Part of the Chicago Story- 1885 Locations

The Marriage Game- How it may have occurred.

The McGinnis brothers and the Donahue sisters coming together in two marriages, and then later, the elder Donahue sister marrying James Hall has always intrigued me. The bonding of the two families is obvious but more so is the bond of the three sisters. They always had the interests of the other in mind as I look at it.


Mary Ellen married first in Chicago in 1883 and when one looks at map locations of various family members then a story sort of begins to develop. Recent findings in Chicago city directories by both Molly McGinnis and another distant cousin, Floyd Billings in Utah aids in building the scenario. With these two often concentrating on the Donahues a link from Chicago to Manitowoc soon emerged that I had neglected to attempt to really track down.

Chicago 1885, The McGinnis's and Donahues, and Where They Lived

The following map needs updating to reflect the possible residence of Patrick McGinnis the elder brother of the family. An 1870 Chicago city directory lists a Patrick McGinnis living on Clark Street between 17th and 18th streets. This appears to be less than a half mile to the south of where James and Mary Ellen McGinnis were living in 1885. No other listing for what could be our Patrick McGinnis has been found in subsequent years listings. It is known that Patrick arrived in Seattle in 1882 so it is quite possible that for a brief time James and Patrick shared the same quarters prior to Patrick's departure for Seattle. The fact that the various listings with Clark Street addresses really tend to indicate that this was the home neighborhood for the families early Chicago beginnings.

This is the proximity of two families two years following the marriage of James and Mary Ellen. If our grandfather had lived in the same neighborhood prior to meeting his future wife, he very well may have purchased his daily groceries from Patrick, maybe stopping by on the way home from his daily work.

James and Mary Ellen, On Chicago's North Side, Living Across the Street From the Store and Residence of Patrick Donahue, Brother of Mary Ellen, 1885

I can just imagine James McGinnis one day as he dropped into the store of Patrick Donahue sometime in the early 1880's and just maybe laid his eyes on Patricks young sister Mary Ellen for the first time. Total imagination at work here mind you but since the store also was the residence of Patrick's family, if Mary Ellen was staying or visiting with her brother and his family, it leads me to imagine just how the two may have met. Perhaps Mary Ellen was even employed by her brother and spent a good part of her day was spent helping customers. Is it possible, certainly, but total conjecture.

Then knowing that two other McGinnis brothers were living but five miles to the south of the Donahue store, in a city fully served by numerous street car routes, visiting between all these people was certainly possible and probably occurred frequently. Hugh is in the directory living at the same address, a residence, as that of his brother Arthur, his wife and infant daughter. Then a younger Donahue sister, Catherine, enters the scene.


With all these people coming together the marriage of Hugh and Catherine in 1887, two years before all the families came west to Seattle in 1889, strongly suggests that Hugh was destined to marry into the same family as his brother had. How all this occurred is fun to imagine but as outlined here it may very well be close to the actual events.

Mary Ellen (Donahue) McGinnis, on the left, Sarah (McGinnis) Fitzpatrick, Catherine (Donahue) McGinnis and Sarah (Donahue) Hall

Thanks to Molly for the identification help.

The families came west and settled and two years later, the year that the new Florence farms came into existance, older sister Sarah married James Hall the next door neighbor of James and Mary Ellen and their young family. Surely not a coincidence, but it did happen. As suggested, and not an uncommon practice for sure, these sisters were always looking out for the benefit of one another. They settled down living virtually next to one another, another sign of definite sister loyalty.