1802 in Ireland – 17 July 1881 in Chicago Bridget Clark immigrated to the US from Ireland in 1865 with her young adult children: Patrick J., James, and Mary. Due to everyone’s ages and the lack of an inscription for a father Clark, I believe that he likely died prior to 1865. The 4 were […]
10 June 1882 – 26 July 1903 Ida was the oldest of three surviving children of Magnus and Minnie (Barneko) Oesterreich. On the 1900 census, she was living at home with her parents and younger siblings, sister Alma and brother William. She was working as a drygoods saleslady. In September of 1902, she married Albert […]
Four generations (and possibly five) of Illinois natives are entombed here. The mausoleum was first erected for matriarch Barbara Cure Espert who died in 1907, many years before her husband. Originally buried at Elmwood Cemetery, she was moved to this mausoleum a year after her death. It would be another 24 years before her husband […]
Joseph “Josie” Lyon 1882 – 4 December 1891 Josie was the youngest child of George and Catherine (Katie) Murphy Lyon. George had emigrated from Ireland at the age of fifteen, all by himself. He married the 10-years-younger Katie in 1877, 15 years after his arrival. On the 1880 census, his occupation was saloon keeper, so […]
Designed by Louis P. Sullivan, this is possibly my favorite of the traditional mausoleums I saw at Graceland. It is massive and black and sits back between two trees, glowering out at passersby. It is extraordinarily goth, and I love it. Martin Ryerson Sr was born in 1818 in New Jersey and came to Michigan […]
Charles Enke, Sr. 5 May 1827 – 25 October 1898 Emma Enke 28 October 1863 – 16 November 1880 Charles and his wife Henriette (Zellmer) Enke were born in Saxony in Germany. At some point prior to 1860, they immigrated to the US and spent some time in Wisconsin. It’s unclear if they married in […]
Thomas Rice and Harriet Wade (Rice) Lyon Thomas (1854 – 1909) was from Ohio and Harriet (1856 – 1936) from New York, but they met and married in Michigan. Thomas — who it seems may have come from family money (and at least his family seems to have been very well established, dating back to […]
Potter Palmer 20 May 1826 – 4 May 1902 Bertha Honoré Palmer 22 May 1849 – 5 May 1918 There are quite good biographies of both Potter and Bertha on their @findagrave pages and both have Wikipedia entries as well (Potter Palmer – Wikipedia | Bertha Palmer – Wikipedia), so I’ll just do a highlight […]
7 March 1930 – 2 September 1937 Ruth was the oldest daughter of Henry (1898 – 1981) and Sadie (1904 – 1992) Wolfe Greenberg. She was born on the west side of Chicago, and sadly, she died there just seven and a half years later. She had an older brother named Leonard who died in […]
Helena Pittelkow 5 September 1893 — 24 July 1915 Meta Zopke 25 April 1892 — 24 July 1915 Hedwig “Hattie” Zopke 5 April 1895 — 24 July 1915 Meta and Hedwig were sisters, and Helena was the little sister of their older brother William’s wife Minnie. All boarded the Eastland bound for the Western Electric […]