At 3:00pm on Sunday April 15, 2018, Glessner
House will host a special program commemorating the 106th
anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic.
Being held in partnership with Friends of Historic Second Church and the
Greater Chicago Chapter of the Victorian Society in America, the program will
take place at Second Presbyterian Church, where organist John Sherer will
perform music from 1912, music performed aboard the Titanic, and music written
to honor those who perished in the disaster.
Stories of some of the more than 1,500 victims will be shared, including
those with a connection to Chicago. Tours
of the National Historic Landmark sanctuary and a reception featuring dessert
items from the last dinner menu served to first-class passengers will begin at
2:00pm. Tickets are $25.00 and can be
purchased by clicking here.
RMS TITANIC
In the early hours of April 15, 1912,
the RMS Titanic, the pride of the White Star Line and the largest ship afloat
at the time, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg 2-1/2
hours earlier. Of the 2,224 passengers
and crew on board, more than 1,500 perished, making it one of the deadliest peacetime
maritime disasters in history. The RMS
Carpathia arrived about two hours after the ship went down, rescuing the survivors. The Titanic was hailed as one of the safest
ships ever built, but the severe shortage of lifeboats was the major factor in the
enormous loss of life. Significant
improvements in maritime safety resulted from the investigation which followed.
The disaster was featured in headlines around
the world. Early reports had incomplete
information on survivors, so many family members and friends had to wait days
to learn the fate of their loved ones.
The death toll increased as more information became available. The first headline in the Chicago Tribune from April 16 (shown
above) showed 866 survivors; the final count was just over 700.
In the weekly society column in the Chicago Tribune dated April 18, written
by “Madame X” (in reality Caroline Kirkland, a friend of Frances Glessner), she
began by noting why the disaster had had such an impact on the residents of the
city:
“In what smug, complacent security we
face each day – those of us who are wrapped and cradled in all the comforts and
safeguards of our twentieth century civilization! The Chinese may perish by the thousands of
starvation; we have plenty to eat. The
Italians and Turks may lose lives and property in their Tripolitan battles; we
are at peace. Aviators may dash headlong
from the skies to death and destruction; they do not fall on us. And nowhere do we feel more protected, more
secure, more capably cared for than at sea on board one of those monster
steamships which modern navigators, with insolent arrogance, pronounced
superior to any possible destructive force of nature. Then comes such a disaster as that of the
Titanic and the foundations of our faith in our imperturbable security totter.”
In the Glessner journal, by this time
being written by John Glessner, the following notation was made on April 23, “In
the terrible disaster a week ago Sunday to White Star steam Titanic, Lizzie
Isham was lost and Arthur Ryerson of our friends.”
ANN ELIZABETH ISHAM
Ann Isham was born in January
1862. Her father, Edward Swift Isham,
was a prominent Chicago attorney and was a partner with Robert Todd Lincoln in
the firm of Lincoln, Isham, and Beale. She
joined Second Presbyterian Church in 1883 and was an active member of Chicago society
for twenty years, being a member of both the Friday and Scribblers’ clubs. In 1903, she moved to Europe where she spent
most of her time living with her sister Frances (Mrs. Harry Shelton) in
Paris. On April 10, 1912, she boarded
the Titanic at Cherbourg, France, traveling to the United States to spend the
summer with her brother Edward “Ned” Isham in New York City.
Isham was one of 144 first-class women
aboard the Titanic and one of only four to perish. The fact that space on the lifeboats was
given first to women and children has led to speculation as to why Isham did
not survive. Although it has not been
proven, it is believed that she refused to leave her beloved Great Dane
behind. One account stated that she had
already boarded a lifeboat and when she was told she would have to leave her
pet behind, she jumped back on to the Titanic.
A female victim was observed to have her arms frozen around her dog in
the water following the sinking, but it is not known if the woman was Ann
Isham. Her body, if recovered, was never
identified. The family erected a
memorial to her in Manchester, Vermont, where they maintained their summer
estate, Ormsby Hill.
ARTHUR RYERSON
The story of Arthur Ryerson was a
double tragedy. Ryerson, who was 61 at
the time he went down with the Titanic, was born and raised in Chicago, the son
of Joseph T. Ryerson, founder of the iron and steel company of J. T. Ryerson
& Co. Arthur Ryerson had served for
many years as the president of St. Luke’s Hospital. The Ryersons left Chicago about 1905 on
account of Arthur’s health, residing in a country home at Otsego Lake in New
York. They maintained close ties to Chicago,
visiting frequently.
In the spring of 1912, Arthur Ryerson,
his wife Emily, and three of their children traveled to Europe and by early April
had taken a house at Versailles for two months.
No sooner had the family settled in then they received word that Arthur
Ryerson, Jr. had been killed in an auto accident in Philadelphia. The Ryerson’s son was just 20 years old and a
student at Yale. Anxious to return to
the United States as soon as possible, they made arrangements for passage on
the first American bound liner leaving France – the Titanic – which was set to
sail from Cherbourg on April 10.
As Madame X noted in her column:
“Now we have learned that Mr. Arthur
Ryerson was one of that never to be forgotten band of brave men whose lives
were sacrificed to secure those of the women and children. The position of those among the small group of
men who were saved is not an enviable one . . .”
NOTE:
Ryerson’s wife and children survived and soon moved back to
Chicago. Emily Ryerson, who was
described as having a “resilient character,” purchased property on North Lakeview
Avenue and constructed one of a series of four elegant Georgian townhouses
designed by David Adler and Henry Dangler.
She moved into her home at 2700 N. Lakeview Avenue in early 1917, soon
after converting the large elegant rooms to a convalescent home for Children’s
Memorial Hospital during World War I. In
1927 she married Forsythe Sherfesse; she died in 1939. The grouping of row houses, of which hers
served as the southern anchor, was designated a Chicago landmark - the Lakeview
Avenue Row House District – in 2016.
