Chicago St. Valentine's Day……… !

From the department of trivia and a small coincidence to note. I found it rather interesting.

A well told story seems to predictably emerge in all sorts of media every year it seems.  The story is told time and again about the Chicago Valentine’s Day Massacre, the result of which began the long and bloody task of purging the local Mafia of the time from the local streets by honest law enforcement agencies.  At least by those honest lawmen that could be found to be loyal during the twenties and thirties.
It happened on St.Valentines day in Chicago, in 1929?

The struggle between the Italian controlled Mafia of the South Side of the city against the Irish controlled Mafia of Chicago’s North Side.

This is a repeat of an e-mail shared with some family last year.  It really sheds no light on our family history but when I recognized the address in Chicago where the incident occurred it just caught my curiosity.  The murders happened some three months before our grandmother Mary Ellen McGinnis died in Stanwood some 40 years after her and her husband left Chicago for Seattle.  I just wonder if she ever realized when hearing of the event in Chicago, did she ever recognize that it happened in her old Chicago neighborhood. 

From: allie
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 3:59 PM
To: Nancy Robbins; Michael Jones; DON & JENNINE
Subject: TRIVIA

Hope all are having a memorable Valentines day............ !

Here is a bit of trivia discovered today......

As happens almost every Valentines day, some TV channel runs something about the Chicago Valentines Day Massacre of 1929 supposedly masterminded by Al Capone.
The program I watched just now on the History Channel gave the address of the infamous garage where the crimes took place..........2122 N. Clark St., Chicago, very near the lake front. That address really sounded familiar.

It seems, according to an 1885 Chicago City directory, James McGinnis Sr. and his new wife Mary Ellen Donahue were living on that very street, but a block south, at 2022 N. Clark St., some 44 years earlier of course. Our ancestors left town in 1889 and one can naturally assume the neighborhood really went downhill after they left. But it remained an Irish part of the city and eventually was under control of the Irish gangs.

An older brother of our Grandmother, Patrick Donahue, ran a grocery store in the neighborhood, in the same 2000 block of Clark St. He died in late 1930. He was still a grocer in Chicago in the 1920 census I believe. Maybe he was still in business in the neighborhood and if he was close to the mob action, he may very well have wished he had left town with his sister. I hope he didn't die of "lead poisoning" administered by some member of the Italian run South side gangs.

Like I said, it is but trivia, the kind that I really get a kick out of.
AJ

http://www.prairieghosts.com/valentine.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Street_(Chicago)

Chicago 1883- Marriage of James & Mary Ellen

July 3, 1883

Chicago

Old St. John's Church

Mary Ellen & James McGinnis

Chicago, circa 1883

Mary Ellen Donahue McGinnis

Also circa early 1880's

Father John Waldron

Pastor, Old St. Johns, Chicago,

18th & Clark Ave.

Father Waldron married James and Mary Ellen in 1883. There are indications but no documentation as yet that he also Baptized the first Child Maggie in 1884.

Father Waldron was apparently a rough and tough leader of his flock, at least for the young trouble makers. He carried a "Blackthorne", a club like cane, and used it freely in the rough neighborhoods of his parish.

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.