Minnie and her husband, Christopher Marius Christophersen (1859–1940), lived at 231 N. Harvey in 1903. Christopher was an officer in the C. Larsen Company, a picture frame manufacturer. They married in October 1900. They did not have children.

Minnie and Lydia were the daughters of Norwegian immigrants John and Lena Hansen, both of whom were still living at the time of Minnie's death. They had one surviving brother, Conrad A. Hansen. A fourth sibling had died in early childhood.

The severity of Lydia's injuries is not known, but in 1909 she was one of thirty-five victims to receive a $750 settlement from Fuller Construction, builder of the Iroquois Theater.

Minnie's body was identified at Jordan's funeral home by Robert Beuckman, 216 Grand Avenue, later marrying Lydia (right).

Her funeral was held at her home on Monday, January 4, 1904, and she was officially buried at Mt. Olive Cemetery in Chicago that same day.

In the years after the fire

In 1904 Lydia and Minnie's father, John Hansen, retired from his job as a carpenter on the railroad, with a monthly pension of $21.67 ($725 today).

In 1905 Lydia married Robert Henry Beuckman (1879–1860), the man who had identified her sister's body. Robert co-owned the Columbia Scale Company in Chicago, manufacturing and servicing heavy-load scales. The corporation, founded in 1893, was located at the corner of Morgan and Ohio streets in Chicago.

Discrepancies and addendum

The reported age of Iroquois victim Minnie H. Hansen Christophersen was different in almost every list. Sometimes she was said to have been thirty-five years old, other times fifty-five, eighty-three, or eighty-five. Her name was included in some lists, but not all. Her correct name spelling is as mushy as her age: her last name was spelled as Christophersen, Christopherson, and Christephersen. A descendant of the family kindly contacted me to shed some light based on genealogy research by a family member who found that Minnie was thirty-six. He also gave me a tip that, in general, Danish names end in "en" while Icelandic names end in "on."

*The C. Larsen Company, for which Christina's son Christopher was an officer, with Charles Larsen as president, was originally located on Hermitage St. in Chicago but in 1900 purchased the 150' x 120' corner at Kinzie and Levitt streets for $7,000 and in 1906 built a facility designed by J. F. Knudson. (Today, the site is home to Alex Displays, makers of handsome trade show booths, owned by Chuck and Steve Felder, and is across the street from Chicago Mailing Tube.) The Larson company was still in operation in 1922. Two years after the fire, Christopher married Alexandra Jazinski (1875–1940), and they had five children, including a daughter born in 1912 — named Minnie, presumably after her late grandmother. The other children included Walter, Arthur, and Sidney.

Story 2707