25 November 1886 – 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 […]
17 July 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 […]
Eliza E. “Mother George” (Hamilton) George 20 Oct 1808 – 9 May 1865 Eliza was born in Bridport, Vermont and was the second wife of Woodbridge Cottle George, a man almost 20 years her senior. The couple started their lives together in New York where their three children were born (Eliza, Sterling, and Maria). Eliza […]
9 Nov 1835 – 17 Dec 1922 John H. Bass was born in Salem, Kentucky, and came to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1852. He first worked as a grocery clerk while he studied bookkeeping at night school, then worked for a railroad concern as an auditor. The next year, he joined his brother and some […]
John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman 26 September 1774 – 18 March 1845 Johnny Appleseed was a folk figure from the early days of the United States, famed for roaming the wilderness frontier that later became Ohio, Indiana and other parts of the Midwest and Canada, often shoeless, and usually carrying a bag of appleseeds he sowed […]
15 May 1895 – 26 September 1918 As his headstone says, Alex was killed in action in the Argonne Forest. Devastatingly, the headstone says, “in World War,” his parents who’d had this inscription made unaware that they would both live to see a second one. Don and Bessie married in 1881 in Odessa – the […]
31 October 1876 – 24 August 1898 I’ve seen Spanish-American War headstones before, but they were more traditional military-issue. There are at least 2 like this one at Calvary and both are for young men who died in Cuba. The epitaph inscribed on Eugene’s beautiful marker is “He gave his life for love of his […]
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 […]
9 June 1895 – 13 September 1918 Lt. Jones was shot down over France when his squadron (the 103rd led by Major William Thaw) was attacked by eight German chase planes. The combat was fierce, and Gene and his comrades shot down four enemy planes; Gene was the only allied casualty of that battle. Though […]
12 August 1925 – 8 January 1945 Private, 330 Infantry, 83rd Infantry Division World War II Charles (who I’m calling Charlie) was 2nd generation Illinois-born. His father Charles Sr. was the child of Czech and German immigrants; his mother Florence’s parents were Irish and German immigrants. Charlie seems to have been an only child, and […]