Claiming to have been born in Germany , Sarah was initially married to Tom Brown in Clinton , Iowa in 1868 . At some point , the couple moved to Chicago , but after the Great Fire , they decided to move to Philadelphia . A few years later , Brown was imprisoned in the Eastern State Penitentiary for highway robbery , and died serving his sentence . Sarah then had a child with a man named Thomas Storey , who kept an oyster saloon in the city , naming her Bertha . In March 1880 , she married John Whiteling , bringing along her then 9-month-old daughter with them . In 1886 , the couple had their own child , which they named William C. Whiteling , but nicknamed ' Willie '
Great Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Sarah Whiteling