Grandparents
I never knew my maternal grandfather. [He died in 1890.] My maternal grandmother [Bessie Thompson Madigan] ran a grocery store to raise her children. When I came on the scene she had retired and owned the two-flat on Fillmore St. When we moved she sold it and bought a two flat on Congress St. There she fell down the basement stairs and broke her hip, being confined to a wheel chair for the rest of her life. The congress highway came through so she sold out and bought a three-flat. Aunt May (Mary) and Mother took turns cleaning and attending her home. John and Harry lived with her. There was another girl, Nan, who lived in Denver.
Madigan Aunts and Uncles
- Mary (Aunt May) was very close to Mother. She lived on Flournoy St. with her husband, George Cooley, a post office executive, and his mother. Claude died a lingering death from "blood poisoning", before antibiotics. Burdette Harbison, a nephew of Mrs. Cooley, used to visit the sick [Claude] and after Claude died continued to visit. He and Aunt May eventually married and he moved in.
- Nellie (Mother) worked at Donnelly Bindery alongside of Laura (Margaret's Mother-to-be) before their marriages. I can't remember all her stories about my Father's courtship.
- Nanette (Aunt Nanny) Ruth's Mother married George Rooney, a Santa Fe executive who had an artistic flair. He was stationed in Denver and later in San Francisco. Ruth attended the Art Institute School in Chicago and when she graduated got a job there. When George died, Nan moved out from San Francisco to stay with Ruth whose roommate [Margaret Larsen] moved out and got married. Nan was a sweet and gracious lady.
- Harry (Patrick) was a steamfitter who went into the contracting business and lost his shirt in the great 1930 depression. He also was in the saloon business before and after the contracting business. The first saloon I remember was at 4700 W. Harrison. He had a number of politician and political hanger-ons as customers and was rumored to be involved with the prohibition rum-runners, etc. Later he had a saloon out in Cicero and an assistant states Attorney from Chicago was shot-down coming out of it. No executioners found. After this he started a family-type saloon on Madison Street just east of Crawford, and prospered. Had a second floor for private parties. His brother John worked days and Harry worked nights. The employees were very friendly but rumor had it they "stole him blind" particularly after he and John had a quarrel and John quit. As a result he failed, which along with the failure of his construction business earlier, left him broke and he went to work as a bartender in a Chicago suburb. Meanwhile Margaret Saunders' husband died, she was involved in a train crossing accident, lost a leg and she and Harry married. She got him out of the saloon business and he worked for the sanitary district as a steamfitter. He lived with her about 10 years. She was confined to a wheelchair. He told me he felt he was doing penance for his early life as a saloon keeper and his early relationship with Margaret. He was a man of substance and many of the important friends he had made through the years attended his funeral.
- John, the youngest, was without ambition. When he was drafted in WWI he managed to get into the entertainment side of the army and spent his time in Europe boxing to entertain the troupes. After the war he set up pins in a bowling alley, drove a truck for Uncle Harry's contracting business, and was a bartender at Harry's Madison Street saloon. He felt he was sort of assistant manager and built up quite a clientele at the bar in the afternoon, with free drinks. This could have caused the break up with Harry, but after he left the stealing started. He worked at a local saloon for a while then married Mary, Harry's cook and went to a place she had in Hayward, Wisconsin, where they lived on his army pension. When he was about 95 Johnny and I visited him, but that's another story. He died a couple of years later.
