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Twenty-one-year-old Pauline Ann Geary (b.1882)
lived at 4627 Indiana Avenue in Chicago with her
widowed mother and two older sisters. She taught at
the Felsenthal elementary school on Chicago's south
side. Pauline's sister, Kathleen "Kitty" E. Geary
(1875-), the only one in the theater party to
survive, was also a teacher, at the Melville W.
Fuller school.*
Pauline and Kathleen were two of six children born to Irish
native, James Geary (1840-), a machinist, and
Canadian Elizabeth "Lizzie" C. Teahon Geary
(1846-1908). Grief was not new to Lizzie Geary.
She had been a widow for two
decades, burying her brother William eighteenth months
before the Iroquois fire, and two children before
Pauline. Her husband had immigrated to the
United States in 1862 and fought in the American
Civil War, a soldier in the 90th Illinois
Infantry. When the war ended, he became a pawn
broker.'Pauline Geary's body was identified by W. V. Geary,
who was possibly William V. Geary, a prosperous
realtor and contractor who had been her father's
brother.
Her funeral was held Saturday, Jan 2 at 9:30
am at the Corpus Christi church, and she was buried
at the Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, IL.
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The Corpus Christi parish was established in June,
1901 and its first priest, Father Henneberry, may
have led the funeral services for Pauline Geary,
perhaps assisted by second pastor, Rev. John M.
Bowen. Father Henneberry died a year later.
Ground was broken for the Corpus Christi parish's
first church on August 22, 1901 at the corner of
49th and Grand Blvd (Martin Luther King Dr.) near
the entrance to Washington Park. It was a
combination church, parochial school, and rectory. A
fifty-foot expansion to the south end of the
building was done in 1903. The church pictured is
the new structure begun in 1914 and still in use
today. It is not known if the original church was
razed in 1914 or if it is still standing somewhere
in the complex.
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The Felsenthal school, built in 1901 on Calumet Avenue
between 41st and 42nd streets, was designed with
twenty-two classrooms to accommodate 1,056 students.
It was named to honor Herman Felsenthal, an early
Chicago pioneer, influential banker and devoted
school board member.
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Discrepancies and addendum
*The oldest Geary daughter, Mary
Ester Geary (1871-1880), had been admitted to the Normal
school along with Pauline in 1898 for training as a
teacher but as of 1900 worked instead as a
stenographer.
Pictures needed of Pauline and Kathleen Geary, the Felsenthal school and
the original Corpus Christie catholic church
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