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Hannah Weinfeld
was one of eight children born to Ignatz Weinfeld
(1846-1907), an 1875 immigrant from Austria. Hannah's mother was a Hungarian
native, Emma Aufrichtig (1845-1924). Emma was Ignatz's second wife, married in 1881, and bore
three of his eight children. Named after Emma's
mother, Hannah was Emma's first-born daughter.
It is not yet known who attended the theater with Hannah on
December 30, 1903, or where she was seated. Her body
was identified by one of her older brothers, Joe
Weinfeld (1872-1967). Hannah's theater party may have been made up of one or more siblings.
Her funeral was held at 3745 Wabash the Sunday after the
Iroquois Theater fire, attended by her parents and
six siblings. That was not their family home, however, leastwise they were not the primary occupants. It was the seven-room flat of a pair of seniors — well-to-do William M. Cave and his wife, Charlotte. They lived there in 1900 and according to the U.S. Census were the only occupants at that address. The relationship between the Weinfeld's and Cave's is not known but may have had an occupation connection. Cave was a retired dry goods merchant and Hannah's father operated a crockery company, creating opportunity for association.
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The Weinfelds might have sublet rooms in the flat but their family was large with eight occupants in their 1900 home on State street. Even if a few of the Weinfeld's married and no longer lived with their parents, 3745 Wabash sounds cramped.
Hannah was buried in the Weinfeld family plot in Jewish Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.
In the years after the fire
A year after the Iroquois Theater fire, a $10,000 liability suit was filed on Hannah's behalf.
In 1907 Ignatz Weinfeld died after a fall. While on vacation at Brown's Lake, Wisconsin he fell over a porch railing at the Lakeside hotel and fractured his leg in two places. He was fifty-eight years old at the time. They took him to a Chicago hospital where surgery was performed but he did not survive. It was reported that he could not endure the railroad journey and shock.
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