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Nineteen-year-old Rosamond P. Parrish
(b. 1884) was a student and Kappa Kappa Gamma
sorority member at Wisconsin University in Madison,
home for the Christmas holidays.* She was the
daughter of Charles and Martha Luey Parrish and
sister of four siblings aged thirteen to twenty. The
family lived at the corner of Kimbark and 47th St.
in Chicago. After a two-day search, Charles found
Rosamond's body at Rolston's Funeral Home. Her
funeral was held late in the afternoon Monday,
January 4, 1904.
Rosamond was named after her paternal grandmother.
Charles Parrish was a successful merchant and
manufacturer. After founding a hardware/upholstery
company, Gibson, Parish & Co., he turned to sheet
metal fabrication.† His businesses were prosperous
enough for the family to own their home at 4717
Kimbark and employ two domestic workers.
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Rosamond had other relatives in the audience. On the
first floor was her aunt Flora Parrish Tobin
(1843–1916) and two of Flora's grandsons,
eleven-year-old John Wright (1892–1972) and
thirteen-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright Jr.
(1890–1978), who would become one of
America's best-known architects. Flora was
known in the family as Blue Gramma, given
the name by color-blind Frank Lloyd Wright
Jr., who saw her red hair as blue.
The story went that Blue Gramma led the boys
from the Iroquois auditorium by sticking a
hatpin into anyone who got in their way.
Nevertheless, she and the boys were
separated, and John found himself standing
outside the theater, feeling overwhelmed
until his father arrived and they spotted
one another. While his father went inside to
look for Lloyd and Blue Gramma, Blue Gramma
escaped and met up with John. She found a
telephone, called home and found Lloyd
already there. He had borrowed cab fare from
a stranger and was safe and sound.
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Twenty-one-year-old Ohio native Eleanor Ella B. Linden
(b. 1882) was the daughter of attorney James and Eleanor B. Thomas.
The Linden family lived at 4625 Lake
Avenue in Chicago.‡ Ella's body was found at
Jordan's Funeral Home and identified by her brother,
Frank W. Linden (1878–). Frank was one of two
brothers. A fourth Linden child died as a toddler in
1882.
Ella's funeral was held late in the afternoon
Saturday, January 2, 1904. The body was cremated,
and the ashes were sent for burial at Woodland
Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.
Under the burden of this great calamity we can but look into thy face, O God, as children,
humbly whispering: 'We cannot understand. Help thou our unbelief. Thy will be done.
Rev. Austen K. de Blois speaking at Ella's funeral service
In the years after the fire
Friends and former classmates of Ella Linden raised money to
start a scholarship in her name for a year's tuition
at the Academy of Fine Arts (Art Institute of
Chicago).
Ella's father, James Linden, became a judge. In retirement,
the family moved to a farm. He died when a train hit
his automobile.
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