The Great Chicago Fire & the Alexander McCullouchs

ANDREW MONTEITH > MARY ANN MONTEITH m Andrew McCullouch

Typical Chicago Saloon

Andrew Monteith's entire family made it to the United States from Penninghame, Wigtownshire,
Scotland over the course of the 1840s-early 1860s. Most of them ended up in southwest Wisconsin, but the exception was the eldest child, their daughter Mary Ann Monteith. Mary Ann was born 29 Jan 1816 in Penninghame. She there met Alexander McCullouch, also of Penninghame, and they married on 04 Dec 1842 in Scotland. Their three daughters, Isabella "Belle", Sara McClellan, and Janet, were born in Penninghame as well. Janet would die before coming to the US.

Alex and Mary Ann

The first sign of the McCullouchs I could find living in the US was in 1861, where Alex owned a saloon at 161 Market St. The history of Chicago saloons is pretty interesting - it was not usually just a place to drink.

The Great Chicago Fire burned Oct 8-10, 1871 in much of inner Chicago, including Market St. Ninety-thousand people were left homeless and up to 300 died. The fire burned a stretch over four miles wide.  The extent of the damage to the saloon is not known, but he is in business at 167 Market St in 1874. Since some of the buildings along the river were undamaged, he may not have suffered a big loss. The rebuilding of the city took years. He would maintain his property there until about 1885. This area of Chicago was near the riverfront and later be near lower Wacker, in the old interior loop. The residents of the area were heavily Irish and the neighborhood full of boarding houses and tenements.

They resided in what appear to be two different locations - one unknown location where the street number, but not name is provided in the 1870 census and in 1880 on Fifth Ave near Clark, which would be walking distance to the saloon. We might surmise that their home also bore damage from the fire, but we'll never know.

Click to enlarge

We don't know when Alex died, but I would guess around 1885. Mary died on 03 May 1884 in Chicago.

Their daughter Isabelle (born 30 May 1845 in Penninghame) would marry a Dane named Thomas Lovedale. They lost their daughter Sarah "Sadie" in 1904. Isabelle would die on 19 Apr 1913 in Chicago. Thomas and five remaining children would continue to live at 42 Kenilworth Ave in Evanston and become deeply involved in the community. The oldest four children whom I could track never married. The youngest, Henry or "Harry" as he was called, was a sailor in 1891, but I was unable to locate him in records after that, though this obituary indicates he was still living by 1913. UPDATED: I was able to find reference to his death, which occurred "suddenly" on 21 Feb 1914 in Chicago; it appears he may have been married briefly to a woman named Martha.

The many friends of Mrs. Isabell McCulloch Lovedale were shocked to hear of her death, which occurred Saturday, April 19 [1913]. She is survived by her husband, Mr. Thomas I. Lovedale, and five children. Mrs. Lovedale was chairman of the philanthropic committee of the Neighbors, in which capacity she did much for charity both in Chicago and in the township. She was also actively interested in several Chicago charitable institutions. She was also a prominent member of the guild of the Kenilworth Union church. During the four years spent in Kenilworth, Mrs. Lovedale made many friends who will feel her loss keenly.

Lake Shore News (Wilmette, Illinois), 24 Apr 1913, p. 3 

Daughter Sarah, born 12 Aug 1847 in Penninghame, would marry Thomas Fitzgerald and have three children. He would die before 1880 and she would remarry to Robert Cameron and have two more children. She died 16 Apr 1927 in Lake Forest.