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To connect the dots in the relationships in this
story, you need to go back a generation to Henry
Carrington and his wife, Gabrielle Phillips
Carrington. From Middletown, Connecticut, they
relocated to Illinois in the early 1800s. They had
three daughters: Mary (1845–1920), Elizabeth
(1847–1903), and Lucy (1849–1904). Elizabeth "
Bessie," is the victim who died seventy-two days
after the fire. Mary, the only one of the girls who
married, had three children. One of them, her
namesake, Mary Holbrook Frazier, died at the
Iroquois while her teenage daughter, Helen, escaped
and survived. Lucy and Mary looked after their
sister Bessie during her last weeks.
The Fraziers
Mary and Edward Frazier (1863–1920)* married
in 1889. Their first child, Helen, came along in
1890, and Philip was born two years later. They
lived at 150 Highland Avenue in Aurora, Illinois,
west of Chicago.
On December 30, 1903, Mary and Helen, possibly
Bessie too,† probably rode a train two hours into
the city from Aurora. Edward was in Ohio on business
and went to bed on December 30th, not knowing about
the fire. He came down for breakfast in the morning,
picked up a newspaper, and exclaimed, "My God, my
wife is burned to death." When he telephoned his
home, Mary's death was verified, and he learned that
his daughter Helen was still missing. (Helen did
survive but may have been hospitalized and not yet
located by the family.)
Mary Frazier (b. 1868), Iroquois fatality
Thirty-one-year-old Mary Dunbar Holbrook
Frazier was the daughter of Mary Starr
Carrington Holbrook and reverend Charles A. Holbrook
(1843–1922. She was born in Connecticut and grew up
in New Hampshire with two siblings. She was fourteen
in 1883 when her father resigned from St. Johns
Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, NH, and joined the
Trinity Episcopal Church in Aurora, Illinois. She
was married to Edward Frazier at Trinity in 1889,
the service performed by her father. Mary was buried
on January 4, 1904, in Spring Lake Cemetery in
Aurora, but her remains were later moved to
Fairmount Willow Hills Memorial Park.
Mary Frazier's body was identified by three different families.
Edward Frazier was joined in his search of
Chicago morgues by Albert W. Clayton (1864-1946),
manager at a paint company. Mary's body was finally
located at Rolston's Undertaking, identified by her
jewelry. To her husband's dismay, relatives of two
other victims —
Mary Forbes and
Victoria Dray — had also identified the body and
jewelry.
Fraizer had to prove to police that the body was Mary's and
the jewelry his property. Perhaps with dental
records for the body and purchase receipts for the
jewelry. Albert Clayton described the dilemma while
in Racine, Wisconsin, on business.
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Helen Frazier (1890–1940), Iroquois survivor
Thirteen-year-old Helen "Lillie" Frazier, Mary's daughter, also attended the matinee but escaped, reportedly without injury.
Bessie Phelps Carrington, delayed Iroquois fatality
Fifty-six-year-old Elizabeth Phelps Carrington (b. 1847), nicknamed
Bessie, died seventy-two days after the fire. That
made her one of only a handful of first-floor
fatalities. She and Mrs. Lasky sat in the middle of
the first floor. During their escape, Bessie was
knocked to the floor. Her clothing was torn, but she
made it out of the theater. Some initial newspaper
reports listed her as among the injured, but
reported it wasn't serious. She returned to her home at 6536
Woodlawn in the Hyde Park area west of Jackson Park.
Her sisters, Lucy Carrington and Mary Starr
Carrington Holbrook, both nurses, cared for her. For
several weeks it was thought Bessie would survive,
but she grew suddenly worse and died on March 10,
1904. Newspapers reported that she suffered
respiratory difficulties from smoke inhalation and
overexcitement. A Connecticut newspaper reported
that she was badly burned.
Elizabeth and Lucy were buried in the Indian Hill
Cemetery in Middletown, Connecticut.
Mrs. Lasky, Iroquois survivor
Nothing is known about her
or her relationship to Elizabeth Carrington.
In the years after the fire
Lucy Carrington had some sort of surgery early in 1904 but insisted on
caring for Bessie. In October 1904, she passed away,
and newspapers implied there was a connection
between her death and overexertion while caring for
her sister.
Mary's husband, Edward Frazier, was one of the first
members of the
Iroquois Theater Memorial Society.
Mary's eleven-year-old son, Philip Andrew Frazier
(1892–1950), did not go to the Iroquois Theater. A
few months later, his pet goat drew the family into
a lawsuit when it wandered into a neighbor's home
and ate a plant and sheet music. For his father,
having buried his wife and father (see below), the
goat incident may have brought a laugh. Philip
graduated from college, married a couple of times,
and worked in publishing and banking in Chicago.
Helen Frazier grew up, married Donald G. Heinly, and
raised two or three children at their home in
Western Springs, Illinois. She and Donald visited
Hawaii in 1927.
Mary Carrington Holbrook and her husband celebrated
their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1915.
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Discrepancies and addendum
There was another Elizabeth Carrington from the Middletown,
Connecticut area, who was born the same year as the
Bessie Carrington, who died from Iroquois Theater
injuries, but died in 1896. I suspect she was a
relative.
* Edward S. Frazier was an Illinois native and son
of one of Aurora's most prominent citizens, Walter
S. Frazier. Walter founded a company to manufacture
buggies, racing sulkies, and bicycles. Frazier's two
hundred employees manufactured buggies purchased by
individuals and for use by carriers making rural
U.S. Mail deliveries.
W. S. Frazier Company carts were distinguished
by ball bearings that produced smoother rides with
reduced oiling requirements and improved durability.
In addition to his business interests, Walter
Frazier published the Aurora newspaper, served as
mayor of Aurora, Illinois, and was a director in
various banks and hospitals. Edward and his twin
brother, Walter, joined their father in the company
around 1885. Walter Frazier Sr. died two months
after the Iroquois fire. His obituary and that of
Elizabeth Carrington appeared on the same day in
newspapers. His granddaughter and Iroquois fire
survivor, Helen, entered trotting horse Markey in
the 1908 Wheaton, Illinois Fair.
† According to the 1900 U.S. Census, Bessie and Lucy
lived then with Charles and Mary Holbrook at 125
West Avenue in Aurora. Bessie worked at the Frazier
carriage company. They may have still resided there
in 1903, but at the time of her death, Bessie's
address was reported as 6536 Woodlawn in Chicago. It
was a seven-room flat, so she did not live there
alone. If Mrs. Lasky/Laskey/Laski was a roommate, I
failed to find evidence of it
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