The Ridge Historical Society
The Month of March – Part 4, Wrap up on the Egan Family – Sons George and Bernard
By Carol Flynn
This post continues our story on the Frank and Kate Egan family, an Irish American family who lived on the Ridge one hundred years ago.
The Egans became famous for building a concrete-block house on 95th Street in the 1910s, doing all the work themselves. They lived in the house for almost four decades.
They often shared information about their activities with Pauline Palmer, the reporter for the “Ridge and Morgan Park News” section of the Englewood Times, so this gives us a glimpse into the social lives of a Ridge family. Mrs. Palmer only lived a few blocks away from the Egans and surely they were acquaintances.
Also, through Ancestry.com, RHS connected with the great-granddaughter of Frank and Kate Eagan, and she generously shared photos and family information with us. We are very grateful for that.
Here are some “moments in time” from the Egans.
A lot of Irish Catholic families, especially “older” generations, will relate to this story. The one thing many Irish Catholic mothers set their hearts on was that one son would become a priest. Denied the right to practice their faith in their own country for so many years by the British government, and experiencing a great deal of anti-Irish Catholic sentiment in the U.S. by the established Anglo-Protestant leadership, Irish Catholics tenaciously clung to the Church in the U.S. Priests were not only spiritual leaders, they were social and political leaders, also. They were local celebrities.
According to Egan family folklore, oldest son George, Jr., was apparently slated for the priesthood, at least in his mother Kate’s viewpoint, until he met and married Emily Biggs. George became an electrician, and in 1919, they moved to the north side in the Irving Park area, and eventually had seven children.
Undoubtedly, Kate was disappointed that George did not become a priest. But there are entries in the social notices that George and Emily were guests of his parents, and their children were also entertained at their grandmother’s house.
In addition, Kate stayed with George and Emily for two weeks in 1918 when Emily was ill with influenza and pneumonia. At least one of the children was also ill with bronchitis.
In 1920, there was an entry that Emily Biggs Egan received notice that she and her descendants were beneficiaries in a large estate left by a deceased aunt and uncle. Surely that was welcome news.
In previous posts, we’ve shared that the Egans’ second son, Bernard, died from influenza and pneumonia at the age of 24 in a military hospital in Texas. According to the newspaper, he died on Thanksgiving Day, 1918. His mother Kate and sister Florence traveled down to Texas to arrange to have his body returned to Chicago.
The solemn high Mass, at St Margaret of Scotland Church, and burial in Mount Olivet Cemetery took place in February 1919, likely delayed by weather and the ground too frozen for the burial.
In 1917, the newspaper carried several stories about Bernard. We posted before that it was Bernard who made the first cement bricks that were used to cover the garage and begin the house, and he did most of the building of the foundation and first floor. Now he was traveling throughout the East Coast and Canada as a representative of the Bates Valve Bag Company, which produced machines for packing cement and like substances.
He came home for Easter, and that summer, it was reported he was home for a brief visit before he left for a long trip through South America.
Pauline Palmer reported, “Mr. Egan has been very successful and the neighborhood is proud of him.”
Whether any of that trip took place before Bernard enlisted in the Army isn’t reported. It also isn’t reported what kind of service action Bernard saw once he did enlist. Eighteen months later he died in Texas.
Losing Bernard was a tragic blow to the family. For several years, on Thanksgiving Day, Bernard was remembered at St. Margaret’s Church with services in his honor.
In 1927, St. Margaret of Scotland Parish began the construction of a new church. The paper reported that Frank and Kate Egan were donating a statue of St. Margaret to the new church in memorial to Bernard and to their son-in-law George Dumais who was killed in 1924.
Bernard lost his life in the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19. Other family members were also very sick that year. Kate was ill in October. Daughter-in-law Emily was ill in November and daughter Florence in December. Frank, the father, was very ill with influenza in the spring of 1919. Fortunately, they all survived.
Next post: Egan daughters Florence and Marie.