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At the Iroquois Theater fire in 1903 Chicago, ten men working in the
Northwestern University building
behind the theater rescued about a dozen people
who would have died without their help. Painting contractors and other
office occupants muscled
ladders and wood planks out windows and across an alley known as Couch Place to create bridges.
They kneeled on the planks at the Northwestern end to pin them in position on
the window ledge while
audience members in the theater tried to hold the planks steady as
people crawled or walked across to safety.
As the fire inside the theater worsened, the workmen watched people
emerge from the theater onto fire escapes like links from a sausage machine,
pushed from behind by crazed people still inside the theater whose hair had
begun catching fire. Once on the fire escape landing, escapees had seconds
to consider their options. Start down the flight of stairs where were
already clogs of people whose way was blocked by flames erupting from other
exits, or swing and climb down the iron stairs from underneath, like a monkey
(which a few young people did), or jump — knowing that broken limbs were a
given, if they survived at all. The workers watching the horrifying scene saw
the bodies dropping — an estimated one hundred were pulled from the alley floor
afterward — and may have lived the rest of their lives with memories of
the screams.
The workmen had to improvise quickly. They first tried ladders and watched
people fall as the ladder tipped. They then tried planks and, realizing
that they would need to impose most of the plank's overall stability on their
end, kneeled heavily on the edge of the plank on the windowsill. The women
and children on the other end of the plank, surrounded by heat, smoke and nearby
flames, tried to keep the plank from sliding or tipping while, one at a time,
brave and desperate women
mounted the plank and began across. Only a quarter of successful plank
crossers survived; they had by that time already incurred lethal injury
from smoke inhalation and burns. For most, crossing the plank used the
last remaining strength. Some received first aid where they lay on the
floor in the university classroom, a few lasted long enough to be taken to a
hospital.
The workmen laid the dying on the floor
and covered them as best they could. In the crowd of hundreds of terrified
people desperate to escape, sometimes frantic to stand up after being knocked
down, people grabbed at the clothing of those walking over and around them.
When the crowd surged on, skirts and sleeves were torn away. When clothing
caught fire, women tore it off. In an era in which it was considered
highly improper for a women to show ankles in stockings, the sight of women in
their undergarments was shocking. When I began working on this project I
was struck by how many witnesses in interviews remarked upon fleeing, undressed victims.
So many that at first I
thought women must have fled the theater nearly naked to have made such an
impression. Eventually I realized that in 1903 their pantaloons,
petticoats, bustier, and corsets were almost as
noteworthy as nudity would have been.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plank rescuers in Couch Place
Though early newspaper stories reported three painters helping
with the plank rescue work, eventually ten men were cited as participants in
that effort, including six painting contractors and four men who worked in
rented offices in the university's building, including two engineers, a student,
and a bookkeeper. They were:
Charles H. Cubbon — head of the painting contracting
firm, testified at Coroner's inquest, and a majority of his
testimony was published in 1904 newspapers. His role in
the Iroquois disaster was forgotten until his 1916 obituary,
then forgotten again. (More below.)
Albert A. Cubbon and Walter Cubbon — two of
Charles' sons. Their presence at the disaster only
came to light in an Iowa newspaper when their sister,
Sarah Cubbon Lee, wrote about it in a letter to her husband
in Iowa. Albert and Walter were never mentioned in
Chicago newspaper coverage of the Iroquois Theater. (More
below.)
Morris Eckstorm — assistant engineer at Northwestern.
His only recognition came in a Cincinnati newspaper. (More below.)
George H. Elliot — clerk at an Ogden Gas office. (More
below.)
George Liebert — sometimes referred to as Joseph, was pictured in the
Chicago Tribune's December 31, 1903 stories about the Iroquois fire. His
involvement in the Iroquois disaster was mentioned once more in his lifetime
in an obscure 1918 reference. (More below.)
W. T. Matthews — worked for Cubbon, presumed to have been a
painter or paper hanger.
William L. Payne — a painter & paper hanger,
worked in Chicago as early as 1890.
Fred H. Rea — a student working in the dental lab or law department.
Testified at Coroner's inquest. May not have participated in plank rescue
work. (More below.)
Murrill Tierney — stationary engineer at Northwestern.
Newspapers did not mention him at the time of the fire; the only
way we know of his involvement is that it was mentioned in his 1906
obituary. (More below.)
Charles H. Cubbon & Sons Contracting
Because he testified at the Coroner's inquest and
owned the painting contracting company, Charles' name was most commonly mentioned in
newspaper stories about plank rescues but there were three Cubbons there that day,
Charles and his two sons.
Charles Henry Cubbon (1848–1916) and his two
sons, Albert S. Cubbon (1879–1914) and Walter
F. Cubbon (1875–1933)
were working a painting job in Booth Hall in Northwestern's law department.
Cubbon later sent an engraved portion of the plank
to the parents of
William McLaughlin, who died from burns incurred
while helping people climb onto one of the planks
stretched across Couch Place. Not sure that's a
souvenir I'd have welcomed as the boy's mother
but it was probably well intended.
Charles Cubbon and Sarah Stewart Cubbon (1845–1918)
had five boys and one daughter, who was thirty-one at
the time of the Iroquois Theater fire. She was
visiting her parents over the 1903 Christmas holidays and wrote
to her husband in Iowa to describe her father and
brother's experience at the Iroquois Theater.
Nothing much went right for the Cubbons after 1910.
Charles and Walter went bankrupt in 1911, and two of
the Cubbon sons died in 1914. Milton Cubbon, a
newspaper journalist, died of tuberculosis in March, and in
October, Albert Cubbon accidentally drank
poison.
Morris Eckstorm
Morris Eckstorm (1870–1906) worked as a fireman in
1900 but continued to work as a stationary engineer until
his death. A native of Sweden, he was married to Emma
Junneson and had one daughter, five-year-old Ella. He became
a naturalized citizen in 1899. He and Emmy had a son before
his death in 1906 when thrown beneath the wheels of a streetcar
at State and Randolph, less than a block from the Iroquois.
According to the only newspaper mention of his role at the
Iroquois disaster, he and his boss, M. J. Tierney, helped
catch jumping women. I think that means they helped
women climb off the plank into Northwestern. Catching even
a lightweight person dropping thirty or sixty feet from the
second- and third-floor balconies could have been injurious.
George Herbert Elliot
Forty-three-year-old George Elliot (1860–1916) worked as a clerk for Ogden Gas.
In another eight years, headlines in Chicago would have
much to say about George's employer but in 1903, he may have thought he was
on the fast track. In city directories he gave his occupation as bookkeeper, clerk, and
chief clerk, and in 1913 in Montana, he worked as an auditor for the gas
company.▼1 In 1905 George married Frances Lyons.
George Liebert▼2
Twelve-year-old George Liebert (1891–1940) was working
with Charles Cubbon's painting crew. Liebert went by his
middle name.
He was one of six children born to German immigrants, William, a
paint and carpentry contractor, and Minnie Lackley Liebert.
The family lived at 840 W. Madison. In his picture, he looks
like a middle-aged man, so I verified his age using multiple
records. There is a chance the newspaper matched up the wrong
photo to his name but I couldn't find another picture with which
to compare it. In later years George reported that his education
lasted until the eighth grade. That means he was on
Christmas holiday break in December 1903.
A single-paragraph story referenced a performance of some sort
on April 30, 1918, at the Billy Sunday tabernacle, referencing
Liebert helping victims cross the plank. He was a bailiff
then in the court of judge Newcomer. Nothing more was
published about his tabernacle performance.
George married the former Helen "Nellie" Jordan
(1890–1973), with whom he had three children.
In 1922, at age thirty-one, he fell three floors down an
elevator shaft and fractured his hip bone.
He worked as a shipping clerk at an ink manufacturing company,
as a court bailiff, and at the end of his life, a
postal clerk.
Fred H. Rea
Fred roomed at 3231 South Park Ave in Chicago. Some newspapers
reported he was a dental student on the second floor; others that he
was a law student. In records for years after the fire, I
failed to find either a dentist or an attorney that was a good match.
If he was a dental student on the 2nd floor, He might have only
been a witness, not a participant--a good thing. His viewing
range from Northwestern, and having the freedom to watch without worrying
that his hair was catching fire meant his description of the
fire escape situation offered a different perspective.
Murrill J. Tierney
Murrill J. Tierney
(1873–1906) sometimes went by his initials, M. J., sometimes by
Michael, and some data sources spelled Murrill as Morrell. In
1903 he lived in a one-room apartment 1403 W. 12th St. and was
married to Edna Bundy Tierney. They had one child.
In March 1906, Tierney died in an industrial accident at the Agar
Packing Company (or Western Packing & Provision) in the Union
Stockyards. His scaffold collapsed, and he died
from the fall.
Discrepancies and addendum
Reading Charles Cubbon's obituary, you might get the impression
he was hanging on the side of the building when the fire broke out.
According to his court testimony, he was working in Booth Hall when
the fire started. The ceilings were in the sixteen-foot-high range,
so he worked on a scaffolding plank that would have been stretched between ladders,
about four feet up (see accompanying catalog clipping).
Window sash painting on stone buildings in Chicago would not have
been scheduled for December.
1. In 1895 a powerful Chicago
political operative, Roger
C. Sullivan,
with help from mayor John P. Hopkins, finagled passage of an ordinance by the city
council that granted rights to sell gas and electricity to his
dummy corporation, Ogden Gas. Though never charged with criminal behavior,
many felt he'd used a loop hole to pad his bank account at the expense of citizens.
This 1905 description of Ogden Gas is as flattering as the other profiles in the book.
John Hogan's Chicago Shakedown: the Ogden Gas Scandal from 2018 sounds like a good read
and I've ordered a copy.
2. Spelled as Leibert in 1903 newspapers, with his
first name given as Joseph, but his name was George
M. Liebert. His middle name was sometimes cited as
Max, other times as Matt. He reported it as Max on
his World War I draft card.
Northwestern med students
accused of body snatching
William
L. McLaughlin saved others
Martin brothers 6 years
before the Iroquois fire
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 2970
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.
