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 […]
23 January 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 […]
1 January 1910 – 25 April 1930 This beautiful memorial follows the naturalistic tree stump style but with some unique flourishes. The bench is adorned with acorns, the symbolism nearly shouting about youth and promise of the young woman whose headstone this is, and Philomena’s story is especially tragic. The oldest of five surviving children […]
July 22, 1804, Paris, France — December 26, 1893, Houilles Schœlcher was the the son of a porcelain manufacturer (Marc Schœlcher, also listed on this headstone) whose political and social awakening took place while on a trip for the family business which took him throughout North America. It was on this trip that he first […]
Robert H. Piratzky 27 May 1835 (Prussia) – 19 September 1912 Agnes Frinier Piratzky 29 June 1841 (Quebec) – 19 February 1925 Mary Ann Frinier Bouchard 5 July 1836 (Quebec) – 4 March 1913 Robert Piratzky was a successful photographer, lithographer, and engraver who immigrated from Prussia in July 1857. He met Agnes Frinier sometime […]
William (Wilhelm) A. Rossow, Sr. 7 April 1876 – 24 July 1915 Mamie Groth Rossow 7 September 1879 – 24 July 1915 Ruth Rossow 20 June 1901 – 24 July 1915 William (Wilhelm) Rossow, Jr. 15 April 1909 – 24 July 1915 The Eastland, one of five chartered excursion boats meant to ferry employees, their […]
Rudolph John Adolph Riep 6 March 1882 – 21 May 1916 (aged 34) Rudolph was born in Chicago to German immigrant parents and was one of only four siblings of ten to survive childhood. His father worked at a lumber yard in the early years after arriving in the US, but eventually he became a […]
12 September 1899 – 24 July 1915 This is the first in what will be an ongoing series of posts documenting the graves of Eastland Disaster victims in Chicago area cemeteries. Ella was a fifteen-year-old telephone inspector working for the Western Electric Company when she was killed in the Eastland Disaster. She’d been employed for […]
15 July 1891 – 25 October 1918 Louis Katzel was the second oldest and oldest surviving child of Franz and Berta (Wendt) Katzel, German immigrants who both arrived in 1881 but who did not marry each other until 1888. Louis grew up as a comfortable, middle-class American boy in Oak Park. His father worked as […]