Chicago, the vacation city

 

Boston Public Library Collections.

A colorful travel poster promoting Chicago as a vacation destination. Certainly the beach along Lake Michigan might be an attractive spot, but more likely in the summer, not in the winter!

Chicago, 1893

 

Photo by C. D. Arnold. Chicago Public Library. Chicago, 1893.

Above is a photo from 1893, when Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exhibition, a World's Fair commemorating Columbus' 400th anniversary arriving in the Americas. The event was located on Chicago's South Side, from May through October 1893. It is very likely Agnes Atherton was in Chicago during the exhibition, but I do not have a record of her in Chicago in 1893, only up to November 1892.

Agnes' sister Isabella, or Belle O'Brien, was living in the city during this time, and was living nearby the exhibition at 931 Thirty-Fifth Street. She died on 12 November 1893.

Chicago Inter Ocean, 14 Nov 1893.

I do not have a copy of her death certificate, but from a text entry of the Cook County, Illinois Deaths, 1871-1998, it lists her as 37, born in Illinois, single, with an occupation as "housework."

The only other confirmed record I have for her is the 1860 US Census entry in La Salle, Illinois, when she appears as 7 year old Isabella, between sisters Anna Maria O'Brien and Agnes O'Brien on the next page, under the care of the Sisters of Charity at the St. Patrick's Church Convent. How and when she moved from La Salle to Chicago is not clear. 

La Salle to Chicago

 

Chicago, 1872. U. of Chicago.

When Agnes Atherton and her siblings made their way to Chicago from nearby La Salle in the 1870s, the city was organized according to map above. The distance is about 93 miles.

La Salle to Chicago, via Google Maps.

Per Wikipedia, by 1870 Chicago was the second largest city in the US. Many immigrants, and children of immigrants, like the O'Briens and Dooners, moved to Chicago for opportunity. 

At the beach

 

Photo by B. Jones. Hawaii, 2 Oct 2023.

Taken decades apart, photos by my Mom and Granny, on separate visits to Hawaii.

Photo by L. Campuzano Reid. Hawaii, 1980s.

Obituary for Agnes

 

Alphonse Mucha. Rêverie (1898).

This post serves as an obituary for Agnes Atherton O'Brien Gillette, my 2nd-great-aunt, sister of my 2nd-great-grandfather John J. O'Brien, and daughter of my 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien and 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget Dooner O'Brien.

Agnes was born in La Salle, Illinois in 1858. After the untimely death of her mother in 1859, she was left in the care of the Sisters of Charity in La Salle with her sisters Anna Maria and Isabella. Agnes learned to sew, developed a talent for singing and dancing, and eventually made her way to nearby Chicago.

What followed was an over thirty year career on the stage, starting in the Midwest, but eventually starring  in the Northeast, Southeast, and Canada. Agnes began as a dancer and singer, received top billing and rave reviews for her performances. She later evolved into bigger roles as a producer, stage director, theater manager, costume and set designer. From humble beginnings, through hard work and probably a bit of good fortune and skill, Agnes became a well-known and sought-after performer in the early days of vaudeville.

It is unclear where Agnes had a permanent home. Chicago may have been a base for a while, but she also spent extended time in St. Paul, Minnesota; Omaha, Nebraska; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and later in Lima and Cincinnati, Ohio. She performed on a new stage in a different city every few weeks for decades. Although she died in Chicago in 1910, she had only been living in the city for six months by that time.

In her personal life, Agnes was married at least twice, first a short-lived marriage to musician Frederick Day in 1881 (later annulled by Day in 1887 so he could marry someone else), and a second marriage to acrobat and fellow performer Alfred M. Gillette. It is unclear where or when they married, but they were together at the end, living in Cincinnati and Chicago in 1910. Agnes does not appear to have had children.

In 1899, she reconnected with her father, John O'Brien, when he was about 106. During this visit she may have met the family of her brother, John J. O'Brien, and his talented children. This visit may have inspired several of them to go into business for themselves, as musicians or milliners.

Although there is no mention of Agnes in the American Vaudeville Museum archive, the frequent references to her performances in newspapers around the US and Canada over her lengthy career show that she had been seen by many and touched the lives of countless other women in the theatre profession between the 1870s and 1910.

Over the years of family history research, I have run across the stories of many branches in the family worthy of recap on film or television. Agnes' story seems similarly deserving of a limited series on your streaming platform of choice. I am sharing this obituary of Agnes' life and my previous posts resurfacing her story from family mystery to recovered history, so that her memory lives on beyond the paper trail, census entries and city directories.