Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman 26 January 1892 (Atlanta, Texas) – 30 April 1926 (Jacksonville, Florida) Also known as “Queen Bess” Today is the 95th anniversary of Bessie Coleman’s death. Coleman was a trailblazing aviator who was the first Black woman and first Native-American to hold a pilot’s license and the first Black person and first Native-American […]
8 June 1888 – 2 March 1904 Henriette was the middle child and third daughter of German immigrants Joseph and Henriette Doehring Stolz. All the children were born in Champaign, Illinois, where their father was a farmer, but at some point after 1890 when youngest Edmond was born, they moved to Chicago. In 1900, Joseph […]
20 September 1895 (Grace, Mississippi) – 24 January 1957 (Chicago) Wagoner in Company “B” of the 329th Labor Battalion which shipped out from Hoboken, NJ on 26 August 1918, Robert W. Kelsey, Company Commander Willie was one of the younger of seven children (of fourteen born) of John F. and Carrie Richards. The Richards had a […]
Clara Anna Maria Rohn Western Electric employee 2 April 1897 – 24 July 1915 Lydia Anna Ida Rohn worked at a tailor shop 24 December 1898 – 24 July 1915 The Eastland, one of five chartered excursion boats meant to ferry employees, their families and friends from Chicago over to the Michigan City shore for […]
Laure de Girardin de Montgérald, the Comtesse de la Touche Widow of General Arthur Dillon 1700s – early 1800s Élisabeth Françoise “Fanny” Dillon, their daughter and wife of General Henri Gatien Bertrand (a close ally of Napoleon) 1780s – 1800s Going to be honest, I took these pictures for the cat, but she is sitting […]
30 August 1895 — 24 July 1915 The Eastland, one of five chartered excursion boats meant to ferry employees, their families and friends from Chicago over to the Michigan City shore for the annual Western Electric Company picnic, keeled over into the Chicago River while still at dock, trapping hundreds inside its hull and leading […]
1 September 1874 – 13 August 1896 Because of when she was born and died, finding information on Emma is difficult, but we can find a bit more about her parents with whom she shares the headstone. Christian (1 May 1843 – 18 August 1914) and Wilhelmine “Mina” Reppin Schultz (5 February 1840 – 29 […]
15 November 1889 – 6 January 1944 Otto was the second youngest and youngest son of Herman and Augusta Sieloff Bornzin, German immigrants who came to the US after their older children were born. Otto and his nearest-older brother and younger sister, however, were born in Chicago. In 1910, Otto was still living at home […]
Steve John, “King of the Gypsies*” 1861 (Serbia) – 26 February 1926 (Detroit) I really expected to learn nothing about this mausoleum, all bricked up and with such a simple name, but a clue in the form of a note on the findagrave.com record pointing out the cross on top of the mausoleum read “King […]
This one is a bit of a puzzler. On one side of this family monument, Minnie Krause Jacobi Zink’s name and dates are inscribed (7 September 1883 – 20 March 1911)* and on the reverse are her younger siblings Olga (23 October 1888 – 18 April 1910) and Harry (31 October 1886 – 6 October […]