurkraut. He added livery services, feeding
animals at the stockyards, added coal and offered
undertaking. He and Sarah had immigrated to America
as young people and married in 1872.
Ella, the youngest Freckelton
child, attended Englewood High School along with
other Iroquois Theater victims,
Florence Dow, Elva Fowler and a
sorority group of seven.
Edith's body was discovered at Rolston's funeral home
and identified by George E. F. Florey, husband of their older sister,
Margaret. A private funeral was held on Sunday
afternoon after the fire followed by a public
service at the Garfield Boulevard Presbyterian
Church at 5505 S. Halsted and 55th. (That portion of
Garfield Avenue had been renamed to 55th St. but the
church continued to be called the Garfield Boulevard
Presbyterian.) The service was conducted by
reverends R. Keene Ryan and Daniel E. Long.
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About George Freckelton
His name was included in a day-after
newspaper Missing & Dead list that included
many names of people who it later turned out
were not at the theater and not missing or
deceased. Contrasted with where George's
name was NOT included:
- Coroner's inquest witnesses
- Newspaper
obituary notices with details supplied
by his family of funerals for Edith and
Ella (see clipping)
- Newspaper
follow up report on Ella's and Edith's
funeral (see cliipping)
- In his
mother's 1930 obituary
- A list of
Chicago student victims
He is listed as an Iroquois fatality on Find-A-Grave
(F.A.G.) but I suspect the F.A.G. lister
got the information from an early
error-filled newspaper list.
There is nothing to support that a George
Freckelton died at the Iroquois Theater.
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In the years after the fire
William and Sarah moved to Pensacola,
Florida. One of their surviving
daughters, who relocated to
Philadelphia, Emma Freckelton Krantz,
named two of her daughters after Ella
and Edith.
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Discrepancies and addendum
* In the 1900 census
the family name is spelled Freckelton but Frackleton
appears in prior census reports, cemeteries, etc.
Until finding a picture of the gravestone in
Oakwood, I'm going with Freckelton. In Iroquois
related newspaper lists Frickleton / Frickelton also
appeared. In some early newspaper reports the name
was reported as Frackelborn and Edith's address was
given as 22 Adams.
† Their seventeen-year-old brother, George E.
Freckelton (b.1886) might also have been a victim,
but there is no evidence to support it. See sidebar.
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