Harry and John Madigan Remembered

How exciting. I was recently contacted by someone whose family knew Harry and John Madigan, two sons of Patrick Madigan and Bessie Thompson.  She told me her mother used to pack up her and her siblings and take them over to Harry Madigan's Restaurant and Saloon at Madison and Crawford in the evening.  The kids would sleep in the booths.

She also told me her mother loved to play "26," a dice game. When Harry closed the restaurant, since her mother had been such a good patron, he gave the dice game to her.  She remembers the dice had Harry's initials engraved in them.  Although Harry and John died decades ago, it is really terrific that the memory of them lives on.

She has promised to write up a few stories.   When she does, I'll post them on this blog.


A little bit about the game of "26" from the Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1986.

The dice game of ``26`` was Chicago-born, Chicago-bred and eventually Chicago-banned. It never caught on much in the rest of the country, but it was a familiar sport all the way from elegant Gold Coast and Loop spas (the Palmer House had its ``26`` tables) to family taverns on the farthest reaches of the West Side. 

And as integral to the game as the dice were the estimated 5,000 ``26 girls`` or ``dice girls`` who kept score. According to a 1962 story in The Tribune, "The game is played on small tables behind which the `26` girl stands, smiling and cooing, with a cup of 10 dice in her hand and a score pad by her elbow. The customer engages her in small talk and rolls out the dice 13 times." The high-rollers could risk anything from 25 cents to $1 on the game of chance that paid off in merchandise--drinks, to be precise.

Madigan Baptismal Records, Parteen and Meelick, Co. Limerick

I was in Limerick City at the Limerick Regional Archives in 1998 with the hope of discovering information on my great grandfather Patrick Madigan's (1850-1890) family.  However, when I spoke with the Archivist, I realized there were MANY Patrick Madigans born in the area and I needed to know who his parents were to trace down the rest of the family.  The Archivist provided me with a list of all the Patrick Madigans born in Limerick for the estimated time period and who the parents of each Patrick Madigan were.

After additional research in Chicago and Salt Lake City, learning who the siblings of my Patrick Madigan were, I was able to determine from the death certificate of Michael Madigan (my great grandfather's brother) that their parents were Patrick Madigan and Margaret Fitzgerald.

I then wrote to the Limerick Regional Archives with this information and the following is the reply I received on September 10, 1999.

Click on each page of the image of the letter to enlarge.

Images courtesy: Elaine M. Beaudoin