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Items removed from bodies
Morgues labeled bodies with numbers (toe tags?),
removed and placed valuables in envelopes numbered
to correspond with the body number. The morgues then
turned the envelopes over to police, who delivered
them to the coroner's office.
Items collected from theater
Iroquois ushers began collecting belongings from
the theater immediately after the fire, to prevent
theft by pickpockets and petty criminals who found
their way inside the theater. The grisly task was
soon assigned to the police department. When
Chicago city custodian Dewitt C. Creigier (see right)
found a diamond pin on the floor at the Iroquois with
a stone as large as a pea, its value estimated at $500
($13,000 today), Chicago police chief O'Neill directed
Frank Solon (see right), assistant superintendent of
street cleaning, to take a crew to the Iroquois to
retrieve all personal belongings.
This would have been a job for rakes and shovels
rather than brooms. The floors at the Iroquois were
thick with ashes and soot, turned to mud by water
from fire hoses, then frozen in the unheated
structure by winter temperatures that hovered around
five degrees. Retrieving objects would have required
chopping at the layer of iced soot that covered the
Iroquois floors. Solon's crew scraped and gathered
three wagons full and hauled it to 56-58 Dearborn
street, where Creigier oversaw culling through it
all.
They first picked out clothing, then sifted through
the muck from the floor, using sluicing screens such
as those used in gold panning.
"Minute records of the places in the theater
from which the debris comes, besides the value of
the articles found and other descriptive matter, are
recorded to facilitate absolute identification,"
newspapers reported. *
The tally
The combined tally of belongings removed from bodies
at morgues and scraped from the floors at the
Iroquois was 4,530 items with an estimated value of
$50,000. Of those, owners retrieved 1,617. 764
items were held at the police station awaiting
identification. (The final disposition of those 764
items was not reported.)
Jewelry
Among the belongings was a large array of
jewelry, including fifty diamond rings,
brooches, earrings, watch robs, hatpins, watches
and stick pins. Noted were an 18-stone diamond
ring, 12-stone diamond ring, 3-karat diamond
brooch, 1-karat diamond, ring set with garnets,
amethysts and emeralds, pearl brooch, four unset
gems (2 diamonds and 2 amethysts) and a Grand
Army Republic badge.
Apparel
Clothing, particularly outerwear, comprised the bulk of
the items collected, including 259 coats for
women and girls, 93 for men and boys. The
garments reflected a Chicago winter in the
Edwardian years, including 33 coats of sealskin
and others of astrakhan, otter, mink, lamb, and
bear, with 240 pairs of rubbers, 63 umbrellas,
38 fur boas, 36 fur muffs and 20 fur collars.
Garments also reflected styles of the era with
429 hats (263 womens, 100 girls, 66 men and
boys), 86 side combs and a gold lizard pen. In a
time when shoes had ties and buttons, only 30
pairs were left behind. 195 purses contained
$884.33 in cash and there were 50 opera glasses.
The public could go to a storefront to examine
the items and submit claims. The last item claimed was a small purse by
Adolph Gartz who lost his two young daughters and
five domestic employees at the Iroquois.
Unclaimed property
Creigier kept $280 in unclaimed burned currency and
coins for a year, then turned it over to city
comptroller Lawrence E. McGann, who gave it to the
police pension fund.
2,149 damaged and low-value unclaimed items were
donated to the Salvation Army.
In September 1904, nine months after the fire, a
large pile of unclaimed garments went into the
furnaces at City Hall. As a short news story made
note (see above), some of those garments had
provided clues for victim identification.
Dewitt C. Creigier Jr (1865–1918)
In modern times, the job of a custodian involves
structural maintenance but in 1903 Chicago, the city
custodian took custody of articles and funds
retrieved from thieves or confiscated in police
raids. The son of a former Chicago mayor, Creigier's
annual salary as city custodian was $1,400 ($47,000
today). Earlier
in his career, he'd worked as an electrician and
inventor, patenting a burglar alarm system for
trains.
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Invention was a Creigier
family thing. His father invented a combination fire
hydrant/water fountain/horse trough, and his brother
Nathaniel invented a police communication system.
Dewitt and his wife, Carrie Briggs Creigier, were
active in Chicago's Columbia Yacht Club and owned a
boat named the schooner named Glad Tidings.
Frank W. Solon (1861–1915)
As assistant head of street cleaning, Frank Solon
helped direct roughly 600 workers operating 400
teams of horses in downtown Chicago.
Overseeing the Iroquois clean-up was Frank Solon's
second task. In the hours immediately after the
fire, subsequent to a directive from acting Chicago
mayor Lawrence E. McGann,
William Brennan, acting commissioner of public works,
sent word to police chief O'Neill and
fire marshall Musham that the public works department
was at their service.† Musham responded quickly: "We
need men and lanterns." Brennan sent Frank Solon to
Bullard and Gormley department store to purchase
lanterns. Doherty assembled 150 men working in the
street department in the First ward at the city yard
at the foot of Randolph street with seventy wagons.
Cleaning belongings from the floor at Iroquois Theater
In the years after the fire
A survivor of the fire,
Charles W. Allen, was a long-time friend of the
Creigier family. Six years after the fire, Dewitt
Creigier's mother was arrested by New York Customs
service for smuggling jewels as she returned from
a lengthy European tour with the Allen family. Ella
Allen, Charles's wife, was the one found with jewels
concealed on her person so paid the fine. Charles
Allen and the Creigier family remained friendly,
and in fact Dewitt met with Charles the afternoon
of Charles' accidental death.
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Discrepancies and addendum
Creigier's name was miss-spelled as Cregier, Creiger
and Creger.
* Since nothing was recorded about the location
of bodies, the location of possessions was
helpful only in situations where tickets were
puchased in advance and family members knew the
seats their loved ones occupied.
† Lawrence E. McGann (1852–1928) and William F.
Brennan (1860–1922)
McGann immigrated to
America as a three-year-old with his mother a year
after his father's death. They settled in
Massachusetts initially and moved westward to
Chicago in 1864. He left the cobbler's trade behind
to become a city clerk in 1879. By 1885 he was
superintendent of streets. He served one term in the
U.S. House of Representatives then returned to
Chicago to work as superintendent of the Chicago
General Railway. Mayor Harrison appointed him
commissioner of public works in 1897 and 1899, and
City Comptroller in 1901. Harrison's successor,
Mayor Dunne, though McGann was a Democrat,
reappointed him. On December 30, 1903, in mayor
Harrison's absence, as acting mayor, McGann's
directive to subordinates and department heads:
"You are instructed to direct the fire marshal, chief of
police, and commissioner of public works to proceed
in this emergency without any restriction whatever
with regard to expense in caring for the people. Do
anything needful, spend anything you want, in this
cause, and look to the council for support. We will
be your authority."
Brennan was appointed
deputy commissioner of public works by Chicago mayor
Harrison in 1902 after serving as an alderman for
three years. He resigned in 1904 to pursue business
interests. He was married to Minnie Brennan and they
had four daughters.
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