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Samuel A. Muir Jr. (b. 1869)
Kentucky born, Samuel went by Gus. He was thirty-four years
old and worked as a traveling salesman for T. B. Laycock, an Indianapolis-based bed manufacturer, and
managed the Chase Furniture rooms in the Chicago
Mart. Sam's body was identified by a nephew, William
S. Moore. His father inherited Gus's $3,000 life
insurance policy.
Eugenia Hewins Muir, nicknamed "Eugie" (b. 1870)
Nicknamed Eugie, Eugenia
was thirty-three years old. She had one sister, Anna
Hewins Brashear. Sam Muir and Eugenia had married in
1892. Sam and Eugie's only child, a daughter named
Hortense, died in infancy two years before her
parents, Emory and Sarah Hewins (at right).
Estelle Margery Muir nicknamed "Essie" (b. 1874)
She worked as a stenographer. She and her brother
Sam Muir were the children of Samuel Muir Sr.
(1847–1930) and Margaret Brazelton Muir (1845–1937)
with two other siblings: Herman Muir (1876–1915) and
Mary Alice Muir Clark (1870–1948).* Estelle lived
with Sam and Eugenia at 301 Winthrop in Chicago.
After her death, Samuel Muir Sr. wrote to Coroner Traeger to
say that during Estelle's final moments
she told him that she had grabbed the painter's
plank that became a bridge across Couch Place alley.
This act had become labeled as heroic because one of
the painters publically attributed it to a
quick-thinking small young girl. During the
Coroner's investigation, Traeger had expressed a wish
to learn the identity of the girl. Estelle
joined
a list of four who attested to having grabbed
the plank but the other three were young teenagers
with less strength. The discrepancy was likely
because the painters ran out multiple planks.
Estelle was the only one that died, however, and her
father wanted to make sure his girl got whatever
credit was due for heroism. Sam's fatherly
pride means we know something not known otherwise,
that Estelle was one of the plank bridge crossers
and seated in the third-floor balcony. Did the
other members of her theater party cross the plank
and survive, or die?
A lengthy story in an Indianapolis
newspaper, related to the reporter by Essie's sister
in law, Herman's wife, described Essie frantically
beseeching her rescuers to save her companions - as
she was pulled from the plank through the window
into Northwestern. That could mean that the
other four members in the party were among the dead
and dying in Northwestern, or still on the fire
escape. My guess is that they were among those
on the fire escape landing who died when the
fireball hurled into the balcony.
Essie's body was identified by her and Sam's
brother-in-law, Charles Harris Clark, married to
their sister, Mary Alice.* Essie was conscious for a
while when she first reached the Polyclinic
hospital, frantic with concern for the others in her
party. Nine days later, she succumbed to severe
burns on her head, arms and back. Her
funeral was held on Tuesday, January 12, 1904.†
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Emory George Hewins (b. 1841) and Sarah Ravenscroft Hewins (b. 1842)
Sixty-one-year old George was a farmer by 1903 but in past times had served as a teacher and minister. He was the
son of wagon maker Erwin / Elmer Hewins and Maria
Hewins. His wife Sarah, sixty years old, was the daughter of Stephan and
Anne Taylor Ravenscroft. In addition to Eugenia,
Emory and Sarah had a second daughter, Anne Hewins
Brashear, married to a minister named Turner
Brashear.
Married in 1854, the Hewins lived in Petersburg in southwest
Indiana, a town with a population in 1903 of around
1,900, located midway between St. Louis and Louisville.
Their bodies were identified by William S. Moore, a
relative of Sarah's. It was reported that both had been trampled to death.
I found
references to Emery's involvement with both
Presbyterian and Methodist Episcopal churches. Safe
to say, his friends and family back in Petersburg may have been shocked
to learn he'd gone to a theater. In Chicago, some Sunday
sermons after the fire addressed the evils of playhouses, a few going so far as to say the fire was punishment. So
strong was the anti-theater sentiment that one
Methodist school in Wisconsin was rumored to have declined a substantial
bequest from an Iroquois victim because the man
died at the theater.
Burials
Sam, Eugenia, and Estelle were buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Evansville,
Indiana. The Hewins were buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery in Petersburg. The Hewin funerals were conducted by Rev. J. G. Venerable of the Presbyterian church in Petersburg.
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In the years after the fire
Samuel Muir Sr. and his wife,
Margaret, left Evansville for the Cleveland, Ohio
area in hopes the changed location would ease the
grief over the loss of their son and daughter.
It didn't, and in 1908 they returned to Evansville to occupy a
four-room cottage within sight of Sam and Essie's
graves at Oak Hill. Sam helped maintain the
cemetery in exchange for lodging and a small salary.
Eugenia's sister, Anne Hewins
Brashear, had seven children and died at age
forty-five.
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