Josephine Pilat

Josephine's mother Mary, sister Helen/Gertrude and cousin Cecelia Kwapil survived the fire.

Josephine Pilat lived at 1633-34 Humboldt Blvd. in Chicago (renamed Logan Blvd., in Logan's Square). She went to the theater with her mother, Mary Pilat, younger sister, Gertrude H. Pilat, and a distant cousin visiting from Wisconsin, Cecelia Kwapil.  The matinee at the Iroquois was a girls' trip. Left at home were Josephine and Gertrude's older brothers, Robert and George, and Mary's parents who lived with the family. The party of four was seated in the third-floor gallery, six rows from the front.

Mary Pilat and one of her little daughters [Helen] escaped by crawling across a plank bridge to the Northwestern university building, but another daughter [Josephine] perished in the fire.

Josephine's funeral was held the morning of Sunday, January 3, 1904, and burial was in the Pilat family plot at the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. Her name was not added to the grave marker.