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On December 20, 1903
America's worst theater disaster took place in Chicago at the
newly constructed Iroquois Theater on Randolph St. During
the second act of Mr. Bluebeard, a stage fire spread to
the auditorium and by 3:50 pm, nearly six hundred people lost
their lives. The theater was filled with children and
teachers, enjoying an outing in the last few days of the
Christmas holidays. Forty Chicago teachers died in the
blaze, including Adeline Hoffeins.
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Twenty-three-year-old Adeline J. C. Hoffeins
(b.1880) taught at the Drummond elementary school in
Chicago, at 1845 W Cortland St. Today, the school is
a K-8 public Montessori school. Named after Judge
Thomas Drummond, the Drummond school cost $76,000 to
construct and opened in October 1893 with sixteen
classrooms and seating capacity for 993 pupils.
Adeline was the daughter of German immigrants,
Frederick (Friedrich) William Hoffeins (1848–1915)
and Elisabeth A. Domrose Hoffeins (1855–1922) and
had three younger siblings, seventeen-year-old Peter
Henry Hoffeins (1885–1962), thirteen-year-old
Eleanor Elizabeth Hoffeins (1889–1961) and
eleven-year-old Florence Clara Hoffeins (1892–1944).
In 1903 the family lived at 292 Haddon Ave.
Elisabeth had emigrated from Germany in 1871 when she
was twenty-nine years old and Frederick in 1872 when
he was twenty-eight.
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They married in 1878, and
over the next fourteen years, Elisabeth gave birth
to six children, two of which died in childhood.
Frederick made cigars for a living.
It is not known who was in Adeline's theater party
but it may have been a fellow teacher. There were
several parties of Chicago teachers at the matinee
and over forty died. Peter identified his sister's
body. Her funeral was held at her parents home at
292 Haddon Ave and she was buried at Waldheim Forest
Home Cemetery in Cook County, Illinois.
In the years after the fire
Adeline's siblings all married and had children.
Peter became an auto mechanic and named his daughter
after his sister.
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