Person:Mabel McBRIDE (1)

Mabel Myrtle MCBRIDE, the fourth child of George and Malinda Curtis McBride, was born in Rock Island, IL, May 1881. Her birth date is given as 21 May on her birth certificate, but family files give it as 22 May. Rock Island city directories provide this information about Mabel: 1897: domestic; living with parents at 605-12th St. 1899: domestic; “ 1905: folder for Augustana Book Concern; living at 2823-6th St with parents. About 1907 Mabel married James William WITHERSPOON, a railroad man. The 1920 census shows that she was living on Gregory Street in Blue Island, IL (a suburb of Chicago) with her husband John, daughter Mildred, age 12, and son James, age 8. The 1930 census shows that the family lived at 12212 South Gregory Street. Mabel was a housewife all her life. In 1959, then a widow, she lived at 2244 Florence Street, Blue Island. In late November she moved to the Kosary Rest Home, 6660 W 147th Street in Bremen Twp, Cook Co. She lived there only 12 days and died on December 11, 1959, from acute cardiac dilitation due to ischemia of the myocardium due to cachexia and also suffered from uterine carcinoma. She was 78 years old. Mabel was buried in Cedar Park, Cook Co., IL. SS# 708-16-4514. John William WITHERSPOON, son of James Hamilton and Hannah (Radford) Witherspoon, was born according to family records on November 12, 1879, in Coal Valley, a small community in Rock Island County, IL. Rock Island County has no birth record for him on this date. The 1920 census, however, has his year of birth as 1882. By 1913 the family was living in Blue Island, IL; by 1930 the family lived at 12212 South Gregory Street in Blue Island in a rent house worth $7000; the family owned a radio; John was married at age 27. John was an engineer on steam locomotives for the Rock Island Railroad all his career. It was railroad policy that an engineer had to remain with his locomotive until the boiler cooled off when they returned to the rail yard. John was known as “cold-water John”, because he would bring in his locomotive with the fire out and water getting cold. John Caswell Sr. does not recall that John and Mabel ever took a vacation. John spent 51 days in St. Francis Hospital in Chicago before his death on March 13, 1958 at age 78. He died of arteriosclerotic heart disease of two months. He died the same year as his spouse and also is buried in Cedar Park Cemetery, Cook Co., IL. SS# 708-16-4514., , , , ,

1. ↑ Birth certificate number number 8100012160..
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Death certificate: Registration district 16.91; Registered number 855..
3.   1920 census: Blue Island, Cook Co., IL; ED 34, enumerated 21-22 January; sheet 360, page 1B; Ancestry.com..
4.   1930 census: Blue Island, Cook Co., IL; ED 2046, roll 415, page 4A..
5.   John Caswell, Sr.; phone call 2/1/03..
6.   Death certificate lacks ID number ; Reg. District 16.31; Registered No. 102..