|
Josephine (b. 1864) was the daughter of Irish
immigrants, the widow Catherine "Cate" Gibbon
Munholland (1833–1918), and the late Robert
Munholland (c1835–1887), a civil war veteran.† She
and her four siblings grew up in Bloomington,
Illinois, where she graduated from high school in
1882. Her sister Kate died the following year, the
same year Josephine was elected as an officer in the
National Ladies Aid Society, associated with the
Grand Army of the Republic. She would later
participate in another organization connected with
the G.A.R., the Women's Relief Corps. (Her brother,
Thomas Munholland, shared her commitment and, until
relocating to California at the close of the 1800s,
was active in the Cedar Rapids, IA National Guard.)
Josie moved to Cedar Rapids, about three hours
northwest of Bloomington, around 1898, first working
as superintendent of the Universalist Church school,
then becoming a public school teacher, assigned to
the Jackson school on Fourth St. In 1903, she lived
at 615 West Ninth Street or at 865 Fifth Street or
at 1031 Second. (All three addresses were reported.)
When Josephine did not arrive for dinner at the
Griffiths, they contacted the McFarlands. By then,
news of the fire was quickly spreading through
Chicago by word of mouth, and the McFarlands and
Griffiths began searching Chicago hospitals and
morgues. The search went on for days before finding
Josephine's body at Rolston's funeral home. She was
officially identified by Clark Griffith.
Later known as the Old Fox,
Clark
C. Griffith
became a fixture in baseball history as a pitcher,
manager, and owner. He and Anne "Addie" Robertson
(1876–1957) had married in 1900. Prior to her
marriage to Clark Griffith, Addie attended social
outings in Cedar Rapids with the McFarlanes, Pecks,
and Munhollands, including Josephine and her
brothers. Clark was a pallbearer at Josephine's
funeral, along with her brother-in-law, Charles
Stephenson, and friend, George Peck.
Some newspapers reported that Josephine's sister,
May Gibbons Munholland Stephenson, and her husband, Charles Stephenson, a clerk in the Chicago & Alton Railway trainmaster's office, traveled to Chicago to accompany Josephine's body to Bloomington. Newspapers also reported that May was unable to attend her sister's funeral due to her three children being ill. (They were Warren, Robert, and Catherine, all under eight years of age.)
|
 |
White lie to a grieving mother.
Josephine's mother, the widow Cate Munholland, did
not see her daughter's body but reportedly spoke
with the physician who examined the body and was
told that her daughter's death was instantaneous
from gasses.
The undertaker, however, John A. Beck of
Bloomington, persuaded Cate not to view the horrific
remains of her daughter's burned and mutilated body.
That fits with reports of the McFarlands and
Griffiths having conducted a long search for
Josephine's body.‡ They failed to recognize
Josephine's body because it was damaged beyond
recognition.
The truth was too ugly
Cate Munholland was not the only grieving parent to
be told that her loved one died instantly and
without pain. It was such a constant refrain in news
stories interviewing Iroquois victim family members
that I no longer give it much credence. In
contradiction are too many stories from first
responders about hundreds of charred bodies,
many carried out in pieces, and too many family
members who searched for days to find their
loved ones only to realize multiple searchers
passed by the unrecognizable body multiple
times. According to interviews with family members who related what
they were told by funeral directors and family doctors, no Iroquois
victim suffered but there were many, many closed casket funerals.
Funeral
Josephine's funeral service was conducted by the
Reverend John A. Mueller. He was a personal
friend and pastor of the Unitarian Church at East
and Jefferson Streets in Bloomington that she had
attended as a young woman. Mueller closed the
service with a description of Josephine's cheerful
nature, capacity for hard work, and positive
influence on young people in the church and at
school. Josephine's brothers, Thomas Munholland
(1861–1921)§ and John Munholland (1959–1917), were
businessmen in Los Angeles and Long Beach,
California. Distance prevented attendance at their
sister's funeral.
In the years after the fire
Josie bequeathed $1,000 to her sister May
Stephenson for the education of her nephews,
Warren and Robert.
In the odd coincidences department, Josephine's
sister and her husband, May and Charles Stephenson,
ended up in Elkhart, Indiana, my hometown, and are buried here in Rice Cemetery. On the other side
of town, in Grace Cemetery, is the family plot
of the infamous Iroquois manager,
Will J. Davis.
|
|
She would have if she could have
First appeared in Rockford, IL newspaper
Heroic Josie story doesn't hold water.
The probability of a woman alone forcing her way
through a stampede of nearly two thousand terrified
people is close to nil but
since the newspaper story didn't claim she
succeeded, only that she tried, it is
possible. Less credible is that anyone who
knew her saw her make that attempt.
Josie went alone to the theater so had no
companions to tell of her noble action.
She died at the theater so had no opportunity to
talk about her experience with a nurse, for
example, in her last minutes of life. The
only way Josie's activity at the Iroquois could
have been reported is if someone at the theater
recognized her and carried the tale to Josie's
family. She was visiting the city from her
home 245 miles distant.
Josie had grown up in Bloomington, IL and lived
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There were four
survivors of the Iroquois fire who had lived in
Bloomington, IL, Josie's hometown: Charles and
Dora Adolph and Charles and LaVisa Bibel.
Did they recognize Josie as they fled the
theater with roughly two thousand others?
More apt to have recognized Munholland were fellow teachers from Cedar Rapids: Mabel Cooper
and Charlotta Stout. That they saw her in
the theater prior to the outbreak of the fire is
believable. That they saw her in the
chaotic evacuation, not so much.
It is a tribute to Josephine that she was viewed by those who
knew her as someone too vibrant, determined, and courageous to
have gone out meekly. In life, their Josie had stood far out from the crowd,
so she must have done so in death as well. In reading newspaper
clippings of her life prior to the fire, I saw glimpses of a
person who, if able, would absolutely have gone back into the
burning theater to save others. In an era in which women were
expected to be demure, Josephine Munholland traveled, chaired
committees, hosted social events, judged art at the county fair,
had many friends, performed in literary recitals and songs at
parties and in amateur theater. Her performance as a
kindergarten teacher helped motivate Cedar Rapids to make
kindergarten an established part of the curriculum. She was a
lady to be reckoned with. So 1904
newspapers made her a superhero. No
harm, no foul.
|
|
