Married in 1891, the Beutels lived at 829 or 833
Englewood Avenue in Chicago. They were
William (Wilhelm) Charles Beutel (b. 1869) and Emily
Treder Beutel (1873–1933) parents of eight-year-old
Lillian M. Beutel (1895–1940) and five-year-old
Roland L. Beutel (1898–1948).
William Karl Friedrich Beutel was a co-founder in 1900 with Sietz J. DeVries in
a lumber store, S.J. Devries & Co., at
842-945 W. 47th St. As a German immigrant,
having come to America with his parents as a
youngster, business ownership was an accomplishment.
William's funeral was held at 1:00 pm on Sunday,
January 3, 1904 at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church
on Englewood Avenue and he was buried in Concordia
Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.
In the years after the fire
Emily remarried four years after the fire to an
insurance and steel
broker named Edward T. Conners, then again in 1914 to dentist Frank F. Bomer.
At death she was buried next to William in Concordia
Cemetery.
A $10,000 wrongful death suit was brought against Iroquois owners
on behalf of Emily and the children.
Like the other wrongful-death suits brought by
Iroquois victims, the Beutel suit was nullified
November 12, 1906 when the Iroquois Theater company
was bankrupted by debts to its secured creditors.
Sietz deVries bought out William's interests in the
lumber company.
Son Roland Beutel became an accountant with the
telephone company and married Mildred Schrock.
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Photos by Caroline Mogavero
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Discrepancies and addendum
Early newspaper reports only listed a Mrs. E. Beutel
among the Iroquois Theater fatalities or injured. Later lists
only included William. The Chicago
coroners inquest misspelled his name as Bentel and
Emily's maiden name as Traeder instead of Treder. Other
research verifies that Emily survived and William did
not but since Emily's name appeared on a list of injured,
she presumably attended the theater with her husband,
escaped and survived her injuries.
Given the ages of their children, I wonder if were at the Iroquois too and escaped. If so, it was not
reported in newspapers.
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