12 May 1887 — 18 June 1903
While working my way through this section, I came across this beautiful marker honoring a young man. His is the only name on the marker, though I believe his mother is buried with him (will need to check with the office on that at some point). Sadly as is often the case when the survivors are women and children, I was not able to find much about him and only a bit more about his mother, but those bits of information do paint a picture of resilience in the face of loss.
Frank was the only child of William John and Margaret (sometimes Marguerite) Ellen (Hobbs) English. His parents had both come to Chicago from afar — William from Oswego, New York with his family in the 1870s; Margaret from a tiny town in Quebec that is now called Shawville but had not yet been named at the time of her and her siblings’ births. William sadly died just six months after Frank’s birth, and Margaret never remarried.
Per Wikipedia, the town of Shawville was created by a split from nearby Clarendon and named for the leader of that split, James Shaw, an Irish Protestant immigrant. It seems likely that the upheaval may have led to at least some of the Hobbs children striking out on for new territory. Three Hobbs sisters — Margaret, Rebecca, and Ellen — are all buried at Concordia, but all of their husbands are buried in separate cemeteries, William and one of his brothers-in-law in Catholic cemeteries and the other brother-in-law at Forest Home. As Shawville appears to have been created at least partly from a religious schism, the three sisters — who seem to have been comfortable with mixed-faith marriages — may have left for that very reason. All speculation, but it is notable to me that these life choices were consistent amongst the sisters.
William’s father had immigrated from Ireland; his mother from Scotland. The family was large and Catholic, and he is buried at Calvary where his parents are also buried. The couple met in Illinois and married on 24 June 1884 in Kane County. On the 1880 census, William was listed as a mechanic; on his death record, a shipping clerk.
Margaret is listed on the 1910 census still taking in boarders. The marker she had set for her son is large and that level of engraving would have been costly, so it seems she was doing well enough financially to manage such a memorial. In 1910 and on the 1900 census as well, there were a several boarders to the point it seems more like she ran a boarding house than that she was letting out a couple of spare rooms.
I was not able to find her past 1920 until her death record, but Ellen and Rebecca — together, they were the three youngest Hobbs siblings — also lived in Chicago so one hopes she had their support in her life. Rebecca was also widowed relatively early, surviving her husband by 38 years (d 1946). Ellen and her husband died a month apart in 1936. Margaret herself died in 1942. I could find no obituary and, again, there is no inscription on Frank’s marker for her, but perhaps I’ll come across the Hobbs sisters resting all together in my wanderings.
I’d like that.
May 12, 1897
We miss thee from thy home, Dear. We miss thee from thy place.
A shadow o’er our life is cast. We miss the sunshine of thy face.
We miss thy kind and willing hand, thy fond and earnest care.
Our home is dark without thee. We miss thee everywhere.
Our darling boy, FRANCIS ARTHUR ENGLISH
Passed away June 18, 1903.
This seems to have been a traditional inscription somewhat modified for Frank’s marker rather than an original verse composed just for him (at least a handful of other findagrave.com records also transcribe it), but I was not able (in an admittedly cursory search) to locate the source.