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In interviewing Helen
Montague's twenty-seven-year-old son, Charles M. Montague, the reporter didn't ferret out that Montague and McKay were sisters.
(Note: the number of audience survivors said to have escaped from the balcony is inaccurate.
Approximately forty percent of the four-hundred twenty people in the first balcony survived.)
In December of 1903 Helen Montague traveled from Niles, Michigan by train to spend the holiday with her sister, Mary McKay. Their roots ran deep in the
pioneer history of Niles. They were two of eight children born to the late Alfred W. Johnson and Dezire Howe Johnson.
In 1835, thirteen years before railroads reached the community, Dezire was one
of the eleven children of Frederick A. Howe who came with him to the "western
wilderness" by ox team. Alfred W. Johnson had arrived the year before
after traveling on foot from Vermont. A carpenter, he built a log home, "Hickory
Lane" six miles west of Niles where he and Dezire were married and spent the
next sixty years.
On Wednesday December 30 the Johnson sisters went to an afternoon matinee of a much publicized production of Mr. Bluebeard at Chicago's newest playhouse, the Iroquois Theater on Randolph St. Their desirable
seats in the dress circle — the second row of the first balcony on the 2nd floor — suggests they had purchased the seats in advance. Only standing room was available to late arrivals.
Both women suffered burns to the face and Helen's shoulder was bruised when landed upon by an unidentified child who jumped or was dropped from the third-floor balcony, almost knocking her to the ground.
They were separated during their escape but both made it to fire escape exits,
Helen to door #29b.
As was the case with most of those who escaped from a balcony, they were forced to
step on victims, probably in the aisles.▼1
For the first minutes after the fire started, the bottom set of stairs on that exit were frozen in the folded-up position. That rung of stairs was designed to be moved
up and out of the way so that wagons loaded
with cargo could move along Couch Place alley behind the theater, including
scenery. Multiple railroad cars were needed to transport sets for large
productions such as Bluebeard and
Ben Hur. It was supposed to be swung down during every performance — one of many
safety tasks left forgotten by Iroquois management. Some escapees
jumped about fifteen feet from the landing, and a ladder was brought for others
until the rung could be loosened and lowered.
Fifty-four-year-old Helen Johnson Montague (1849–1929) had been widowed less than a year from her husband of thirty years, Civil War veteran John A. Montague (1841–1903).▼2 They had one child, Charles Marion Montague (1876–1949), named after Helen and Mary's youngest
brother, Charles A. Johnson.▼3
Helen's
husband had entered the Pennsylvania Regular Volunteer army as a 1st lieutenant and was soon promoted to captain of
the 56th. How he came to select Niles, Michigan as a place to settle is not known but he was
generally known there as "Capt. Montague." He went
into the hardware business with two other men in 1868 and by 1879 was the sole owner.
Helen's passport reveals that she was 5'4" tall with a high forehead, receding chin, blue eyes and a plain nose.
Helen and Mary attended the Trinity Episcopal church in NIles with another Iroquois fire survivor,
Viola Stevens.
Fifty-year-old Mary Frances Johnson McKay (1853–1934) was a dressmaker
before marrying railroad accountant Orson McKay (1851–1932). Mary married Orson in 1883 and
they spent their first years in Niles, excepting 1887 in South Bend, Indiana. In the 1880s Orson
had worked at the Bond House Hotel in Niles, once owned by his father, as well as The Riverview Hotel in Kankakee, IL and managed
the Le Grand Hotel on Chicago's north side. In 1900 he worked as a clerk for a railroad.
In the years after the fire
Charles and his wife, Jessie, and Helen's brother, John F. Johnson, lived with her in Niles at 398 N. Fourth St.
for a number of years while Charles took over his fathers hardware & coal store at 111 E. Main in Niles (today home to Dani Morgan's Boutique). By 1920,
a different Johnson brother lived with Helen and Charles and his wife had moved out. Helen
traveled a bit, spending five months in Europe in 1908.
Discrepancies and addendum
1. Bodies did not accumulate inside the balconies at fire escape exits until after the fireball;
prior to that, people were shoved through the fire escape doors by the crowd like links of
sausage, sometimes forced to jump from landings or head down the fire escape stairs into flames
that leaped from windows and doors. Mary and Helen would not have survived to tell of their experience had they still been in the auditorium
when the fireball hurled into the balconies.
There were three primary situations in which Iroquois escapees were forced to climb over bodies.
The first was on the stairways outside the
auditorium leading from the balconies down to the lobby where one body pile grew as high as
eight feet by some estimates.
The second was in the aisles inside the balconies. Crowd surging meant that once a woman tripped, her long skirt became a like a web, nailing
her in place by the people behind her who were often unable to stop and help because of the press from the people behind them. She then
became an obstacle that caused others to stumble and fall, like dominoes. The average weight of a woman then was one hundred and
twenty-three pounds and contemporary science shows that the weight of four hundred pounds on the
chest is survivable. On that basis, most of the people downed in the balcony aisles could have
survived trampling; instead they were killed instantly at 3:50 p.m. by the heat of the fireball and subsequent smoke when
it set fire to seat cushions, clothing and floor covering.
The third place where bodies
collected was in Couch Place alley below fire escape exits, where people tripped and fell, were
pushed and fell, tipped off rescue planks, and jumped. By some estimates as many as a
quarter of the Iroquois Theater fatalities met their deaths in Couch Place.
2. John Montague was the son of Erastus Montague (1812–1896) and Mary D.
Pennington (1803–1884).
3. A banker, in 1901 Charles was convicted of absconding with $150,000 of bank deposits (inflation adj.
$5.6 million) for betting on horse racing and in grain stocks. He was sentenced to ten years in
prison. Before his apprehension he disappeared and the family hired investigators to find
him.
Father
and daughter Bray survived
Norton Barker Michigan
City survivor
School teacher Millie
Crocker Iroquois victim
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 3002
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.
Helen's
husband had entered the Pennsylvania Regular Volunteer army as a 1st lieutenant and was soon promoted to captain of
the 56th. How he came to select Niles, Michigan as a place to settle is not known but he was
generally known there as "Capt. Montague." He went
into the hardware business with two other men in 1868 and by 1879 was the sole owner.
accountant Orson McKay (1851–1932). Mary married Orson in 1883 and
they spent their first years in Niles, excepting 1887 in South Bend, Indiana. In the 1880s Orson
had worked at the Bond House Hotel in Niles, once owned by his father, as well as The Riverview Hotel in Kankakee, IL and managed
the Le Grand Hotel on Chicago's north side. In 1900 he worked as a clerk for a railroad.
