Lena Moore Hanson

From The Inter Ocean:

Mrs. W. S. Hanson of Hart, Mich., the only one of the nine who escaped death, and one of the few who made their way from the second balcony, where most of the people perished, told of her experiences last evening. According to her statements there was but one small exit from the second balcony, where the people were penned in like so many sheep. "We had seats together in the last row of the top balcony,” said Mrs. Hanson. "The tier of seats was beyond the third aisle as we entered the balcony, and I believe we were in the tier of seats farthest from the entrance. I was sitting in the center of the nine who formed our party, with four children on either side of me.

“When I saw flames shooting from the scenery and saw a woman faint on the stage, I arose and started out. I do not live in Chicago and became frightened at the sight of the fire.

“'Don't go out, everything will be all right.' said those who were with me. You may be caught in a crowd and crushed.

"I was too frightened to stop and walked past the others to the aisle and started for an exit. I walked around the rear of the balcony, and when I reached the entrance side of the house, looked for an exit, but could find none open. I walked down the stairs to the foot of the balcony and out of a small exit - the only one along the wall I found open. It was one with a swinging door attached, half in wooden panels and half in glass, and swung on hinges. As I passed out, I glanced back into the theater.

"Until then most of the people in the second balcony had kept their seats. I walked down the stairway to the first balcony and did not realize that there was a stampede until I reached it.  I seized hold of a railing leading down the stairs from the first balcony and. by clinging to it all the way down stairs, kept the maddened crowd from trampling on me. In the entrance on the first floor I could see the people swarming and vainly trying to make their way from the theater. Every second the crowd became thicker.

"At the foot of the stairway I clung more tightly to the railing, and had hard work In preventing the crowd from forcing me away from It. The man ahead of me said. 'Follow me.' Ho started along the aide wall of the entrance and I followed him. Near the ticket office he kicked out the glass in one of the doors.

" 'Jump through there, said the man I had followed, pointing to the hole he had made In the door. I obeyed and crawled through It, a mass of broken glass falling about me as I made my way through the hole."

Mrs. Hanson may prove a valuable witness at the inquest, as she states positively that she could find but one small exit leading from the second balcony open. 

Lena Moore had married a widower with two sons, Winfield Scott Hanson  on 5 June 1895 in Hart, Michigan.  After Winfield died, she remarried Henry P Boice/Boyce on 16 April 1945 in Hart, Michigan.