|
Born in France, Martha Jeanette Montague Quetsch
(1870–1903)* was thirty-four years old when she lost
her life at the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago.
The identity of her theater companions is not yet
known. Presumably, her husband, in banking, was
working. Little is known of the victim. She was a
member of a women's organization in Chicago, the
Independent Penwoman's Club (1895–1903). Another
member of the club was Clarence Darrow's ex-wife,
Jessie. (
Darrow participated in the first stage of mapping out a
defense strategy for Iroquois Theater managers.)
The club seems to have been more about reading than
writing; whatever the emphasis, it suggests Jeanette
had a fluent command of the English language.
Jeanette's body was found at Horan's Funeral Home
and identified by her husband, William Jules Quetsch
(1863–after 1929). He was a
bookkeeper/clerk/discount teller at Merchants Loan
and Trust in Ravenswood on the northwest corner of
Adams and Clark Streets (see accompanying pictures).
(Originally capitalized by Chicago's industrial
pioneers, the McCormicks, Armours, Fields, Shedd's,
and Wackers, the bank was merged and absorbed over
the years, ending in 1994 as the Continental Bank
with a spectacular too-big-to-fail failure.) The
Quetschs had married in 1892 in Kenosha, WI, and in
1903 lived in an apartment at 2596 N. Ashland in
Chicago.
Jeanette's father and mother were from England and
France, names not yet known. William Quetsch was
born in Illinois to Leonard and Christina Leibert
Quetsch (–1911). Two years before her death,
William's brother, Otto Quetsch, named his daughter
Jeanette, presumably after his sister-in-law.
|
|
Jeanette's funeral was held at Lady of Lourdes
Church the Monday after the fire, the afternoon of
January 4, 1904, and was possibly conducted by the
church's much loved Father Perry. Though not
verified, Jeanette was reportedly buried at Rosehill
Cemetery in Chicago. The burial service was private.
In the years after the fire
Jeanette's niece and namesake, Jeanette C. Quetsch (1901–1985) graduated
from college and became a teacher.
|
|
Discrepancies and addendum
On some lists, the name was spelled Suetsch,
Quitch, or Qutsch, and the 1900 U.S. Census
spelled Jeanette's name as Jaennette. One
Chicago paper reported her name as Jenette
Montague Ruetsch. It is not yet known if
Montague was her middle name or surname. An old
Dutch and German name, alternate Quetsch
spellings in America are many, making research
difficult.
One list cited Jeannette's age as twenty-five,
but the 1900 Census reported her year of birth
as 1870, making her thirty-three in 1903.
Some early newspaper reports described her as a
Miss, but later newspapers reported her as the
wife of William Quetsch.
There was another Montague at the Iroquois but I haven't
found a connection to Jeanette. She was
Helen Johnson Montague of NIles, Michigan.
|
