Catherine Sayles Moore

Letter from Mary Adams to Effie Adams, Oshtemo, 11 Jan 1904:

"Dear Effie,

Just received your letter and will ans right now - if I don't you know how things will turn up. I am grieved to tell you the news of Kittie's death is true, they wired us from Hart just as soon as they found her body - she was the last of the eight to be found and that was Jan 1 at 9:00 p.m. I went up there as your Uncle Nate wasn't well enough to and I felt that some of Phebe's people should go and I was so glad I went as it seemed to do her so much good. She was not able to attend the services as she had been quite sick, they buried the eight at 10 in a terrible snow storm, oh it was so cold and the snow so deep but the services were very short at the cemetery, in the afternoon memorial services at the church there were three buried in one grave and two in two others, one alone, it was very hard, they seemed to think they were suffocated before they burned as some of them were terribly burned. Mr. Moore was beyond all recognition, the only thing or way they had of identifying him was by [his] overshoes and slippers, his feet were so sore that he couldn't wear his shoes so that he wore his carpet slippers with his overshoes, and there was nothing left of him but one foot and the skeleton, he was so drawn up they couldn't put him in a casket and some of the others were nearly as bad. The children and Kittie were not burned very much but blackened, none of us could see them of course as they were put in zinc lined boxes and sealed, the boxes were very nice, were made of black ash and nicely finished with moulding and nice handles. We rec the telegram Sat morning and Ted took me to Kal where I took the GR train at 2 reaching Hart at 10 p.m. the bodies did not get there till 2:00 Sunday morning . . . . (signed) Aunt Mary"

[Extract from the 80th Adams-McKain Reunion News, Vol. 1, No. 8, Sturgeon Bay, WI, 1 Jul 2000. www.adams-mckain.com/Newsletters/Vol_1No8_2000.pdf, from Jill McMullen]

FOUR GENERATIONS PERISH IN CHICAGO IROQUOIS THEATER FIRE 30 December 1903

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin (Kittie Sayles) Moore were two of the eight relatives who died in the fire. Kittie's mother was Phebe H. Kinney, who married Harvey S. Sayles. The Sayles were prominent early settlers in Oceana County, MI, with Kittie the first white child born in a township of Oceana Co. Although Kittie may have had other siblings, only the Honorable W.N. Sayles of Grand Rapids, MI, and N.G. Sayles, a merchant of Scottsville, are mentioned in the Hart Journal News articles of 8 Jan 1904 and 9 Jan 1904:

"The Iroquois Theater was patterned after the Opera Comique in Paris, France, which also burned 25 May 1887. The Iroquois Theater opened in November 1903 for the first performance 32 years after the great Chicago fire of 10 August 1871, which burned for 31 hours and destroyed 17,450 buildings, cost $200 million, and killed 250 people - in contrast to the Iroquois Theater fire which killed 602 people and left a host of other people injured. The damage to the theater was insignificant but it includes the props, gutted backstage, and scorched upolstery on seats.

The majestic Iroquois Theater was marble, mahogany, glass, and gilt, with the advertised claim that the theater was fireproof; however, much of the equipment had not been installed, the interior was filled with combustible material including wooden seats stuffed with hemp and covered with plush velveteen. The performance of "Mr. Bluebird," staring Eddie Foy (Edward Fitzgarald), required 280 backdrops of oil-painted canvas, gauze-draped lattice work, and floodlights. The fire started just before the second act when a floodlight ignited the drapery about 15 feet above and to the rear of the stage. Although the performers tried to do something, it was ineffectual because no one cut down the burning scenery. The fire door only came down part way and a draft from an open backstage door sent a huge fireball under the curtain, over the orchestra, and out to the audience. Although there were 30 exits, many were unmarked, locked or frozen shut. One group got to an outside balcony only to find there was no way to get off the balcony, until painters in the next building laid planks across, making a bridge, thus saving 12 lives. Although the fire fighters came in 10 minutes of the first alarm and had the fire out in 15 minutes, the fire is known as the worst fire in American history.

Most of the people who died were in the first and second balcony where all the 900 seats were full and people were standing in the aisles.  The "high society" audience was mainly of parents and children on a Holiday Theater party. Although there were 9 in the Moore party, only Lena (Moore) Hanson escaped death. B.D. McCurdy in his book, "The Great Chicago Fire 1904," on page 197 records Lena's description of her experiences: " I cannot tell how I got out of the theater. I remember starting for one of the aisles when the panic was at its height. I was separated from my friends. We had a row of seats in the second balcony. Suddenly someone seized me and I was tossed and dragged along the aisle and I lost consciousness.  When I came to my senses I was in a store across the street.  Every one of my companions had perished. We were all related by marriage."

The eight in the Moore party that died are: Roland McKay, age 6, his grandparents Joe & Nell (Moore) Bezenek, Lucille Bond, age 10, her grandfather Benjamin & Kittie (Sayles) Moore, Sybil, age 13, and her mother Mate Moore.  There were 36 states, 86 cities/towns involved in the 602 deaths. The identification of victims was a monumental task and sme of the Moore relatives from Hart traveled to Chicago to claim the bodies.

It took 75 hours of searching from morgue to morgue and it wasn't until 1 January 1904 at 8 p.m. that the last body of Kittie Moore was identified. The weary party finally returned to Hart on 3 Jan 1904 at 4:30 a.m. on a special train carrying the 8 coffins, which were tranferred to Joslin's Undertaking Rooms, where they were placed in a circle with Roland in the middle. The 8 were buried at the Hart cemetery at 10 a.m. and a memorial service for them was at 2 p.m. on 5 Jan 1905 at the Congregatinal Church in Hart with Rev. Frederick Bagnall officiating. The song "Lead Kindly Light" was sung at the memorial service -- a song sun at most of the funerals of all the victims.

Will J. Davis, president and general manager [of the theater], was charged with manslaughter and many witnesses gave testimony about the events. The major of Chicago, Carter Harrington, was also held responsible as well as others who functioned in an official capacity. Theaters worldwide were affected by the fire and the Iroquois fire led to the adoption of the first national fire codes for public buildings "lest we forget."