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Some of the most horrific events at the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire disaster took
place on a
fire escape outside the third-floor balcony. People
were pushed through the exterior steel shutters at doors
#36 and #37 from the auditorium, only to discover even worse
danger outside. The shutter at Door #36 was wedged against the fire
escape railing. Under ordinary circumstances, a strong
heave could have opened it fully so that it lay back
against the exterior wall, clearing the stair passage.
Instead, people wedged against both sides of the door turned it
into a dam that prevented people from descending the stairs.
As flames flared out from lower exits, they had to decide whether to
burn to death or jump to their death sixty feet below.
Elizabeth Steinbeck and her friend Eunice Smith first exited door #36 and found their
passage blocked by flames. They managed to squeeze through the
pressing crowd to get back inside the auditorium and ran up the
northern-most aisle to door #37. Had they arrived a minute
sooner or later, they might not have survived but as the girls
reached the landing of the fire escape, they were presented with
a life-saving opportunity.
Workers in the Northwestern University building across the
alley were feeding a wood plank from their window to the fire
escape just as Eunice and Elizabeth reached the landing.
Painting contractors develop strong arms but wrestling with a
twenty-foot, seventy-pound wood board would be no mean feat.
The plank bobbed and swayed from side to side like a cobra as
the men tried to direct it to the railing on the fire escape.
A firm hand was needed at the opposite end of the plank to pull
it down to the railing and slide it a bit to find the most
secure position. A smaller-than-average teenage girl
probably wouldn't have been the workmen's first choice for the
job, but Eunice Smith (assuming she was the plank girl Cubbon
described in his inquest testimony), surprised them.
Within seconds the plank rested atop the railing and Eunice
crawled across to safety. Another woman was next in line;
when she hesitated, Eunice's companion Elizabeth pushed her
aside, climbed up onto
the plank and followed Eunice over and through the window at
Northwestern.
Learn more about planks and plank crossings.
A fireball soon hurled through the balcony, killing everyone inside and sending a
strong blast out the exits. Nearly fifty people who had
been stranded on the fire escape stairs and landing continued to
make their way across the plank, but most were badly burned and
did not survive long after reaching Northwestern. Eunice and
Elizabeth were among the ten or so who owed their lives to the
workmen and their planks.
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Eunice Mason Smith
(1890–1981)
Eunice had been born in Nebraska, but in the 1890s
her family relocated to Freeport, Illinois.
Freeport is about two hours northwest of Chicago.
She was the firstborn of three daughters born to
Owen T. Smith and Anna Daniels Smith and outlived
them all. Eunice was named after her paternal
grandmother.
Owen worked for the railroad and was
superintendent of the Freeport Water Works, owner of
an interurban car company, and active in Freeport
administration.
Eunice's Iroquois experience didn't dampen her
interest in the performance arts. As a high
school student, she was active in thespians and sang
soprano in the church choir. A good student,
she was also involved in the debate club, foreign
languages, and the school newspaper.
In 1908 Eunice began
college at Westminster in New Wilmington,
Pennsylvania, transferring to Mt. Holyoke in 1911.
She went on to become a high school teacher of Latin
and English in Elmhurst, Illinois. In 1917 she
married Frederick Bradley Lewis, of Connecticut and
the pair had three daughters. They lived
twenty years in LaPorte, Indiana. After Fred's
death, Eunice moved to Kalamazoo to be near one of
their daughters.
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Elizabeth Maud Steinbeck
(1889–1974)
Elizabeth was born in Iowa to Edward J. Steinbeck and Susan Clark Steinbeck. The
family moved to Illinois sometime after 1894.
She was their only surviving daughter. Her parents
lost two daughters and a son in early childhood. By
1908, only Elizabeth and her brother Clark remained.
The family lived in Freeport until moving to Chicago
around 1901.
In 1917 Elizabeth married surgeon Theodore E. Miller and they had two
daughters. They moved to Pasadena in the
1930s.
Edward Steinbeck was a native of Palestine who became a naturalized citizen
in 1878. During Elizabeth's childhood in
Freeport, he'd worked as a railroad roadmaster.
Eunice and Elizabeth Steinbeck remained friends for at least a few years after the
Iroquois Theater fire, exchanging visits 1907–1909.
Elizabeth seems to have
led the quiet life of a surgeon's wife, but her
oldest daughter, namesake Elizabeth L. Miller,
nicknamed Betty, was a bit of a firebrand. I
suspect that as she watched Betty grow up, Elizabeth
was reminded of the energy and pluckiness of her old
friend Eunice Smith.
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