One survived in party of four

Annie C. Jones (b.1862)

Ohio-born Annie C. Jones married New York native Warner E. Jones (1857–1915) in 1889. In one source, Warner was said to be an attorney but was more often described as a landlord and clerk. His great-great-grandfather was Ezekiel Jones, who served as a drummer and sergeant in the Continental Army.

Annie's body was found at St. Lukes hospital. Her funeral was held on Saturday, Jan. 2, 1904.

Annie's obituary notice asked that Tacoma, Washington papers copy the information, but since I failed to learn her maiden name, their identity remains a mystery. That impediment also prevented my learning the relationship between her and Warner Saville. Annie's husband did not remarry after the fire. He was buried in Oakwoods Cemetery in Chicago — where Annie was probably buried too, but that has not been verified.

Margaret Buehrmann (b.1891)

Margaret was the daughter of Missouri natives John Henry "Otto"Buehrmann (c1850–c1918) and Mary L. Buehrmann (1855-). Mary was Otto's second wife. His first wife, after whom Margaret was presumably named, was Margaret Matilda Gaither (1821–1878). Otto was a merchant who relocated his family from St. Louis to Chicago after 1899 and before 1903. For a living, Otto gave lectures about merchandising and advertising. Otto's father, Otto Sr., had been a druggist who emigrated from Germany and, in the Civil War, served as a lieutenant in the Missouri Home Guard for the Union army.

The 1910 census reported that Mary had five children, of which only two survived to that date: Mary (b.1875) and Elizabeth Buehrmann (1887–1963).

Margaret's body was reportedly identified by a E. K. Robinson.  The relationship between Margaret and Robinson is not known but he was probably Edson K. Robinson, an undertaker who boarded on the same street. Margaret died in a hospital after the fire. Her father later stated that his daughter died of suffocation, which means her body was not badly burned.

Warner E. Saville (b.1889)

Warner was a fourteen-year-old student when he died at the Iroquois Theater. His body was taken to Perrigo's Funeral Home, where it was identified by an R. C. Campbell (of unknown relationship to Warner). The victim lived in Bourbonnais, a village in Kankakee County, Illinois, about an hour south of Chicago, with a population in 1903 of around six hundred. Newspapers reported that he was visiting the Jones and was related to Annie. It seems probable he was related to Annie's husband, Warner Jones, given their shared first name, but I failed to find the connection.

Warner was the son of a farmer, Indiana native Charles Saville (1846–1928), and Arkansas native Mary Barrett / Barrett Saville (1853–1929). They married in 1874 and had five children. Warner's three brothers and sister were Joseph, Philip, Neil, and Netti. Based on descriptions on his brothers' draft cards, it is likely Warner would have grown up to be tall, perhaps stout, with blue eyes and brown hair. He was buried at the Mound Grove Cemetery in Kankakee, Illinois, where he would later be joined by his parents and some of his siblings.

Annie and Warner's boarding house on Fifty-third Street

The Jones had recently moved to Tuscola, IL but were staying in one of the units in their boarding house at 46–48 E. Fifty-third St during the 1903 holiday. In 1900, the Buehrmann family comprised five of around thirty-two boarders there, most of them female. Based on their advertising, filling vacancies was a constant battle.

Reduced rates were offered during the winter, and advertisements during the summer promoted close proximity to Lake Michigan. The structure is no longer standing, and efforts to find a picture were not successful. It was west of Washington Park, about three miles from the lake.

In the years after the fire

In 1909 Warner Jones and Warner Saville's family received two of thirty-five $750 settlements from Fuller Construction. Warner Jones also brought one of the many dismissed suits against the Iroquois for $10,000.

Margaret's sisters became involved in the arts. Mary Buehrmann spent time at Anna Morgan's studios in Chicago and became a monologist, forming the Mary Buehrmann Concert company and briefly touring in the midwest and west coast performing dramatic readings.

Elizabeth Buehrmann attended the Chicago Art Institute and became a noted portrait and advertising photographer. Collections of her work are held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago's website. I looked through the names of her subjects in hopes of finding images of Margaret or other members of the Buehrmann family but found nothing among online catalogs. The accompanying photo of the woman with an infant was taken by Elizabeth in the early 1900s, and it seems possible the photo of Margaret was also taken by Elizabeth, perhaps in the early stages of her photography studies.

Discrepancies & addendum

In some publications the name Buehrmann is spelled with one n. The many alternate spellings of the name make research difficult: Behrmann, Berman, Biermann, Beerman, Baermann, Barhmann, Bearman.

Annie Jones' age was reported as thirty-five and forty.  According to the 1900 U.S. Census she was born in 1862 so was forty-one at death.

Story 1068