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Notre Dame University and Saint Mary of the Woods Academy
John Joseph Fitzgibbon Jr. (b.1885) was in his
second year at Notre Dame University, having
matriculated in 1901 at age sixteen. His sister,
Anna G. Fitzgibbon (b. 1887), attended boarding
school at Saint Mary of the Woods Academy in Terre
Haute. John and Anna were the oldest son and
daughter of Annie Cunnea Fitzgibbon (c.1851–1927),
widow of John J. Fitzgibbon Sr. (1836–1892). The
family lived at 2954 Michigan Ave in Chicago.
Grieving with Annie were her surviving children:
James C. Fitzgibbon (1889–), Gerald "Jerry" A. Fitzgibbons
(1888–) and Coaina J. Fitzgibbon (1892–1981).▼1
Interesting parents
Annie had married John Joseph Fitzgibbon Sr. in 1884. An 1867
Irish immigrant, John graduated from Notre Dame University in 1862,
tried his hand at teaching, then became a prosperous
businessman. In 1879 he co-founded the Chicago Distillery company.
In 1884, probably to Annie's relief as she had temperance views,
John retired from the distillery and three years later sold his
shares (as a protest against his partners' action to enter the business
into a trust). He invested the proceeds in a
bank Annie and her brother (John Cunnea) had just
purchased — the Calumet National Bank in South Chicago.
Annie took hold
In the decade between her husband's death and 1903, Annie was busy raising
their five children and tending to their assets. In 1902 she purchased a
three-story brownstone for her family at 2954 Michigan Avenue (for $20,000,
comparable to half a million today). The home was previously owned by
Joseph Austrian, possibly built by Dr. J. S. Mitchell. After the deaths of John and
Anna at the Iroquois Theater, the challenge of managing her banking assets
may have given purpose to Annie's life and helped relieve her
grief.
Annie the Feminist. Not
Banking was the Cunnea family business and Annie's involvement in banking persisted through marriage, childbirth and widowhood.
Nevertheless, in 1902 Annie expressed the opinion that women should not work outside the home. Or vote. Annie said women would
probably vote just like men so their votes were not needed.
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An Illinois native, Annie was one of eight children born to Irish immigrants. Her father, James Cunnea (sometimes called John),
founded the First National bank in Morris, Illinois
southwest of Chicago. Upon his death, her
brother, John Cunnea, became that bank's president, a role he also assumed
for the Calumet National bank upon the death of John J. Fitzgibbon Sr.
When not studying bank stocks and mortgages or raising her children, Annie played
euchre with a group of women in the Catholic Women's League and helped with
various church-sponsored charity events.
Funerals
John and Anna's bodies were identified by a cousin, George J. McCambridge
(1884–1956) of Morris, IL. George worked as
a teller, probably at the Fitzgibbon's bank. His
mother, Maria Cunnea, was sister to Annie Cunnea
Fitzgibbon.
There was a funeral service with high mass said by Father
Hugh McGuire (1846–1911) at St. James
Church on Wabash and 29th in Chicago,▼2 and a sermon by Father James
J. French
(1859–1941) of Notre Dame.▼3 The bodies were then shipped
north by train to the Cavalry Cemetery in Evanston, IL.
In the years after the fire
Coaina lived a long life. She published a book in 1927, "The Influence of
Donatello on Florentine Painting of the Fifteenth Century," traveled to
Europe several times and died in San Sebastian, Spain at age eighty-nine. No evidence of a
marriage or children.
The 1929 stock market crash destroyed the Calumet bank but Annie and her siblings had
sold their interests for $85,000 a decade earlier.
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Discrepancies and addendum
In an newspaper interview Annie referred to her son
by his middle name, Joseph. In a family with two
John Josephs and two Anna's, one of the John's was
called Joseph and one of the Annas was called Annie
and "Ann". The name Fitzgibbon is frequently spelled
Fitzgibbons but I think this family spelled their
name without the s.
1. Annie may have adopted Coaina, sometime between 1901
and 1910. Though eight years old, Coaina did not live
with the Fitzgibbon family in 1900 and in that year's census,
Annie reported having only four children, all living. After
1910 Coaina was living with the family and in the 1910 &
1920 census Annie reported having had five children, of which
three survived. Verifying Coaina's name took some effort because
census worker handwriting in 1910 made it look like Colina but
subsequent census reports, as well as her passport, show it as
Coaina. Still, it is an unusual name so I dug a little deeper,
first finding a bit of evidence that I'm probably not the only
person who is not familiar with the name: only seven people in
the U.S. are named Coaina presently. More interesting is that
in 1867 a novelist, Anna Hanson Dorsey (1815–1896), who
specialized in Catholic-themed fiction, gave the uncommon name
Coaina to a character in one of her best known books, "
Coaina, the Rose of the Algonquins." The novel
told the story of a pretty Algonquin maiden
living in a Catholic community near Montreal who
chose to marry God rather than a mortal man. As a
recipient of Notre Dame's annual Lætare medal in
1889, Dorsey's work was likely familiar to Annie
Fitzgibbon, who had attended St. Mary's Academy. I
wonder if Coaina was given her name by her birth
parents or by her adopted mother, and if she was
given the name because she was a native American or
as a homage to a favorite fictional character.
2. After ordainment in 1871 McQuire served
as pastor of St. James for twenty-eight years. He
was recognized for his work in the parish schools,
including the
St. James High School (1890-1924). Reportedly by
the time of his death four hundred of St. James
graduates had become public school teachers and by
the time of its closure it boasted a thousand
graduates.
3. French was the oldest
member of the Congregation of Holy Cross at the time
of his death. He'd been head of the Holy Cross
mission band and vice present directof of studies at
Notre Dame from 1887 to 1893. In retirement he
served as chaplain of the St. Joseph Hospital in
South Bend, Indiana.
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While learning about the Fitzgibbon family I noted some
coincidental common circumstances between the
Fitzgibbons and Iroquois theater manager
Will J. Davis. Davis'
wife, Jessie Bartlett Davis,
grew up in a large family in the small town of Morris Illinois, as did Annie Cunnea Fitzgibbon. Will Davis and
John J. Fitzgibbon both collected rare books and counted several Catholic priests as friends. Jessie Bartlett Davis
contributed financially to St. Mary's Academy in South Bend, IN; Annie Fitzgibbon and her daughter attended St.
Mary's in Terre Haute.
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