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Sisters Jennie Belle Finich and Lida Elnore Finch
Hickman had been four and seven years old when
orphaned by the deaths of their parents. They were
taken in by a maternal uncle,
Samuel M. Link (1937–1904),
and his wife, a cousin, Mary Agnes Link Link
(1842–1926). Samuel was a banker and one-time mayor
of Kirksville, Missouri, a city with a population in
1903 of around 6,000. On December 30, 1903 Belle and Lida died together in Chicago at America's worst theater disaster.
It is not known where the sisters were seated in the
Iroquois or if others accompanied them to the Iroquois theater. It is probable
that they were seated in the balcony or gallery where a majority of nearly six hundred perished
when a stage fire spread to the auditorium.
Twenty-two-year-old Jennie Belle Finch (b.1882)
Jennie followed in her mother's footsteps and became a
school teacher. She was in her second year in Room 2
in the Third Ward public school in her hometown,
Kirksville, Missouri.
After a two-day search, Jennie's body was identified
by twenty-two-year-old Robert A. Loucks, an
accountant at the stockyards. Jennie's funeral was
held on Sunday afternoon after the fire, with
services conducted by the pastor of the First
Baptist church. Burial was in the Link family plot
at the Forest-Llewelyn Cemetery in Kirksville.
Twenty-four-year-old Lida Hickman (b. 1885)
Lida had just celebrated her third
wedding anniversary with Charles Hickman
(1866–1933), a bookkeeper at
Armour & Co. They lived on Calumet Avenue in Chicago.
Lida spent most of the month of December in Vandalia, Illinois, home
of Charles' mother.
Lida's body was found at Rolston's Funeral home and
identified by Dr. Harold H. Steere.* Her funeral was
held on January 3, 1904, in Vandalia, IL, followed
by burial in the South Hill Cemetery there. Charles
joined her in 1933.
In the years after the fire
Charles Hickman remarried in
1906 and spent the end of his life in Montana.
Jennie and Lida's uncle, Samuel M. Link, passed away
in September 1904 at age sixty-seven, some asserting
his death was caused by a cold caught while
searching for his niece's bodies.
In 1909 Charles Hickman received a $750 settlement
for Lida's death from
Fuller Construction, the
company that built the Iroquois Theater.
Discrepancies and addendum
Jennie Finch's name was omitted from some victim
lists, but a death certificate was issued, and her
gravestone substantiates her death.
Jennie and Lida's parents were Mary Link Finch
(1846-1889) and Jacob D. or James B. Finch
(c.1842-1882)
In some materials, Lida's name is spelled Lyda, but
her grave marker reads Lida.
* In 1914, Steere, age forty-three, was shot and
killed by a patient for charging $435 ($11,000
adjusted for inflation) while failing to treat a
hernia.
Who did what in 1903 Mr.
Bluebeard
School Teacher Dora
Mitchell Iroquois Theater Victim
Gertrude Swayze and Hazel
Brown Iroquois Theater victims
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 2802
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.
