Debby wrote:
"I could really use some volunteers esp. when Spring comes. If you live in
or are visiting the area and have a digital camera, please volunteer to take
tombstone photos. Mount Hope is huge and is 30+ miles from my home. Even if I
lived next door, it would take an eternity to take photos of all the
tombstones by myself."
Debby
I already have photos of a few family tombstones from Mt. Hope/St. Vincent
that I will send to you for the project. I live in Illinois and make one trip a
year to Logansport for my genealogy research. I will definitely volunteer to
take photos for you at Mt. Hope when I visit this year.
My grandfather Patrick Francis FITZGIBBON had a saloon in Logansport on the
corner of 12th & Erie circa 1905. He then owned the saloon across the street
that became the famous Polsinelli's. Patrick's first wife was Anna Marie BYRNE
who died of tuberculosis at the age of 26. Their daughter Mary Ann
FITZGIBBON married George SMITH. Anna, Mary Ann and George are all buried at Mt.
Hope/St. Vincent. Also, Anna Marie's sister Delia BYRNE MONEHEN is buried there
with her husband James and son John, and John's wife Lavon. I have photos of
all the tombstones.
My grandfather married my grandmother Sarah RYAN in Chicago in 1915. They
lived in Logansport in an apartment above the business with both of their
widowed mothers. Mary HENNESSY FITZGIBBON died in January 1916; Catherine FOLEY
RYAN died in August 1916 -- both of apoplexy (stroke). According to an employee
of the old Polsinelli's Bar, the upstairs living quarters is supposedly
"haunted"! If it is, the haunters are my two old Irish great-grandmothers who
died
there in 1916!! Patrick and Sarah moved to Chicago after Prohibition forced
them to close the saloon. They had a grocery and butcher shop until the Great
Depression when they lost that business, as well. My grandparents and
great-grandmothers are buried in Chicago cemeteries.
Kathleen Richmond
Oak Forest, IL (near Chicago)