On Christmas Eve 1903, Mattie Hogue McGill set about bringing her family together in Chicago over the New Year's holiday. They were the upper-middle-class offspring of four powerhouse fellows who had helped settle Ohio, played commanding roles in America's and France's military histories, and in spreading Christianity in China. A party of five, consisting of Mattie, her daughter, mother, sister-in-law, and nephew, boarded a train to spend most of twenty-four hours traveling to Chicago.  There they were met by Mattie's sister and brother-in-law, Honoria and Charles Koll.

A prominent event in their holiday plans was an afternoon theater matinee at Chicago's newest playhouse, the Iroquois Theater on Randolph St. On Wednesday, December 30, 1903, six family members (Mattie, Nora, Charles, Mary, Elizabeth, and Andrew) went to enjoy Klaw and Erlanger's production of Mr. Bluebeard.

When a fire broke out on stage, it soon spread to the auditorium. Within minutes, nearly six hundred were dead, including two of the five-member McGill-Koll-Happer party.

Five passengers boarded the train in Pittsburg

Martha R.K. Mattie Hogue McGill

(1859–1946), age forty-four, standing a mere 5'1" tall, with a fair complexion, round chin, and straight nose, was the wife of Pittsburgh attorney, William Mowry McGill (1854–1914), a partner in Chantler, McGill & McClung, Elizabeth, their only child, the McGills lived at 7225 Meade St. in Pittsburgh's East End. The structure was dubbed the Pittsburgh Sanitarium Health Resort, previously known as the Fahnestock Mansion and the Normandie. By 1908 it was converted to a tuberculosis and morphine addictions hospital. Also living there in 1903 was William McGill's sister and son, Mary McGill Happer and Andrew P. Happer, his father, James D. McGill, and Mattie's mother, Orilla Koontz Hogue.

Elizabeth Koontz McGill (b.1891)

Mattie's twelve-year-old daughter, who would four days later die at the Iroquois Theater, boarded the train. Elizabeth attended the Misses Mitchell's Winchester preparatory school in Pittsburgh (later merged with Thurston to become today's Winchester-Thurston). The Solomon Hogue bloodline ended with Elizabeth's death. She was the only offspring of Solomon's children.

Orilla Koontz Hogue (1834–1914)

was the sixty-nine-year-old mother of Mattie and

Nora, grandmother to Elizabeth McGill. There were no reports of Orilla attending the theater, but she made the train trip to Chicago. A Virginia native and son of an Ohio congressman, her late husband Solomon Hogue (1821–1897) had served two terms as a state senator in Ohio and operated several businesses in dry goods, wool, and tobacco. During his lifetime, the family lived in Somerton, OH. He left a sizeable estate for his wife and daughters that would support Orilla and Mattie throughout their lives. Orilla was Solomon's second wife, having married him after the death of her sister, Cornelia Koontz. She bore him six children, of which three adult daughters survived when she boarded the train for Chicago. Only two made the return ride to Pittsburgh.

Mary D. McGill Happer (1856–1936), Mattie's sister-in-law, age forty-seven, was the widow of Andrew Patton Happer II (1849–1897)* and mother of Andrew Happer III. Her husband had died six years earlier at age forty-eight when they were living in Newchwang, Yingkou Shiqu, Liaoning, China. He died without knowing that Mary was pregnant. His son Andrew Jr. was born nine months later. Son of a Presbyterian missionary who worked in China for over forty-five years, Mary's husband had been born in China and grew up in Canton. In addition to English, he spoke Cantonese dialect, Chinese, and Mandarin. He returned to work for the Customs Department after graduating in 1871 from Princeton University and, at death, was commissioner of the Newchwang port. He died from rabies seven months after a finger bite by a small rabid dog (web surfing tells me that in rare cases, the rabies virus incubation can be as long as two years). Mary may have formed a special bond with her sister-in-law, Mattie Hogue McGill when both suffered painful losses in 1897. Mary lost her husband and Mattie, her father.

Mary's son Andrew Patton Happer III (1898–1958), age five, was a boy who never knew his father or maternal grandfather but lived with his paternal grandfather, James D. McGill (1825–1915), who received the telegram notification of the survival of his daughter and grandson.

Two welcomed the train in Chicago

Honoria Hogue Koll (b. 1854), nicknamed Nora, Mattie's older sister, age forty-nine, would die at the Iroquois. Married in 1875, Nora was childless. The pair had lived in Salem, Ohio, until 1900 sharing their home with Nora and Mattie's mother, Orilla (see above). In 1902 they moved to Chicago and lived at 496 Ashland Blvd.

Charles L. Koll (1854–1905) Nora's forty-nine-year-old husband, in 1903 working as a superintendent at the Chicago Stove Works and co-founder of the Victor Stove Works in Salem, OH, with his father and brother. Victor Stove Works produced 10,000 ranges and heating stoves annually and employed seventy men. A 1905 genealogy collection reported that Charles' health was poor then but did not indicate the nature of his illness. Newspapers after the fire reported that he was in the theater party but did not mention if he was injured. He could have suffered debilitating respiratory damage that contributed to an early death. Charles Koll's grandfather, Peter A. Koll, was a captain in Napoleon's army during the Austria-French war. His father, Daniel Koll, immigrated to America from Germany. In addition to his stove manufacturing enterprise, he was involved in the Quaker faith and Salem, OH utilities and banking.

Charles Koll's name inaccurately appeared as a victim on some early newspaper lists.

Seating at the Iroquois

According to a newspaper interview with Martha McGill, the McGill-Koll-Happer party was seated in one of the front rows of seats of the first-floor balcony, at the far north side of the auditorium, near the outer wall. They were within a dozen feet of three doors leading to fire escape exits to Couch Place alley. According to later investigation, two of the doors were opened during the fire, but Martha's description of their escape suggests one of the two, door #29, had not yet been opened.

They fled up the aisle toward the landing, where the crowd had amassed and were separated. Mother and daughter screamed to one another but were unable to push against the crush of people.

Another train ride, this one in anguish

William McGill was in Pittsburgh at the time of the Iroquois Theater fire, in his office in the Park Building, and received a telegram that his wife and daughter were missing after the theater fire. The sender was identified only as "McGill." William knew Martha would not have sent it without including her name and took the first train he could find to Chicago. At stops along the way, he purchased newspapers reporting on the fire and his family. Some reported both wife and daughter were lost but cited incorrect first names. As he traveled through Liverpool, Ohio, one newspaper interviewed him and got a more accurate story.

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