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Teenaged friends Mildred Ericson and Katherine Doherty had arrived
late to the afternoon matinee at the Iroquois Theater and could only get standing
seats. When a stage fire spread to the auditorium they were able to escape without injury so were probably on the first floor. Nearly six hundred others were not so lucky. In America's worst theater disaster nearly six hundred perished, a majority of which were seated in the balconies.
Michael Doherty and John Ericson had begun their careers for the city the same year, 1897. They each had just one child, a teenaged daughter. On December 30, 1903, those daughters were together at the Mr. Bluebeard
matinee when word spread through City Hall that the Iroquois Theater was on fire. Michael and John were across the street from the fire scene before a call came into their offices that the girls were back home, missing some outer garments but safe and sound.
Doherty soon had a job to do that required him to set aside his worry about
Katherine. Acting commissioner of
public works, William F. Brennan, learned that
fire chief Musham needed
wagons to carry the dead to over a dozen morgues. Brennan assigned the task to Doherty and Doherty delivered all that was available from the 1st ward: one hundred fifty workers
and the street department's seventy wagons were soon
assembled in the City Yard at the foot of Randolph
street, ready for deployment.
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Many things in common, including daughters in danger and the job
Appointed by mayor,
Carter Harrison Jr, Michael J. Doherty (1866–1909)
was superintendent of Chicago's 19,000 miles of streets
and alleys. John E. Ericson (1859–) became
city engineer and a member of the board of local
improvements, later becoming the city's Tunnel Master, and
served on the committee that made Navy Pier a
reality.
Reportedly Michael's job was
a reward for his campaigning for Harrison in the
stockyards district. Ericson got his job by passing
a civil service exam. Both would endure condemnation
in newspapers from political opponents before their
careers were over. Doherty was accused of
incompetence, Ericson of improper financial
disbursement.
Michael's career was ended by death from a stroke in
1909 when he was forty-three.* Ericson's career and
$10,000 salary ($172,000 today) came to an end in 1919 when republican mayor
Thompson wanted to appointed his own man to the
position.
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Dohertys
From Brooklyn, NY, one of six children born to Irish immigrants, Michael
and Mary Doherty, Michael J. Doherty was raised in
Boston and came to Chicago in 1880 with his parents.
He went to work at the stockyards and by 1888 won
political office as the clerk in the former town of
Lake (now part of Chicago). From 1890 to 1897, he
worked as an undertaker.
His daughter, Katherine A. Doherty (1889–1973), was
named after her mother, Katherine "Kitty" Mullaney
who had died sometime before 1899; Michael
then married Theresa Dowling. After Michael's
death in 1909, Theresa petitioned the court to
legally adopt Katherine. By age twenty,
Katherine had lost her birth mother, gained a
stepmother, survived the Iroquois Theater fire,
lost her father, and gained an adoptive mother.
Mildred and Katherine in the years after the fire
Mildred Ericson
(1887–1957) married Ralph Quinlan of Evanston in
1913 and Katherine A. Doherty (1889–1973)
married Hugh Stewart Gamble in 1915. They
served as maid of honor in each other's weddings.† Mildred and Ralph were still together in the 1940s,
living in California. Katherine and Gamble
had three children, Catherine, Hugh Jr. and
Virginia.
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Discrepancies and addendum
* One day after work, Doherty went to a sporting
event, as a spectator, with his friend John Traeger
(coroner during Iroquois Theater investigation). At
home later, Doherty took his dog for a walk, came
home, keeled over, and died. He left behind an
estate valued at $65,000 (over $2 million today). According to one Chicago
newspaper report, Doherty spent winters in
California, but notice of his estate was published
in a Salt Lake City newspaper. It wasn't mentioned
anywhere else outside Chicago, so maybe the
Doherty's had Utah connections.
† Katherine was also in the wedding party of Rosina
Powers, daughter of Harry Powers, co-owner of the
Iroquois.
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