John J. and Mary Louise (Jewett) Mitchell John (1853 – 1927) was born in Alton, IL, and came to Chicago with his family as a young adult. He started his career as a bank messenger at Illinois Trust and Savings when he was 20 years old, but just six years later in a scene out […]
Patriarch Jacob Birk immigrated to the US from then-Prussia around 1853. He met and married Magdalena Welflin (from Alsace-Lorraine; then Germany, now France) in 1859, and together they had 12 children, 8 surviving childhood. Jacob did well in business and on the 1880 census is listed as the proprietor of a boarding house (per other […]
1833 – January 28, 1868 Kate Warne’s early years are a mystery beyond the facts that she was born in Erin, New York, and was widowed by the time she was 23. It was unclear to me if Warne was her married or maiden name, but she used variations on this name throughout her career […]
4 October 1896 – 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 […]
Inez Clarke/Briggs 20 September 1873 – 1 August 1880 The story of this gravesite is pretty fascinating, and deep-dive research has already been done on it by Chicago historians and genealogists. Someone has helpfully appended the entire write-up to Inez’s findagrave.com record, and I recommend it as a very good and interesting read. In summary, […]
Benjamin “Bennie” A. Haertel, Jr. 15 June 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 […]
4 May 1890 – 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 […]
7 July 1897 – 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 […]
Amelia Louise Albertina Hering Farrell 16 December 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 […]
30 April 1896 – 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 […]