THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

                 This is the house that my Grandmother Theresa Nebgen grew up in Chicago.  It is located on North Oakley. At the time of her birth in 1899, her parents Peter Joseph Nebgen and Theresa Homrich Nebgen and her siblings were living in a house on Noble Avenue in Chicago.  Some time before 1910, they moved 8 miles north to this house on North Oakley.  Theresa lived here with her parents until she moved in with her husband Charles Sherlock, probably about 1921.
             Theresa and Charles eloped when Theresa was 18 years old and Charles was 17 but then their parents made them live at their separate houses for a few more years.  In the 1920 census, Theresa is living with Peter and Theresa Nebgen while Theresa's husband Charles is living with his mother Bridget and his stepfather Joseph Gary and little brother Joseph Gary.  Peter and Theresa Nebgen (Theresa's parents) lived in this house until their deaths.

MORE OF BRIDGET CHAMBERS' SIBLINGS

         

          As I discussed in my last post, my great grandmother Bridget Elizabeth Chambers was born in Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland.  She was the youngest of 9 children.

          Her older sister Ann Chambers was born in 1864 in Islandeady and married Hugh Feehan.  Ann and Hugh lived in Rossow, County Mayo. Rossow is west of Islandeady and very close to the coast. The Feehans had 8 children: Maria, Bridget, Thomas, Jack, Patrick, Nora, Hugh and Elly. Ann and Hugh lived in Ireland their entire lives and their grandson Hugh now lives in the old family home in Rossow.  However, Ann and Hugh did manage to help some of their children and some of James Chamber’s children immigrate to Chicago. 

          Another sister Barbara was born in 1866 but died as a baby in 1867.  A year after Barbara’s death, James Chambers was born in 1868 in Islandeady.  James married Mary Malley and they had 3 children: Thomas, Maria and Kate.  Bridget’s (and James’) mother Ann Kilroy Chambers lived with James and Mary after the death of her husband Thomas Chambers in 1889.  James and Mary, though, died in the early 1900’s.  Ann Kilroy Chambers then immigrated to the US to live with her daughter Bridget in 1905. 

          Bridget’s younger sister Nora was born in 1873 and married Patrick Murray in Ireland.  Nora and Patrick immigrated to Chicago in 1906 and had a son named Thomas. As a child, I remember Tommy Murray visiting my Grandpa Charlie (who was his cousin).  Tommy wore white pants to church and my Dad and Grandpa used to tease him that he was the “ice cream man”.  Once I started researching Tommy, I found out that he was a driver for a laundry.  No wonder he had a lot of very clean white pants!

BRIDGET ELIZABETH CHAMBERS AND HER SIBLINGS

           Grandpa Charlie’s mother was Bridget Elizabeth Chambers. She was born on 3 Oct 1870 in Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland to Anne Kilroy and Thomas Chambers.  Bridget was the 2^nd youngest of nine children. Five of her siblings immigrated to the US.  

          The oldest sibling, Patrick Chambers, who was born in 1857, immigrated to the US in 1879.  He worked as a foreman for city services in Chicago.  Patrick never married or as one of my dad’s friends used to say “never made the same mistake once”!

          Michael Chambers, the next oldest brother, was born in 1858 in Islandeady, Mayo, Ireland and immigrated to the US in 1880.  He married Winifred Callahan and they had 4 children.  Michael owned a saloon in Chicago and was possibly also a butcher at a meat market (located at 161 N Market, Chicago). 

          The oldest sister and 3^rd in line was Marie Chambers, who was born in 1860 in Islandeady, Ireland.  She immigrated to the US with her brother Michael and married Thomas Lynch.  They lived in Chicago and had 6 children: Anna, John, Mary, Thomas, Columbus and James. 

          Next in the sibling line is Charles, who was born in 1862 in Ireland.  Charles either immigrated in 1880 or 1885.  Charles married Ellen Ruane in Chicago.  He owned a grocery store/meat market, which was located at 678 Orleans Street in Chicago.  That building is one of the only wooden buildings to have survived the 1870’s Chicago fire.  It is now called “Green Door Tavern”. 

          I will talk more about Bridget and her other siblings in my next post but a quick note about the above photo.  The photo was taken in Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland by my cousin Kevin on his pilgrimage back to the homeland with his wife a few years ago.

Please Save Our Daddy!

           It is Christmas Eve 1928 and Charles Jr. (7 years old) and Eddie (2 years old) are hanging their stockings and praying that their daddy, Charles Zola Sherlock, who is lying in a hospital bed at Lutheran Memorial Hospital (in Chicago), will get the transfusions he needs to live.  This Christmas won’t be the same for these two little boys and their mother Theresa Nebgen Sherlock, who is 6 months pregnant with her 3^rd son.  Now, Charles’ fate may be in the hands of his fellow policemen who are donating blood to save his life.  How did this all happen?

          Charles “Tiny Tim” Sherlock, 28 years old, was a detective at the East Chicago Avenue Station in Chicago..  He was the smallest policeman on the force and therefore went by the nickname “Tiny Tim”.  This was during the time that Al Capone terrorized the streets of Chicago.  While on duty on July 17, 1928, a speeding taxi cab struck the detective squad car, in which Charles was riding, and injured Charles.  After a few weeks of recovering from his injuries, Charles went back to work at his police job. 

          Months later in December, Charles was rushed to the hospital with internal hemorrhaging.  He was losing blood fast and needed transfusions to save his life.  Many of his fellow police officers offered to donate blood but only four of them had the right type.  Walter Casey, Charles’ old partner for 5 years from when he served at the North Robey Street Station donated 2 pints of blood – one on Saturday and then another 1 two days later.  Another police officer from that same station, Edward Mendenhall also donated a pint of blood. After 3 pints of blood, Charles was finally on the long road to recovery. 

          In March of 1929, the family would return to the hospital but this time it would be a very happy occasion – the cesarean section birth of their 3^rd son Donald Joseph Sherlock (my father).  

Charles Zola Sherlock -- More on His Childhood Years

          In 1906, after Charlie’s return from Ireland and before his grandmother’s death, Charlie’s mother Bridget Chambers Sherlock remarried after being a widow for 5 years.  Bridget married Joseph Francis Gary, a man who was 13 years her junior and who worked as a laborer at the Pipe Company. 

          Charles’ death of his maternal grandmother in February 2, 1908 was only the beginning of more tragic times for Charlie (who was also known as Zola) and his family.  A mere six weeks later, Charlie’s older brother Edmund Bernard Sherlock died on 14 March 1908 at the age of 10 years old after suffering from acute bronchitis for only one day and from weeklong cold.  Edmund was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Chicago on St. Patrick’s Day.

A few months after Edmund’s death, Charlie’s mother Bridget got pregnant – whether it was purposely done to wipe away the grief of Edmund’s death, whether she thought Charlie needed a sibling or whether she wanted to have a child with her husband Joseph, no one will ever know. Bridget gave birth to a daughter, Anna Margrette Gary, on February 13, 1909.  I am sure it must have been a wonderful Valentine’s Day that year for the entire family.   The joy was short-lived however, due to the death of baby Anna almost 7 months later on September 6, 1909.  Poor baby Anna died of infantile atrophy and inanition due to gastroenteritis. 

At this point, you may be wondering when would Charlie and his family’s luck change.  The luck of the Irish was definitely not on their side! Is there more heartbreak in store for Charlie, Bridget and Joseph? Well, three years later, Bridget would give birth once again in the month of February – this time on February 29^th, 1912.   Joseph Thomas Gary was a leap year and day baby. I remember how Grandpa Charlie always made a big deal of Uncle Joe being born on February 29^th and how in 1964, Uncle Joe had only celebrated 13 birthdays when he was really 52 years old.  Uncle Joe is sitting in the front row in the center in the above photo.

After discovering the story of Grandpa Charlie’s childhood, I felt like I finally understood him.  He was always a tough guy with lots of wild stories, but now I understood that he was a SURVIVOR.  How does one carry on with their life when almost everyone you know dies around you?  Does it make you think that you must be special – that there is some specific reason why you are alive and your brothers and sister and father aren’t?

Charles Zola Sherlock -- His Early Childhood

          I remember Grandpa Charlie telling the story of how when he was about to be punished for misbehaving that he would ask his mother (Bridget Elizabeth Chambers Sherlock), “Are you going to punish your only living child?”  Now, I thought that was rather strange but then again Grandpa Charlie was the family’s originator of the 2% rule (stories only needed to be 2% true – yeah, that legend has carried on even until today). 

          I started researching Charles Sherlock and his mother Bridget Elizabeth Chambers and his father Edward Thomas Sherlock in the 1900 US Census.  Since Charles was born on July 9^th of that year, he wouldn’t appear in the census.  I did find both Bridget (although, she was listed under the name Elizabeth B, probably due to the fact that Edward also had a sister named Bridget) and Edward Sherlock, as well as their child, Edmund, who was 1 years old.  In the 1900 census, one of the questions that was posed was “You are the mother of how many children?”   Bridget answered, “2 children”.  When asked, “what is the number of children living now”, she answered, “One.”   Well, a look into the old family bible lists “,  Edward and Thomas” as siblings of Charles. Further research showed that Edmund Bernard Sherlock and Thomas Gordon Sherlock were twins and were born in November 1897.  Luckily, I found the death certificate for Thomas Gordon Sherlock, which showed that he died before his first birthday on Oct. 17, 1898 from meningitis with dysentery as a contributing cause for his death.

 Then Grandpa Charlie was born on July 9, 1900.  Grandpa’s father Edward Thomas Sherlock died on December 9, 1901 when Grandpa was only 17 months old. His death certificate says he died of phthisis (which is a word that means tuberculosis).  According to his death certificate, he had this disease for 6 months. It also said that catarrh of the stomach was a contributing cause of death.  Edward was a butcher and the family lore was that he caught the disease through his work, but we will never know exactly how he caught this disease.

In 1905, when Grandpa Charlie was about 5 years old, his mother Bridget (I’m calling her by that name since that is what he called her by) braved the open seas and took her two sons to Ireland, probably to visit her homeland and family but also to bring her mother back with her to America.  Grandpa Charlie’s maternal grandfather Thomas Chambers died in 1889. 

Can you imagine at the age of 5 years old (kindergarten age in our time) spending 6 weeks each way on a ship on the rough seas (and we are not talking about cruise ship here)?  So, Ann Kilroy Chambers (grandmother to Grandpa Charlie) came back to Chicago and lived with them until her death on February 2, 1908.  The cause of her death is listed as gastritis and a contributing cause was debility from starving because of the gastritis.   

I am thinking I need to stop here with all this cheerful news and continue on with this story in the next post, but just imagine this early childhood of Charlie Sherlock and how this would affect him for the rest of his life!