1871 – 19 December 1898
Edward married Minnie E. Cronin in 1895, and together they had 2 sons: Edward Jr in 1897 who died in infancy and John Raymond, born 1898.
Edward Sr. was a Chicago fireman with hook and ladder 11. At the age of only 27 years old, he was badly injured along with many of his comrades while fighting what must have been an extraordinarily dangerous fire at the Palace Livery Stable at 32nd St and Cottage Grove on December 15th. Edward was one of 4 fatalities, along with his lieutenant, and the last of them to die from his injuries.
At that time it was common for even horribly injured people to be taken to their homes for care which is almost impossible to imagine now, but I expect this was the case for Edward Sr. His wife Minnie — only 22 years old and with a 3-month-old baby — would have been tasked also with the care of her dying young husband. I hope they had many friends and family supporting them.
In 1900, Minnie and baby John were living with her widowed father (though he is identified as John Cremieux, I am fairly sure it was actually Minnie’s father due to other details given on the census), and at some point before 1912, she remarried to a man 14 years her senior named Henry Michael Ward.
Henry was also a widower, and in 1912, they had a son named Emmett Joseph. I couldn’t find them on the 1910 or 1920 census, but in 1930, the three of them were living together still in Chicago.
John signed up to fight in WWI and though the records are unclear as to if he saw any combat, he passed away at just 20 years old in Ohio while still enlisted.
Minnie died in 1947 and was buried with Edward and her sons at Calvary; when Henry died at the great old age of 95, he was interred with his first wife at Mount Carmel.
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