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In terms of property damage and lives lost, the two most
historically significant Chicago fires took place in
1871 and 1903. In 1871 "the great Chicago fire" burned
blocks of the city to the ground and killed three
hundred people. In 1903 at the Iroquois Theater the
structure was running shows again in less than a
year, but nearly six hundred people were dead. This website is about
the fire at the Iroquois Theater and this page is
about a volunteer first responder named Arthur William Campbell
(1877–1905). Arthur helped people who had escaped from
the theater into an alley near his office.
Doorways and stairways through which the audience
had entered the auditorium quickly became blocked by
thick throngs of people.
When hundreds in the two balconies found themselves trapped, they fled through
six fire escape exits, two on each of three floors.
All six exits led out into Couch Place alley. Roughly twenty
percent of the fatalities ended up on the
cobblestone in Couch Place after jumping or falling
from fire escape landings. Of those who made it to
the alley floor alive, some were injured and dazed
from smoke inhalation and burns. First
responders in Couch Place helped the living while
above them people were burned alive and jumped and
fell up to sixty feet to their deaths. If they remained at the bottom of the stairs, they
risked being crushed by the bodies of jumpers.
Arthur was among the volunteers who ran in
to help them reach a safer location inside Northwestern.
The school lobby became one of three
impromptu triage centers.▼1 Victims were
examined by doctors and nurses, and treated for minor burns and injuries. Coats
and carriages
were found.▼2 Seriously
injured were taken to hospitals, the dead to
morgues.
Arthur Campbell wasn't an Iroquois theater fire victim
Dozens of newspapers proclaimed that Arthur
had been a heroic rescuer at the Iroquois Theater fire, and
that shock had made him another of its victims.
That declaration by newspapers needs explanation.
In the early aughts people believed that overloads
of emotion could kill. Extreme surprise, fear,
love, grief, horror or worry in some mysterious way
caused the body to contract illness or to
malfunction. What today is known as acute stress disorder or PTSD
was years away from common recognition. The
concept that psychological trauma was
a pathology that could have long-lasting effects had
been suggested only eighteen years earlier by Paris
doctor Jean Martin Charcot in 1887. As to
physiological shock as it is understood and treated
today, it would be another two to three decades
before science began to understand it.▼3
In 1903 Edna Bronson was temporarily working in
Kenosha, Wisconsin, teaching Latin at the Kenosha
High school until her wedding. Arthur Campbell and Edna Bronson (1880–1962) were
recent graduates of Northwestern University in Chicago,
having graduated in the class in 1902.
Northwestern was the preferred college for the
Bronson and Campbell families. Edna's sister
Elizabeth and at least two of Arthur's siblings also
graduated from the school.
Announcement of their engagement in June that year
was incorporated into commencement activities and
a press release was issued . It came as no surprise to
fellow Northwestern classmates who had watched the
romance since its beginnings. The pair of type
A personalities were the "It" couple at Northwestern
in 1901 and 1902. Scanning several years of
the Syllabus was like watching the
1902 version of building of a
brand; one issue contained six references to the
couple's romance. But
for Arthur's subsequent illness, Arthur and Edna might have worn out Janesville and moved on to a larger city,
perhaps
back to Chicago. They were destined to have had an
impact wherever they landed.
At the Iroquois Theater
In several days of searching published material for mention of Arthur's involvement
at the Iroquois fire, the only references I found
were in November, 1905, nearly two years after the
fire, within his obituarial notices. That doesn't mean he wasn't on the
scene. There were hundreds of first
responders at the Iroquois disaster, including
doctors, nurses, police, fire fighters, shop
keepers, office workers and passersby.
(In an era when there were far more pedestrians than
today, large numbers of people appeared at the
scene, most out of curiosity but some
stayed to help. They would later refer to
being drawn to "the commotion," consisting of fire
bells, screams, small crowds and the sight of
visibly terrified people in tattered clothing
running down the street. Theater escapees
ran to reach stores and hotels in search of warmth, outer garments,
first aid supplies, carriages, and telephone
access.) Only a
fraction of first responders were interviewed and identified in news
stories, usually in conjunction with their testimony
at inquests for the coroner's office and grand jury
proceeding.
Newlyweds in Janesville
Six months after the fire, in June, 1904, Edna's
father, reverend Solon Bronson, performed their
marriage ceremony and the young people moved to
Janesville, Wisconsin near Arthur's hometown, Coal
City, Illinois.
Arthur's parents — William (1848–1936) and
Agnes Patterson Campbell (1853–1949) — had emigrated from Scotland as
teenagers in the 1860s and married in 1874. Agnes bore ten children, five girls
and five boys, of which two were elementary school age at the time of their brother Arthur's death.
All but Arthur were long lived. As a founder of the Old Ben Coal Corp and a superintendent
of the Coalfield Company and Wilmington Star mines,
William Campbell prospered in Illinois' coal mining industry and was a was prominent in Coal City,
IL
(1900 population around 2,500) and Braceville, IL.
He founded the First National Bank in Coal City and
over the years the family owned several stores. I
failed to find a picture of the family's
twenty-two-room home at 580 S.
Broadway; razed sometime after 1998, today it is
the site of the Campbell Memorial Park.
Edna loses Arthur
In Janesville Arthur went to work as manager of the Badger State
Lumber and Coal company, quickly becoming involved in
the Janesville community. He was active in the
Methodist Church and Y.M.C.A., the Knights of Pythias
and Social Union Clubs. In May, 1905 the
couple had their only child, Howard Bronson Campbell
(1905–1924). Their idyllic life was soon
shattered when Arthur died of typhoid fever after a
three-week illness.
He was buried in the Campbell family plot at the
Brace Cemetery in Coal City.
Edna returned to
teaching, in 1908 serving as a high school principal
in Woodstock, Illinois, teaching history and
English. The following year she and Howard
relocated to Seattle, Washington. Son
Howard died of
polio at age nineteen and was buried alongside his
father.▼4 By then Edna had moved to Seattle
where she taught high school English.
She remarried a year after Howard's death.
Her new husband, George E. McBride, was sales
manager at a hardware store. By 1940 Edna had
left teaching and was active in charity activities,
including the Y.M.C.A. that had been a favorite of
her's and Arthur's when they were at Northwestern
and newlyweds living in Janesville.
The machinations behind
staging the announcement and issuing a press release may have begun in the president's office.
Do not be hasty
Dr. Edmund Janes
James (1855–1925) was the thirteenth president of
Northwestern University, serving from
February 1902 to mid 1904.▼5
Selected after a two-year search, James
was awarded a fifty percent salary
increase over his predecessor. It
was soon apparent, however, that he
could not fulfill the trustees'
assignment. They wanted the
school to become larger and more
prominent but would not, probably could not, provide him with
the budget or freedom to make it happen.
James was tasked with increasing enrollments/revenues/prestige at a
school with lackluster faculty and
amenities, on a small budget, and while
being careful not to risk the religious
patronage that produced a significant
proportion of the school's existing enrolments
and revenue flow. That the school
was struggling financially became
apparent four years later when it
cancelled its football program for lack of money.
(Initially a five-year moratorium was
planned but it lasted only one season,
resuming in 1908.)
In his assessment, for the school to appeal to more
students required the addition of such amenities as a
gymnasium,▼6 residence halls, dining hall,
chapel, and student union building, and
upgrading its library, faculty and science
laboratories. James recommended
Northwestern establish a correspondence school, post-graduate studies, and
schools of technology and commerce. He justified
development of a business school as necessary
to attract more male enrollees thus avoiding excessive
femininity, citing more females than males in recent enrollment,
as well as an anti-female sentiment amongst underclassmen.
A breakdown of the school's
1903 graduates, however, demonstrates
that the curriculum already strongly
favored departments James saw as
appealing to male students.
Seventy-eight percent of graduates came
from science and law, 22% from liberal
arts of which approximately fifty
percent were men.
When Northwestern's trustees
blanched at such major changes (I imagine
the Entmoot as Bill Gates explains why
they need a laptop), James tried a
variety of low-cost solutions. In addition to alumni
appeals, he took advantage of events and
programs that could be publicized to
portray Northwestern as a happening
place. He promoted the school's
athletic teams and scholarships,
sponsored academic conferences,
maintained a busy and sometimes
controversial▼7 speaking schedule, and
issued tidbit press releases such as
this.
Based on Arthur Campbell's activities
while a student, I suspect he may have
been behind the idea of announcing engagements at
commencement, creating an opportunity
for a press release. They were
also announced in the Syllabus.
As a former director of Wharton's
school of finance, and with a doctorate
degree in political economics, Edmund
James certainly understood the trustee's concerns, if
not agreeing with their cautious
response and, as a lifelong Methodist,
from a family of Methodist clergy, he appreciated
the doctrines of his faith, if not
agreeing with some of its practices.
At that moment in time Northwestern
could not easily escape from its
predicament. When a better-paying offer came along
two years later from
the
University of Illinois, he took it. His
compensation package included housing
and an annual salary of $8,000 ($275,000
adjusted for inflation), six percent
more than he earned at Northwestern.
Response to Iroquois Theater fire
Trustees may have been relieved when
their outspoken president resigned. Though its
Methodist founders had favored a
non-sectarian admissions policy,
Northwestern was financially dependent upon enrollments
and donations from Methodist
families and alumni. Perhaps debt interest
on the improvements advocated by James
could be afforded, but everything would
be lost if his changes riled Methodists
enough that ministers labeled the school
as too progressive. Trustees
could not have dismissed such a scenario
as far fetched. The Church's ban
on dancing, theaters, gambling, drinking
and the circus would be lifted in 1924
but in 1904 Northwestern's trustees had only to look
in their daily newspaper to gauge the
strength of the conservatism and
influence Methodist pastors had with
their congregations, and visa versa. For weeks after
the Iroquois Theater fire, Sunday
sermons in Methodist churches in Chicago
and throughout the midwest railed
against the evils of theater
attendance, some going so far as to
assert the horrendous death count at the
Iroquois was a mark of God's wrath at the victims for
having attended a theatrical
performance. Today such extremism
would draw criticism; not so in 1904.
In another example, legal entanglements over a
contribution to a Methodist missionary
organization from the estate of a
wealthy victim of the Iroquois Theater
fire became controversial in
newspapers because the donation came
from a man who died
at a theater. And another.
To explain away the presence of
Methodist divinity student,
William L. McLaughlin in a theater,
his family made up a story so absurd
that every Methodist minister in Chicago
must have known or suspected
it was fabrication.
Arthur Campbell was with
Edmund James throughout his short
tenure but did not follow him on to the
University of Illinois. I can
imagine many reasons but nothing was
published that shed light on it.
The University of Illinois had James on
a short list as early as April,
and Campbell didn't marry until June, but
perhaps Arthur made a commitment to
Badger Coal before James' received the
offer from Illinois University.
Maybe the two men didn't get along. Maybe Arthur had had
his fill of public relations and wanted
to try something different.
Maybe the salary was poor. Whatever the reason for not remaining in
university administration, Arthur took
away life-changing experience. Though he didn't live long
enough to read about Edmund J. James'
accomplishments at the University of
Illinois, Arthur had spent two years in the
presence of an extraordinary man with
big ideas. I failed to find
verification but in his capacity as
Edmund James' secretary Arthur might
have met some of the university's most
noteworthy guests, including president
Theodore Roosevelt and Oliver Wendall
Holmes.
Discrepancies and addendum"
1. Other triage points were Thompson's Diner next to
the theater and Marshall Field's department store a few blocks away. Thompson was featured in newspaper articles, in the the Marshall's disaster book
published immediately after the fire, and in 2003 disaster anniversary books, Tinder Box and Chicago Death Trap.
2. Temperatures in Chicago on December 30, 1903 were two degrees Fahrenheit with thirty mph winds.
Ironically, for first responders and wounded escapees, the deathly inferno inside provided lifesaving warmth.
3. See Frederick Millham's paper on the history of shock. It offers an interesting summary of the evolution
of understanding from studies of WWI battlefield victims by William T. Porter to the work of cardiac surgeon, Alfred Blalock in 1927 and 1942.
4. In the Odd Coincidents
category, a man named Harold Bronson Campbell was born just a year later
to another Iowa native named Edna Bronson and a William Campbell
of Wisconsin. Unlike Arthur's son Howard, however, Harold
Campbell married (Leah Mae Moulton) and lived a long life.
The names are similar enough to cause confusion in some genealogical collections.
5. Made official in October 19-21, 1902 with three
days of celebration that included parades, flotillas
and parties. Supreme Court justice
Oliver Wendall Holmes Jr was on hand to deliver
the dedication address for the new law school in the
former Tremont House hotel on Lake and Dearborn —
the same structure to which Arthur Campbell and
others brought Iroquois Theater fire victims.
6. A September 1902 press release, presumably from
James' office, announced that an unnamed donor had
offered $100,000 ($2.2 5 million
adjusted for inflation) toward a new
gymnasium, provided the school put up another
$100,000. James sent letters to alumni.
The announcement did not comment on the controversy
over whether the gym was to be for male or female
students.
Patten Gymnasium was dedicated June 3-5, 1909.
It was razed in 1940 and rebuilt. The
June 1910 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine
ran a lengthy article about the gym that
includes several photos of the interior.
They're very dark but the under-roof baseball field
is pictured.
7. James' heavily publicized speech about the
problem of poorly educated railroad owners and
bankers probably did not improve donations to the
university from the business sector, and another speech
in which he gave an objective analysis to
Northwestern trustees about
resistance from male underclassmen to female coeds (reminding me of today's Bro movement),
did little to increase Northwestern's
fastest-growing enrollment segment: women.
Amelia Sands and her
daughters
Van Ingen family of
Kenosha, WI
Clarence Blood railway
surveyor
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 2988
A note about sourcing. When this
project began, I failed to anticipate the day might come when a
more scholarly approach would be called for. When my
mistake was recognized I faced a decision: go back and spend years creating source lists for every page, or go
forward and try to cover more of the people and circumstances
involved in the disaster. Were I twenty years younger, I'd
have gone back, but in recognition that this project will end when I do, I chose to go forward.
These pages will provide enough information, it is hoped, to
provide subsequent researchers with additional information.
I would like to
hear from you if you have additional info about an Iroquois victim, or find an error,
and you're invited to visit the
comments page to share stories and observations about the Iroquois Theater fire.
