|
Newspaper sensationalism
According to a story in the
Corning, NY newspaper (near Clara's hometown, Bath,
NY), Daniel Martin left his sons in their seats in
the balcony at the Iroquois, intending to come back
for them after helping Clara escape. When he went
back, it was too late. He found his sons sitting in
their seats, suffocated.
Even allowing for women being more submissive in
1903, Clara Martin wasn't shuffled out of a flaming
theater while her husband told their children, "Sit
tight, I'll be back." Nor did even the most obedient
of teenage boys remain in their seats with smoke
thickening, the house blanketed in darkness, and
people screaming. Yes, there were burned corpses
found in their seats when the fire was out, but not
many. As few as six, depending upon the testimony,
fireman Roche's estimate of twenty being the
most credible. Allowing for argument's sake that the
Martin boys were in that handful, it is unlikely
Daniel Martin pushed his way through hundreds of
crazed people desperately rushing in the opposite
direction then climbed man-high piles of bodies to
regain access to the auditorium. Even more unlikely
that a fireman recognized the blackened bodies of
his boys and later told him of the discovery. There
were other such stories, always by out-of-town
newspapers. It was a titillating story — to a
far-away reporter or editor who hadn't seen six
hundred corpses and thousands of grieving family
members. Chicago newspaper reporters knew better and
saw enough horror in the Iroquois Theater tragedy
that they saw no need to amplify it. Seemingly Clara
was doubtful, too. Thirty-one years after the fire,
when asked if her sons died in their seats, her
response was less than definitive. "Presumably, she
said. See panel below for more about seated corpses
at the Iroquois.
According to other more reliable references, in
Chicago newspapers, Daniel Martin found and
identified the bodies of both his sons at Rolston's
Funeral home.
The Martin boys' funeral was held on January 2,
1904, at the St. Joseph's chapel at 121st and
Eggleston in Pullman.
The Martin family then rented at 11 Market Circle /
112th street in Chicago.
|
|
A Vermont native, Daniel had graduated from the Williston
Seminary in Massachusetts and attended Amherst and
Cornell. He located in Chicago in 1876 and in 1881
had become principal of the Pullman school at the
northeast corner of 113th and Pullman Avenue where
he worked for the next twenty-six years. He married Clara Bell Campbell in Boston in 1888.
Clara was born in Illinois but grew up in Grove Springs, New York.
She graduated from the Haverling Academy in Bath, New
York.
In the years after the fire
On February 13, 1904, Daniel and Clara testified about
their Iroquois Theater experience before the special
grand jury.
In April 1904, Clara Martin was one of a group
working with Viva Jackson's mother to assemble
statistics demonstrating that a
Memorial Iroquois Hospital in the Loop would
have important benefits in saving lives.*
The boys had not been Clara and
Daniel's first experience with the grief of losing a
child; an infant daughter had died in 1895, but some
couples wouldn't have had the courage to try again.
Almost a year to the day after the Iroquois Theater
fire, a daughter named Katherine was born to the
Martins.
By 1920 the Martins had purchased their home at 12207
Eggleston and were prosperous enough to employ a
live-in servant. Daughter Katherine went on to
graduate from college, became a public school
teacher, and married reverend Alexander Wood. After
Daniel's death, in 1940, Clara lived with Katherine
and Alexander in Duluth, Minnesota. The household
later relocated to Charlevoix, Michigan, where Clara
spent her final days. When asked in 1934 if she
would rather have died at the Iroquois with her
sons, she spoke through the perspective of a woman
who had lived with their deaths for over thirty
years. "That is out of our hands. I have tried to
accept life as courageously as possible. I have my
daughter, and that means a great deal. I do hope
that persons today hearing of our loss, and all
those who remember the Iroquois, will help observe
safety laws.
|
