Ellen Gibbons: Going vs Staying
An eternal question: When do you stick it out? When do you hit the road?
This audio story is about my great-grandmother Ellen Gibbons, who wanted the good life and didn't mind picking up and moving to get it. She arrived in Chicago from Ireland on the eve of the Great Fire of 1871. Did she stick around to help with reconstruction? Hell no...The story is true, based on oral history, conveyed through the generations and verified with immigration and census data. The only mystery is what exactly she was doing in St Louis for the 10 years before she got married and moved out to the farm. We can assume she worked as a domestic for one of the wealthy St Louis families -- a common occupation for young Irish women, who often came to America on their own and networked with sisters and aunts to become self-supporting.The background on this photo-montage is the aftermath of the 1871 fire in Chicago. The train is for getting out of town on.
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