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On December 30, 1903, sixteen-year-old Leander
Jones Diffenderfer (b. 1887) attended an afternoon matinee of
Mr. Bluebeard at Chicago's newest luxury playhouse, the Iroquois
Theater on Randolph St. When a fire broke out on stage and
spread to the auditorium, it killed nearly six hundred people,
including Leander.
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Sixteen-year-old Leander Jones Diffenderfer (b.1887)
was the only child of Jerome C. Diffenderfer
(1845–1937) and Marion Jones Diffenderfer
(1861–1938). In 1903 the Diffenderfer lived in
Lincoln in central Illinois, where Jerome worked as
a grain buyer, but newspaper references and US
Census reports show that they moved about in the
years prior. In 1886 they lived in Chicago, in 1900
near Philadelphia, and in 1901 were back in Chicago.
They moved to Lincoln in 1902 when Jerome became
manager of the Lincoln Grain company. They remained
in Lincoln for the rest of their lives. Leander was
visiting his aunt Grace Diffenderfer Armstrong and
his grandmother Leah Diffenderfer in Chicago over
the holiday. It was reported that he attended the
theater with a friend, but the friend's name was not
reported. At age twelve, his cousin, Marjorie
Mabel Armstrong, was of an age to have enjoyed Mr.
Bluebeard and was not listed among Iroquois victims, so was
perhaps Leander's theater companion and survived.
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Leander jumped from the
second-floor balcony into a fire net and was then
taken to Mercy Hospital, where he died four hours
later.
Fire nets were tried in Couch Place alley,
but the combination of the time of day (sunset was
around 4:30 pm) and smoke made it hard for jumpers
to see the nets. It is not known whether Leander's
fatal injuries were from smoke, burns, or impact
upon falling.
Upon hearing about Leander's critical condition, his
parents boarded a train, but he died before they
reached Chicago. Jerome and Marion had been married
in 1886, and Leander, their only son, was born the
following year. All three were born in Pennsylvania,
as were Jerome and Marion's parents.
In Lincoln, Illinois, Leander attended the Lincoln
High School on Broadway St., just three years old
then.
Funeral services for Leander were conducted by
Charles E. Cordo of the First Baptist Church in
Manayunk.
Leander's aunt Grace was married to James Armstrong
and his widowed grandmother, Laura (Leah)
Diffenderfer (1822–1916), lived with Grace and James
at their home on Woodlawn Avenue. Four years
earlier, Grace had hosted a family theater party at
Powers theater that included Marion Diffenderfer.
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Discrepancies and addendum
The Chicago coroner issued the death certificate
with the last name spelled Di — Diffenderfer — and
at the Westminster Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd,
Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia,
where Leander and his parents are buried, records
spell the name as Diffenderfer, which is the most
common spelling. The name is sometimes spelled
De — Deffenderfer — and the handwriting of
the 1900 U.S. Census worker could be an e or a
dotless i.
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