Elna Frandsen

Elna "Eleanor" Frandsen (b. 1880) worked as a domestic servant for the Charles G. Bolte family in Winnetka, New Trier Township, Illinois, about sixteen miles north of Chicago.  She attended the theater with her employer's family, including their thirteen-year-old daughter, Linda Bolte, who also perished.  Elna's body was discovered at Postlewait's Undertaking and identified by George Rasmussen.  Elna was buried in the Atlantic Cemetery in Elk Horn, Iowa, near her other family members.  Several fraternal organizations and other groups raised money to assist families with burial expenses.  The Illinois Club covered transportation of Elna's body to Iowa and raised $250 to help with burial expenses.  Her employer donated $20 and George Rasmussen donated $10.

Elna arrived in the US from Denmark in 1895.  Her father Jens Frandsen had died in 1893, and her mother, Christine Hansen Frandsen, brought her five children with her to the US.  In 1900, Elna was a domestic servant in the household of Joseph Eisendrath in New Trier Township.  Elna's brother James had worked for the Bolte's as a gardener according to the 1900 US Census, so Elna probably got her position through his referral.  It appears that Elna had returned from a visit to Denmark in October 1903, so hadn't been working for the Bolte's for very long before the fire.