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Thirty-five-year-old Mattie Hays Samuels (1868–1947) traveled to
Chicago the day before Christmas in 1903 to spend the holiday
with her aunt Lulu (Louise) Lindsay McCullough / McCulloch
Kimball (1867–1947), wife of Weston G. Taft-Kimball (1869–1926).
The women were the same age because Lulu's mother bore ten
children. Mattie's mother was the oldest daughter, and Lulu was
one of the youngest children.
The party of three* was seated in the parquet section and, like
most others in the audience on the ground level, escaped without
serious injury. Unable to reach the door into the lobby, they
went out a window about ten feet off the ground on the north
side of the structure into Couch Place.
Kimball worked with his stepfather, George F.
Kimball (1839 – 1906), in the family's wholesale plate
glass business, brokering a large proportion of the
glass used in Chicago construction for over three
decades.* George retired after the death of his
wife, sold the family home on Michigan Avenue, and
moved into the Auditorium Hotel. He was the son of
Alvah and Ruth Woodbury Kimball of Boston. (Weston
was Lulu's second husband, her first being William
Lindsay.)
Mattie was the wife of surgeon Dr. Fouche† Warren
Samuels (1864–1933) of Louisville, KY, and the
daughter of journalist, poet, and prolific
songwriter,
Col. William Shakespeare Hays (1837–1907),
and Rosa Belle McCulloch Hays (1847–1935).‡ Her
father wrote over three hundred songs, claiming to
have written Dixie, but the family could never
prove it.
On Wednesday, December 30, 1903, Mattie, Lulu, and
Lulu's father-in-law, the widowed George Kimball,
went to the afternoon matinee of Klaw and
Erlanger's Mr. Bluebeard production
at Chicago's newest luxury playhouse, the Iroquois
Theater. It was later reported that
sixty-four-year-old George Kimball was in frail
health. The second anniversary of his wife's death
(Lydia Taft Kimball) was fast approaching, and
perhaps his daughter-in-law thought to cheer him up.
Once back at Lulu's, Mattie phoned her husband,
Fouche, to assure him of her safety. He shared her
story with the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper.
Mattie's back was blistered from the heat, but her
clothing and hair were not burned. They were forced
to walk over fallen victims as they made their
escape, most probably those of people who had jumped
from the second and third-floor fire escapes to the
alley floor.
According to one newspaper story, Mattie lost two
necklaces, rings and pins valued at $1,000 during
her escape from the theater. Reportedly she notified
the theater owners, who four days after the fire
contacted her to say the items had been found. The
story reported that all such items had been turned
over to the theater owners — an inaccuracy.
The police held on to all of it and donated the items
that remained unclaimed to the Salvation Army.
In the years after the fire
Mattie was active in the Red Cross during WWI and
WWII. In 1920 her husband was sued for having left a
sponge inside a patient after surgery, but he and
Mattie were divorced by then, and he was on his
third wife. In Mattie's obituary, there was no
mention of the divorce. In over twenty-five years of
marriage, she'd earned the title of Widow #1 and
whoever provided information to the newspaper
claimed it for her via omission. In her obituary, it
was reported that as a young girl, she'd been
considered one of the most beautiful women in
Louisville.
Discrepancies and addendum
* George Kimball became the sales representative for
Pittsburgh Plate Glass in Chicago, eventually
selling the firm to PPG.
† French, pronounced Fooshay.
‡ Lulu and Mattie's mother, Rosa Belle McCulloch,
were the daughters of James and Rebecca Seay
MuCulloch.
Though improbable, it's possible that journalist/songwriter Will. S. Hayes was also
in the theater party. I'll break it down.
On December 31, 1903, the day after the Iroquois
Theater fire, the Louisville, KY newspaper Courier-Journal published
a detailed account of Mattie traveling to
Chicago to visit her aunt, naming the people in
her party at the theater and describing their
escape. Though Will was a resident of Louisville
and a favorite son in Louisville, and an
employee for many decades at the
Courier-Journal, and was mentioned in the story
as being Mattie's father, there was no mention
of his having been at the Iroquois with her.
Reportedly she took a train back to Louisville
that same day, 12/31/1903.
On January 2, 1904, the Courier-Journal ran a
story that Will had suffered a paralyzing
stroke. No mention of the Iroquois, a theater,
or a fire.
On January 4-7, a dozen newspapers, including
the Courier, ran a story reporting that Will's condition
after his slight stroke of paralysis was much
improved, noting that he'd suffered from kidney
disease for several years. No mention of the
Iroquois, a theater, or a fire.
The Evansville Journal reported that he
suffered the stroke at his home.
At his death in 1907, an obituary appeared in
dozens of newspapers. Most ran a short paragraph
including a statement that he died as a result
of a stroke suffered at the Iroquois. Newspapers
that ran lengthier obituaries made no mention of
the Iroquois or a theater fire. His hometown
newspaper, the Courier-Journal, devoted two
full-page length columns to his passing,
reprinting eulogies in newspapers around the
country, including the Inter Ocean in Chicago.
None mentioned the Iroquois, a fire, or a
theater.
It seems likely a reporter found the
three-year-old story about Mattie and improvised.
Louisa
Rubly and her daughters Ida Weimers and Mattie Fieser
Givin sisters of Des
Moines IA
Emma Geik died two days
before her wedding
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 2874
A note about sourcing. When this
project began, I failed to anticipate the day might come when a
more scholarly approach would be called for. When my
mistake was recognized I faced a decision: go back and spend years creating source lists for every page, or go
forward and try to cover more of the people and circumstances
involved in the disaster. Were I twenty years younger, I'd
have gone back, but in recognition that this project will end when I do, I chose to go forward.
These pages will provide enough information, it is hoped, to
provide subsequent researchers with additional information.
I would like to
hear from you if you have additional info about an Iroquois victim, or find an error,
and you're invited to visit the
comments page to share stories and observations about the Iroquois Theater fire.
