Tricking the weatherman with a surprise trip to a couple cemeteries in Chicago worked again! The day turned out to be perfect for taking pictures, too. Bob and I headed for Montrose Cemetery where there were a couple relatives on my mom's side. On our way home we would stop by St. Boniface Cemetery where Bob's paternal great grandparents are buried.
We had no luck at St. Boniface. As we entered through the main gate, the sign alerted us the cemetery office was several miles north in Evanston. Evidently several Catholic cemeteries are serviced by one office. We will have to do our St. Boniface adventure another day because we would get up to the cemetery office before closed; we didn't have time to walk the cemetery either...it's too big.
MONTROSE CEMETERY FIND
Well, this post will have to be about our find in Montrose Cemetery located north of Bryn Mawr and Pulaski Roads on Chicago's north side. I knew who was buried there, I had a printout from a cousin of mine. So I wasn't surprised at all seeing the three flat headstones together. [I have put the images on Find A Grave.]
The cemetery office clerk was very nice and made copies of the gravesite information. It was interesting that the owner of the family plot was Edwin L. Buschick, but he is buried in Acacia Park Cemetery several miles west.
Photo taken by me. |
Photo taken by me. |
GREAT AUNT EMMA
The other single stone (on the left) is my great aunt Emma (Voigt) Volkman's. She was my grandmother Laura's sister.
Photo taken by me. |
Emma Voigt Volkmann, identified in family album by aunt Florence. |
I checked the Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 and found she was a "resident" of the state hospital. The information contained place, date of birth and death; parents were named along with her husband. The "comments" Length of residence in town where death occurred 15y 1m 18d. She was admitted in 1913.
The Kankakee State Hospital which is now the Samuel H. Shapiro Developmental Center. In 1877, it was the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane, but by the time Emma was admitted, it was the called Kankakee State Hospital. On the 1920 census, she was listed as a "patient," 60 years old, and married.
Yet in Florida, on the 1920 census in Fort Myers, District 0107 on 24-26 January William can be found with son Robert 28. William is listed as a Farmer/home garden -- and a widower. I guess Emma must not have been well enough to ever be released from the mental hospital.
William shows up again (unmarried) living with son Robert and daughter-in-law on the 1930 census, but not on the 1940. I found his listing on Find A Grave, buried in Fort Myers, Florida [Find A Grave Memorial #49508461]. According to the headstone, William died 28 August 1934.
William J. Volkmann, identified in family album by aunt Florence. |
This image can be found on Find A Grave website. |
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