Only the wife came home from the Iroquois Theater

Website with 682+ pages devoted to 1903 Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago

Contents
Audience stories	Performers: pg 1 pg 2
Fire in court	Stage workers
Life in 1903 pg 1 pg 2	Theater owners
Municipal response	Theater structure
Newspaper coverage

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Lumberyard owner William Beutel died at the Iroquois Theater

William and Emily took in an afternoon matinee of Mr. Bluebeard at Chicago's newest playhouse, the Iroquois Theater. It was December 30, 1903, two days before New Year. Emily returned home alone. The theater on Randolph St. that afternoon was host to America's worst theater disaster and William was among its six-hundred victims. If his son Roland took after his father, William was probably tall and light complected with blue eyes.

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.

Beutel tombstone in Concordia Cemetery

Photos by Caroline Mogavero

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.

History of 4 University of Chicago Iroquois Theater suvivors

May Blair
How telephones
raised a city

3 wagon loads of personal belongings

Other discussions you might find interesting

Story 2615

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.

Judy Cooke 2024 All rights reserved ©