In 1900, before my grandmother married on  Oct. 24th, she was living at home with her widowed mother, her older sisters Mary Ann  and Sarah, younger brothers John and Eddie, and her mother’s cousin Edwin Quinn at 62 Whiting Street in Chicago. Sarah and Bridget were employed as teachers. John and Eddie worked as machinists. Edwin Quinn worked as an insurance agent. They rented their apartment in a building with three other renter households, two German and Swedish families and an Irish family. 

62 Whiting was located a few blocks east of the Townsend Street residence of the Renn family. The neighborhood was on the near north side side, very close to the intersection of Division and Sedgwick. There were three Roman Catholic churches nearby. Two of those were German. The church with Irish parishioners was Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary located at Franklin St. (now North Park Avenue) and Wieland. This area is one that burned during the great fire of 1871. The church burned except for the basement, and, in 1871 that is where parishioners worshiped.  A mile to the southeast was Holy Name Cathedral, where Bezzie and James were married and where their first child was baptized.

Bezzie’s family was from County Mayo in Irish province of Connaught.  James’s family was also likely from one of the county’s of Connaught. I haven’t been able to document where in Ireland the Renn and Reynolds families were from. A few leads suggest the counties of Leitrim, Roscommon, and Sligo, all also part of the western province of Connaught.

I also don’t know how Bezzie and James met, although it’s fair to say that living close to each other, with roots in the same Irish province, and most likely attending mass at the same Catholic church, their paths would have crossed. I’m trying to picture what the attraction might have been. They both seem to have had some ambition to improve their status in life.

Women’s education and employment must had been a big part of Bezzie’s world. Bezzie’s father was possibly about 70 years old when Bezzie graduated from high school. According to the censuses of 1870 and 1880, he worked as a “fruit peddler” and “husker.” Bezzie and her older sister Sarah may have come of age at a time when the family of nine had no male of employment age: father too old and brothers too young. Bezzie’s father, John Connelly, worked as a publican, or barkeeper, in Ireland. My mom used to say that her grandfather was a letter-writer for local folks there. Education has been highly valued in my family for as long as I can remember.

Bezzie and her sister Sarah would have been teaching in public schools, as, according to my cousin Les, there were no lay teachers in Catholic schools until the 1930s.  Also according to Les, at the time Bezzie was teaching, the requirement was one year at the local teachers’ college. I don’t know much about what teaching conditions were like or at what schools my grandmother taught. I’d like to know more.

While my grandmother was getting a teaching certificate and starting her professional life, my grandfather and his brothers were setting themselves up as plumbing contractors with the City of Chicago and, eventually, neighboring municipalities. Chicago was coming of age during the 1890s, staging the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. During this time, the Renn plumbing business became firmly established. In February of the year James Renn married, the Board of Local Improvements of the City of Chicago awarded six contracts to my grandfather for the laying of water service pipes on the north side of Chicago.

However it is that young Brigid and James met, the result was a wedding on Oct. 24th 1900. Details of the marriage were published, most likely in the official Catholic paper for the diocese, The New World. They were married at high mass in Holy Name Cathedral by the rector of the parish. The newspaper article describes the bridal party, the gowns of the bride and her sister, the violin solo, the flowers, and more. The bride’s  tulle veil was fasted with a gold star studded with rubies, the gift of the groom. After a reception at the home of the mother of the bride at 62 Whiting St., Mr. and Mrs. Renn left in the afternoon for Buffalo, Niagara Falls and other Eastern points. They will be at home to their friends after Nov. 15, at 227 Townsend street.

I have the white satin missile carried by the bride as described in the newspaper account. Inside the first page is printed Brigid Connelly -Renn, October 24, 1900. Hand-written a couple of pages further in is Bezzie Connelly July 29, 91. I wonder what the significance of that earlier date is?

I also have a rosary and one dollar silver certificate that my mom saved along with newspaper account of her parents’ wedding. The silver certificate is from 1899 and it looks well used. I wonder why this particular dollar bill was kept? And what happened to the ruby-studded gold star?