Bill and my great-grandfather, Harold Weil grew up on Jerome Avenue in Joliet. Jerome Avenue is one block south of the intersection of Cass Street and Henderson Avenue. It is a short block that runs between Henderson Avenue and Hickory Creek. Then turns into Garnsey Avenue at Hickory Creek. Bill lived in the house next to the creek with his family. Harold lived at the direct opposite end on the corner of Jerome and Henderson Avenues.
During the course of conversation that afternoon Bill talked about growing up on Jerome Avenue. Memories of the coin operated electric meter in the basement. When the lights would start to fade his mother giving him coins to put in the meter. Walking along the E.J.&E. Railroad tracks picking up extra bits of coal to bring home. And having to pray
for Uncle Jerome before he would go to bed at night. I knew Jerome was Bill and Grampa Weil's uncle. But what did he do that he needed to be prayed for every night? He died twenty years before Bill had been born. Family notes indicated that Jerome had been married to Martha Boyer---no issue. I thought it was a skeleton in the closet that would never come to light....
That afternoon conversation eventually led to a neighbor by the name of William Chidsey who lived in the middle of the block. To my surprise Bill said was of no relation to us! I asked myself how could this be?! We later spoke to my great-aunt, Mary Weil-Graening who lived on Jerome Avenue as a child as well. We asked her about the neighbors. She promptly responded we were not related! Or so her grandmother had told her on so many occasions.
I let the possible connection go for a couple years. I thought to myself that maybe it was another branch of the family that immigrated from out east as well. I graduated high school and went away to school in Bloomington-Normal. When time permitted I would do some research. Gathering small parts of information here and there. It was while living there I came across a birth certificate for William Seamore Chidsey. Son of Jerome Chidsey and Martha Howeth. I sat there and stared at the computer screen in complete awe. Jerome did have a child after all!
Then the thought process began again. As did the questions. Why was Martha's maiden name listed as Howeth on her marriage license and son's birth certificate? Why did another cousin have her maiden name listed as Boyer? Why was William not recognized by either of his aunt's that lived on the same block as him? I started comparing the few documents I had on these supposed "non-relatives". It was then I had my ah ha moment. William had been born two months before his parents where married. I imagine that a child born outside of a marriage in 1886 was more of a scandal than it is today.
Jerome died at the Chidsey family home on S. Joliet Street in 1888. His death certificate lists his cause of death as Liver Cancer. He was buried next to his mother in St. Patrick's Cemetery. The next record I find of William is in the 1900 United States Census. He is living with his grandfather, Benjamin Boyer in Joliet. So I can gather by that and Martha's death certificate listing her father as Benjamin Boyer that Boyer was her maiden name. Howeth may have just been a alias to cover having a son out of wedlock. Martha went on to marry two more times and spend the rest of her life in Chicago.
Was a child born out of wedlock the reason for not recognizing a brothers only child? Perhaps we will never know. At this point it is only speculation. William's last living child now refuses to talk to us. Can I say I blame her? Not at all. If the shoe was on the other foot I would probably refuse to talk to us as well. In one of the two conversations she did have with us she said only one of her father's relatives recognized them. That was William H. Chidsey and his wife, Madeline. There are other hard feeling due to an accidental death involving a child and an automobile. That is a story for another time though.
