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In 1897, twenty-five-year-old Percival Seaman Pease (1872–1949),
nicknamed "Percy," probably felt
optimistic about the future. In January he and his
wife, the former Grace E. Camp (1870–1903), daughter of
James and Clara Bodine Camp,had their first
child, a daughter they had named Elizabeth. His
young family was living in Chicago where he had a
new job selling typography, making use of lessons
learned about the printing industry from his late
father, Elisha Pease (1849–1895). He could not then
have known that two years later their second child,
a son, would die in infancy and that in five years he
would lose his his wife, six-year-old daughter and mother in
history's worst theater fire in America.
His mother, Augusta"Gussie" Wright Leggett Pease(1851–1903),
had adjusted to life as a widow, and the
death of her mother in 1900.
Gussie was one of nine children born to the
late Augustus Wright Leggett (1816–1885) and Elizabeth Seaman
Leggett (1815–1900). Many of her siblings lived in the Detroit
area so her days may have been full. If
sadness over
her only child living far from home
became overwhelming she could take a train to
Chicago.
It was during
such a visit over the 1903 Christmas
holidays that Percy arranged a special excursion for
the ladies, an afternoon matinee performance of Mr. Bluebeard at
Chicago's elegant new playhouse on Randolph Street,
the Iroquois
Theater.
It is not known whether the Pease family seats were
in the second or third floor balcony.
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Percy located the bodies of his wife and daughter
the night of the fire but the search for the body of
his mother lasted four days. Gussie's unrecognizable
remains were finally found at the Jordan funeral
home, identified by garment labels from Detroit
retailers, a return train ticket to Detroit and a
ring engraved with a "P."
Percival's cousin, Valentine
Ives (1870–1917), and his aunt Lizzie Leggett Barthel
(1849–1912) joined him in escorting the bodies via the Michigan Central rail line,
arriving in Detroit early in the morning on Sunday,
January 2, 1904.
Six of Gussie's siblings survived her and
many of them attended the funeral and burial at the Woodmere Cemetery.
The funerals were originally planned to take place
at the home of Gussie's youngest sister, Blanche
Leggett Whittemore, at 67 Garfield Ave. The
eleven-room brick structure had survived the
neighbor's chimney falling through the roof two
years earlier, was knocked over during a winter
storm two years earlier, barely missing the sleeping
Emma Whittmore, and was probably the largest in the
family with which to accommodate a large number of
visitors. Unfortunately,
a minor home fire the Saturday before the funeral
required a last-minute change of plans. The
funerals were held at the home of
another of Gussie's sisters, Lizzie Leggett Barthel,
on 196 Twenty-fourth Street.†
In the years after the fire
A year after the fire Percy remarried and for a time lived
in Spokane, Washington.
By 1911 he would be widowed and remarried a third
time.
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