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The top-most illustration appeared in the
Iroquois program book distributed the night of
the theater premier, November 23, 1903. It
pictures two ticket windows on the west side of the
foyer although one responder said there were three
ticket windows.
Ticket clerk Fred M. Brackebush (1874–1944),▼1 a native of Terre
Haute, Indiana, testified during the
coroner's inquest that he was instructed by
Iroquois Theater business manager,
Thomas Noonan, to take the cash receipts to
safety. The grand hall of the Iroquois was
filled with audience members trying to
escape from the theater and Fred couldn't
open the door to leave the ticket booth. He
climbed out the ticket window directly into
the foyer, carrying the cash box containing
approximately $1,700. He took it to store in
the vault at the Best and Russell Cigar
store in the
Delaware Building next to the Iroquois Theater.
Seems likely the theater may have had a
prior practice of using the cigar store's
vault, perhaps when banks were closed at
night and on weekends. With inflation, that
$1,700 would be $54,000 today.
Fred was one of four children born to civil war
veteran Charles J. Brackbush (1841–1896) and Elizabeth
Hurford Brackebush (1845–1911). Charles was
a coal dealer in Chicago until moving to
Sioux City, Iowa for a few years prior to
his death in 1896. His widow and children
then returned to Chicago.
Prior to working at the Iroquois, Fred worked
at the Schiller and Orpheum Theaters as a treasurer.
There were two other clerks in the ticket office the day of the fire, neither of which was named
in Iroquois fire newspaper stories. One of those was the
Iroquois manager's son,
Willie Davis. He may have been with his father
at the funeral of actor and family friend,
Jerome Sykes, and returned to the Iroquois upon learning the theater was on fire. The
other ticket clerk was. J. L. Caulfield. His presence at the Iroquois the day of the fire was not publicized until 1909 in conjunction with a newspaper story about a fire at
a building adjacent to Powers Theater where Caulfield then worked as a treasurer in the box
office. He was the nephew of an Irish immigrant, Thomas A. Caulfield, a cattle rancher in Petaluma, California from Roscommon, Ireland but without
access to international genealogy records, I've failed to learn his father's name. Lots of James,
Johns and Josephs in Chicago; excepting a postman named James F. Caulfield, none cited clerking or theaters in census reports or city
directories.
Fred became a chauffeur for the Pardee-Ullmann
Automobile company for a time and in 1918 worked
as a clerk in an insurance office. In 1914 he married
Isabelle Reese. He remained in Chicago while
two of his siblings and their families
relocated in Fort Worth, Texas. On Fred's
WWI draft card it was reported that he was
hard of hearing. At the time of his death he
worked as an accounting auditor and was
single.
Caulfield visited his Petaluma relatives in 1911.
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Edwin John Dillon (1875–1932)▼2 was
another ticket clerk at the Iroquois, but since nothing was reported about his activities during
the disaster, may not have been working that day.
He had married Helen Johnson in
November, 1903, a few days before the premier at the Iroquois Theater. His first wife,
twenty-one-year-old Catherine McNichols, had died in 1900 after a six-month marriage.
Edwin had worked for the the Lincoln theater in the late 1890s, then for
Will
J. Davis at the Illinois Theater, transferring to the Iroquois when it opened in November,
1903. Wedding gifts included a silverware set from the Illinois, cut glass from Powers,
hand-painted china from the Iroquois Theater and ten-dozen American Beauty roses from the Grand
Opera House.
Edwin was one of five children born to shoemaker John Dillon and and
Elizabeth Burns. The family came from Menominee County in Michigan . According to his WWI
draft card Edwin was of medium height with brown eyes and gray hair.
He continued to work in theater ticket sales in Chicago until at least 1920.
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