On December 30, 1903, at Chicago's Iroquois Theater on Randolph St., a stage fire spread to the auditorium, threatening the lives of over seventeen hundred people. Almost all of those who had been seated on the first floor were able to evacuate, but at 3:46 pm, the two to three hundred people still occupying each of the balconies were beginning to panic. There was a throng of people at each of ten exits, five on each balcony, struggling to reach the door at the front of the crowd and escape from the auditorium.

Mothers had become separated from children, husbands from wives, brothers from sisters.  As flames licked the ceiling and carpet, the smoke was too thick and black to see or breathe without coughing.  Structural lighting had been destroyed and what small amount of visibility remained came from flames. In terror and desperation, people called out to loved ones, shouted in anger and frustration, and pleaded for help, producing a cacophony that made it impossible to hear the voice of a child or sweetheart.

Initially, people had rushed about madly to find an exit, but by 3:47 pm, milling would have have been replaced by stark, animal terror.  People were trapped in the mobs at the exits as carpet, seat upholstery, drapery caught fire.

With arms and legs pinned on all sides, movement was impossible.  They  were pushed forward and out the door at whatever pace was dictated by the circumstances on the other side of the door.  At that moment in time, what was going on inside the auditorium was a small degree better than the horror awaiting in stairwells outside the auditorium, both those within the structure and those outside.  With every door crowd, turning back to find companions was nearly impossible.  The only available volition was to remain upright.  If they could, they were apt to trample others but would have a chance to survive; if they could not, they would be  trampled and probably die.

Three exits led from each balcony to fire escape stairways that hugged the back exterior wall of the theater.  In the upper balcony, at 3:48 pm, roughly fifty people clamored to descend the fire escape stairs outside the farthermost northeast exit of the theater (door 37).

Their progress had been brought to a near standstill because portions of the stairs were made impassable by flames licking out from doors and windows on lower floors and by fire escape doors that were jammed against the railing and blocked by other escapees.  Some had fallen when pushed off landings and stairs by crowd surges; some had made their choice to die by crashing to the ground rather than being burned alive.  Some had just reached the fire escape landings and stairs to begin facing that decision.

Working in Booth Hall on the third floor of the Law Department at Northwestern University, in the former Tremont Hotel on Randolph St., were painting contractors Charles H. Cubbon and his sons, Albert and Walter, and his other employees, George Liebert, W. T. Matthews, William L. Payne, and Fred Rea.

Also at Northwestern was Murrill Tierney, a stationary engineer, and his assistant, Morris Eckstrom.  The workmen heard a commotion in the alley and looked out the windows.  Quickly sizing up the situation, they fed a ladder out their window to the landing at door 37.

The first person to attempt a crossing was unnamed.  He was described as a large man.  He scrambled up onto the ladder and started crossing Couch Place alley between Northwestern and the Iroquois.  Midway across, as the ladder bowed and swaying beneath his weight, he fell sixty feet to his death.  The workers next ran out several heavy scaffolding planks.  As more people emerged from the auditorium onto the landing and stairs, those who were able began crossing over to Northwestern. 

At 3:50 pm, a ball of fire hurled out from the stage into the balconies, instantly killing everyone inside.  Those standing just inside the doorway died in place, their corpses forming an impenetrable block for fire fighters. Standing on the fire escape stairwells were a few dozen stranded people.  Many were badly burned and used their last breaths to make the plank crossing to Northwestern.  Roughly fifty people crossed the planks.  Of them, fewer than a dozen survived.

Workmen in Northwestern helped the escapees off the plank and offered what comfort they could.  As the escapees weakened and died, the workmen laid them on the floor and watched over them, keeping away curious intruders.

Who were the heroic workmen at Northwestern?

Though some newspaper stores said there were three painters, seven workmen were named in various stories.  You can read what I've learned so far about the workmen.  In life, only one got his well-deserved fifteen minutes of fame, and I wish I'd been able to find more information about these men.

To the limited extent that one existed, Charles Cubbon became the face of the plank rescuers.  He owned the painting contracting company, testified at the Coroner's inquest, and was a well-known figure in Chicago fraternal organizations.

Nonetheless, his two sons, who were working with him that day and presumably helped rescue people from the theater were not mentioned in Chicago newspapers.  The only reason we know of their presence on the scene is from a story that appeared in an Iowa newspaper.  The Muscatine Journal cited Charles Cubbon and his sons, Bert and Walter Cubbon, correctly noting that no other newspapers had as yet named the painters.  The story failed to mention the other workers because they were omitted in the letter on which the Iowa story was based.  Charles Cubbon's daughter, Sarah Cubbons Lee, married to Joseph Lee, lived in Iowa.  She was visiting her parents and siblings in Chicago over the holidays and wrote to her husband back home to tell him of the exciting Iroquois experience had by her father and brothers.  Her husband shared her letter with the newspaper.  The Iowa news story went unnoticed in Chicago, however, and even Charles Cubbon's identity was not revealed until he testified in the Coroner's inquest weeks later.

Which girl first crossed the plank or positioned it on the railing at the Iroquois?  What about William McLaughlin who lost his life in the effort?

Four families competed for bragging rights in a made-for-column-inches controversy contrived by the Inter Ocean newspaper.

At the Coroner's inquest, painter Cubbon had testified that an eight-year-old girl on the landing caught and positioned the plank he and his men ran out from Northwestern.  He didn't know the girl's identity, but the Inter Ocean newspaper was happy to publish the name of any girl subsequently put forward by her family for the recognition as THE plank girl hero.  None of those stories mentioned William McLaughlin, who died from horrific burn injuries incurred while he stood on the landing helping people climb onto the plank.  None of those stories acknowledged that more than one plank was run out to become a bridge or that the position of all the planks needed to be adjusted multiple times.  None of the stories mentioned that there'd been prior stories claiming the same achievement for other people.

• Sixteen-year-old Hortense Lange survived and was named as having crossed the plank first.  The Tribune later amended this to say it was her sister, Irene Lange.  Plank grabbing was not attributed to the Lange's, but before they could cross the plank, it had to be positioned on the fire escape railing.  It might have been William McLaughlin, who Cubbon cited as having helped others make the crossing.
• Thirteen-year-old Carrie Anderson survived but was badly burned, making her the least likely to have been the first to grab the plank.  She incurred her burns by being one of the last to leave the fire escape.
• Thirteen-year-old Eunice Smith survived.  She was also said to have been the first one to cross the plank.  My money is on Eunice as being the girl Charles Cubbon referenced as looking like an eight-year old.  Her name appeared in conjunction with Cubbon's inquest testimony.  Hard to tell, though, as the Inter Ocean announced each new plank girl hero with zero reference to those they'd already announced.
• Thirty-year-old Estelle Muir who perished.

Contestants for plank girl hero:

Victims known to have crossed the plank to Northwestern

Crossed the plank and survived:

1. Carrie Anderson - one of 4 plank girls
2. Eliza Johnson
3. Alice Kilroy
4. Isabel Kilroy
5. Hortense Lange - some reports said she made first crossing and was the plank girl
6. Irene Lange - also reported first to make crossing
7. Mary Williams Marvyne
8. Mary Pilat
9. Gertrude Pilat
10. Eunice Smith - one of the plank girls
11. Elizabeth Steinbeck
12. Dora E. Thomas Reynolds

Crossed the plank but died:

1. Elizabeth Clingen - carried out by fireman, died weeks later
2. William McLaughlin - subsequently died of wounds, helped others make the plank crossing
3. Estelle Muir - died, one of the plank girls
4. Edith Pridmore - died the night of the fire at the Sherman House hotel
5. Erle P. Martin - fell during crossing
6. Dora Lucille Reynolds - died from burns

Booth Hall, Hoynes coincidence

Cubbon and his coworkers were applying buff-colored paint in Booth Hall in Northwestern's law school.  Henry Booth (1818-1898), the law school's first dean, was the namesake.  The Northwestern law school, Chicago's first, was founded by an 1859 donation from Thomas M. Hoyne (1817-1883), a prominent Chicago attorney.  His granddaughter, Susie Hoyne, was among the Iroquois Theater survivors, escaping from the first floor.  Susie and her father, Thomas Hoyne Jr., who had followed in his father's footsteps into a legal career and graduated from Northwestern, probably read newspaper stories about planks and Booth Hall painters with special interest.

Northwestern had established its Professional School in the heavily remodeled former Tremont House hotel at Lake and Dearborn a year earlier (including the addition of a seventh-floor).  Supreme Court justice James Oliver Wendell Holmes spoke at the dedication.  Law occupied the third floor, sharing the building with dentistry, pharmacy, and general university offices.   The law school consisted of rooms for assemblies, recreation, courtroom practice, alumni and faculty, a library, and three lecture halls — Booth, Hurd, and Hoyne.  Since renovation and move-in had taken place a year earlier, in October 1902, perhaps the December 1904 work in Booth Hall was finishing up.

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