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William
"Will" Palmer was a traveling salesman who worked for the Benedict &
Burnham Brass & Copper Company division of American
Tube Works of Boston.▼2 He worked the territory
west of the Alleghenies. The Palmers lived
at 1141 Judson Avenue in Evanston, a Chicago suburb.
Prior to 1901 the family had lived on the corner of
Lafayette and Butler streets in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
William then worked for the S. F. Bowser Mfg. Company (oil storage
tanks) and the boys attended the Hanna elementary
school at the corner of Hanna and Wallace streets
(rebuilt in 1904 at East Williams and Lafayette).
Identification of bodies was difficult
Reverend John Boyd (pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church in Evanston 1895–1907)
organized friends, neighbors, and relatives of the Palmers and
set about finding their bodies. After a day of
searching, the group found William's and Richard's
bodies at Rolston's funeral home and Kate and
Howard's bodies at Jordan's. Katie's brothers, Frank and
William Maize, identified the four bodies. A
memorial service was held at the Presbyterian Church.
Howard Palmer's body had been damaged beyond recognition
but the family found a body of a child about Howard's age
and wearing a tie that looked like the one his mother
had given him for Christmas just days earlier.
Are you sure it's your nephew?
The bodies of the Palmer family were at the morgue
awaiting transport to Philadelphia▼3 for burial when
the Palmer's attorney, Joseph Whitfield, received a
letter from relatives of another family who perished
at the Iroquois Theater, the Hennings, inquiring if
there was any chance the Palmer's had the wrong boy's body.
Body thought to be Howard Palmer was instead Jimmy Hennings
After a long and fruitless search for eight-year-old
Jimmy Hennings body, his family had obtained a list
of victims Jimmy's age from the Chicago coroner's
office and sent letters to each family.
Upon receipt of such a letter the Whitfield law firm invited Edwin Henning, brother of
James Henning, to examine the body thought to be Howard
Palmer. The Henning family dentist, Dr. V. H. Fuqua,
positively identified the body as that of
James "Jimmy" Henning Jr who had died with his
three brothers at the Iroquois.
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The task of identifying the bodies of their four sons,
and seeing to their funeral arrangements and burial
had fallen on James Henning Sr. because his wife, the boy's mother,
remained in the hospital struggling for life.
Emily Henning died from smoke inhalation injuries on
February 8, 1904.
Private detective found Howard Palmer's body
The Whitfield law firm then hired a private detective
to find Howard Palmer's body and identification was made
by the family dentist. It was reported that
the Whitfield firm thought another body might have
been mistaken as Howard but the report omitted
details or names. There was another body
mix-up involving the
Greenwald and
Corbin boys but news stories about them did not
mention Howard Palmer or a third body. Nothing
was reported about where Whitfield finally located
Howard's body.
Burial Site a mystery
Newspapers reported that the Palmer family would be
buried in Wilkes-Barre, William's hometown, and in
Parson's, PA near Wilkes-Barre, and in Carlisle, PA, Katie's
hometown, but I've failed to find evidence in online
cemetery records of the family's burial anywhere in the
country. It would be great if a graveyard
sleuth could succeed where I failed. Below is what I
found in the way of biographic information that might
be helpful.
Bio bits
William Palmer was one of ten children born to Richard
Palmer (1830–1912) and Margaret Watkins Palmer
(1836–1921) of Parsons in Luzerne County, PA near Wilkes-barre, Pennsylvania.
He had five sisters: Martha, Sarah, Ida, Jane and
Sallie. Richard, Margaret, and three of their
daughters are buried in the Forty Fort Cemetery in Forty Fort, PA.
Richard Palmer's obituary mentioned the death of his
son and grandsons at the Iroquois.
Reportedly William Palmer's estate totaled $23,000 but
did not give details. Another story referenced a
$5,000 life insurance policy on Katie.
Katie Maize Palmer was one of four children born to William A. Maize
(1839–1874) and Caroline "Carrie" Gardner Maize
(1845–1933). In the late 1880s Carrie had been
a widowed school teacher in Carlisle, PA but she
retired in 1896, moved to Philadelphia to live with
her son Richard in 1897, and
by 1900 lived with William and Katie in Fort Wayne.
Based on frequent activity reports she sent to
newspapers, as a widow and career woman of over
two decades, Carrie was a force to be reckoned with,
I suspect. By 1903 Carrie was living with
William and Katie in Evanston but maintained a busy
traveling schedule to Philadelphia, Carlisle, PA,
Rochester, NY and Colorado Springs to visit
relatives.
William and Carrie Maize, and their
daughter Annie Gardner Maize, were buried in the
Charles Baber Cemetery in Pottsville, PA.
Katie's three siblings were Annie Gardner Maize,
Frank P. Maize, and William Lewis Maize jr.
After the death of her daughter and grandchildren
Carrie Maize lived with Annie in Rochester, NY where
Annie operated a gift shop.
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