The Iroquois Theatre Fire

A 28 May 2013 blog tells the story of Jacob Tapscott, a Wabash Valley Tapscott who was killed during a posse (vigilante?) action in Crawford County, Illinois. Jacob and Mary Ann (Lockard) Tapscott had four children before Jacob’s violent demise. Among these was Mary Lavina Tapscott, who married Leonard Hilton Brewster and had two children, Mary Julia and Violet G. After Mary Lavina’s death in Terre Haute, Indiana, at the very early age of 23, Leonard remarried and moved with his children to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he married a third time. He and his family then moved to Chicago. There, Mary Julia Brewster, who usually went by her middle name, “Julia,” became a teacher at James Wadsworth School.

The Iroquois. (University of Illinois Library.)

On 23 November 1903, Chicago celebrated the grand opening of the magnificent Iroquois Theater, a six-story building with a marble and mahogany interior claimed to be “the most beautiful” in Chicago. The theater opened with the musical comedy Mr. Bluebeard starring entertainer Eddie Foy, a show that ran five weeks, until its sudden end on 30 December 1903. On that fateful Wednesday a special holiday matinee performance, attracting primarily women and children, was held. Over seventeen hundred people filled the seats and at least two hundred more stood or sat in the aisles to laugh at Eddie Foy and enjoy the wondrous Iroquois. Among the spectators were James Wadsworth teachers Mary Julia Brewster and Pearl Mills, accompanied by Pearl’s husband, Ward, and his sister Isabella (http://www.iroquoistheater.com/mills-brewster-iroquois-theater-fire-victims.php).

At the beginning of the second act, during a dance number, an arc light ignited muslin curtains and the fire spread to the stage ceiling. In an heroic act with flaming debris falling around him, Eddie Foy, having rushed to the stage from his dressing room (first handing his son to an exiting stagehand), attempted to calm the audience, but the fire soon enveloped the backstage area. The “fireproof asbestos” curtain, which was neither fireproof nor asbestos but which might nevertheless have provided a barrier between the stage and the audience, failed to drop completely. When double doors at the rear of the building were opened for escape, a blast of incoming air fanned flames from the stage into the audience, igniting curtains, wooden seats, mahogany trimming, and people. The official death toll was 602; the actual death toll, probably higher. It was the deadliest single-building fire in U.S. history. Among those killed were Julia Brewster, Pearl Mills, and Isabella Mills. Ward Mills escaped.

After the fire. (Library of Congress.)

The record of the Vigo County’s Coroner’s Inquest, No. 28526, Case 269, for Mary Julia Brewster, states simply “Verdict Same as in Case 205 page 80.” Page 80 is strangely blank, but numerous contemporary newspaper articles about the catastrophe list Julia among the dead. Leonard H. Brewster, Julia’s father, appeared before the Coroner's Jury as a witness.

Investigations showed shoddy fire protection (despite handbills and advertising proclaiming the building to be "Absolutely Fireproof"), violation of fire codes, locked exits, barricaded hallways, inadequate firefighting equipment, and possible bribery of fire inspectors. Charges were brought against many, including Mayor Carter Harrison Jr., but between legal tactics and loopholes the only person convicted was a tavern keeper charged with robbing dead fire victims.

Following Julia’s death, Leonard Hilton Brewster returned to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he became secretary to Adda B. Fleming, a “Science Healer and Nerve Specialist.” Violet G., who had married just a little over two months prior to her sister’s death, moved with her husband to Nebraska and then Iowa, where she lived most of her remaining life. In 1912 sculptor Lorado Taft was commissioned to create a bronze plaque memorializing the Iroquois fire victims, a plaque which was briefly lost but today hangs near an entrance to the Chicago City Hall. In 1955 Bob Hope starred as Eddie Foy in the Seven Little Foys, a movie whose storyline includes the Iroquois Theater fire.