Floy I. Olson
Floy Irene Love (b.1873) and Oscar Olson
married in 1895 and at the time of her death they had two
boys – Charles Olson (1898-) and Sidney F. Olson
(1901-1929. The family lived in Chicago until
early in 1900 when they moved to Minneapolis,
Minnesota. On December 30,1903 they were
visiting relatives in Chicago. After the
Iroquois Theater fire, though their father
remarried, Charles and Sidney were raised by their
maternal grandparents, George M. Love and Elizabeth "Libbie"
Amsden Love. Oscar
M. Olsen was a native of Norway who immigrated to
America in 1880 with his parents. Oscar worked
in the telegraph industry throughout his life,
beginning as an operator and eventually becoming a
Western Union branch manager in Minneapolis -- an
accomplishment for a man who left school after the
seventh grade. Floy was
born in Illinois. She had one sister, Lotta
Love. Floy's
funeral was held
on Sunday, January 3, 1904.
Some Minnesota newspapers reported
it was suspected that Oscar Olson was also lost in the
fire but I found no verification that he attended
the theater with Floy and Bessie. If present,
he survived to remarry three years after the fire. He and his second wife, Hilda,
had one child, a boy named James Olson (1922-)
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Bessie Stafford
Bessie M. Eastman Stafford (b.1874) was just twenty years
old when she married. Her
husband was a dentist, Dr.
Frank Harrison Stafford D.D.S. (1866-1916).
She was
one of four children born to Mary R. Eastman
(c.1850-1918) and the late Fred
L. Eastman Sr.
(1840-1901), a civil war veteran and railway freight
agent. Bessie's three
siblings
were William F. Eastman, Fred L. Eastman
Jr. and Gertrude L. Eastman.
Frank Stafford graduated
from the College of Dental surgery in 1892 and
married Bessie the following year. In 1895 he
invented a dental light. I found no evidence
that they started a family before Bessie's death.
He remarried in 1909.
Bessie’s body was found at
Jordan's funeral home. Her funeral was held on
Sunday, January 3, 1904.
Reverend
Frank G.
Smith
Smith came to
Chicago in 1903 from the First Congregational church
of Dubuque, Iowa. He was a member of the Illinois
state legislature in 1910 and around 1911 moved on
to become pastor of the First Congregational church
in Kansas City.
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