1900 Frank F. and Ada Miles lived on Main Street, Longmount, Boulder County, Colorado. Their children were daughters Marion (age 15, born July 1884) and Nellie (age 14, born Feb 1886), son Marshall (age 10, born Jan 1890), daughters Dorothy (age 8, born Sept 1891) and Evelyn (age 5, born Feb 1895), son Frank (age 2, born July 1897), and daughter Margaret (age 10/12, born July 1899). All of the children were born in Illinois. [1]
1901 Ada E. Miles (age 38, born 31 October, 1862) lived in Hamilton City, Ontario, Canada with children Marion E (age 16), Ella F (age 15), Marshall G (age 11), Dorothy L (age 9), Evelyne A (age 6), Frank H (age 4), and Margaret S (age 1). [2]
1910 Ada E. Miles (age 47, born in Canada), widow, lived in La Grange Village, Lyons Township, Cook County, Illinois with children Marion E (age 25), Ella F (age 24), Marshall G (age 20), Dorothy L (age 18), Evelyn A (age 15), Frank H (age 13), and Margaret L (age 10). All the children were born in Illinois, except Margaret who was born in Nebraska. [3]
1912 On 25 November, Marshall G Miles, age 22, and Jean Cossitt, age 24, were married at Lagrange, Cook, Illinois. [4]
1913 Marshall Gilbert Miles, son of Marshall Gilbert Miles and Jean Cossitt, was born on December 13 in La Grange, Cook County, Illinois. [5]
1915 Mary Cossitt Miles, daughter of Marshall Gilbert Miles and Jean Cossitt, was born in La Grange, Cook County, Illinois. [6]
1917 Margaret Amy Miles, daughter of Marshall GIlbert Miles and Jean Fox Cossitt, was born on May 15 in La Grange, Cook County, Illinois. [7]
1917 On 5 June, Marshall Gilbert Miles, born 27 January 1890, registered for the World War I Draft. He lived at 418 S. Kensington in La Grange, Illinois. He worked in the real estate and insurance industry as a Partner in F.D. Cossitt & Co. at 8 N. Fifth St in La Grange, Illinois. His dependents were his wife and three children. He was of medium height, medium build, had gray eyes and light hair.[8]
1918 On 20 December, Marshall Gilbert Miles died in a flu epidemic. He was buried at Bronswood Cemetery, Oak Brook, DuPage County, Illinois. [9]
1940 On April 16, Jean Miles (age 52) lived at 124 Sixth Street in La Grange, Cook County, Illinois, with her daughter Margaret (age 22), her son-in-law Tod John Steward (age 30), her daughter Mary Steward (age 24), and her granddaughter Jean Steward (age 8/12). Everyone in the household was born in Illinois. Jean Miles was a realtor in her own realty office. She had completed two years of college. Her father was born in Tennessee and her mother in Illinois. Tod was a chemical engineer at a dairy company. He had completed four years of college. [10]
1968 In May, Jean Miles (Born 12 April 1888) of La Grange, Cook County, Illinois died. [11] She was buried at Bronswood Cemetery, Oak Brook, DuPage County, Illinois. [12]
Research Notes:
Jean Cossitt Miles' grandfather was the founder of La Grange, Illinois. He had come from a town named La Grange in the south [Tennessee]. Daughter Mary became diabetic following the flu epidemic of 1918 which also took her father's life. [13]
The Encyclopedia of Chicago describes the early history of La Grange, Illinois. [14]
Throughout the mid-nineteenth century, the expansion of the rail system around Chicago laid the framework for a sprawling metropolis. As railroads reached into new areas, real-estate developers bought land and built towns along the lines, offering affluent Chicagoans the chance to move out of the increasingly congested central city. Like his fellow speculators, Franklin Dwight Cossitt sought to take advantage of middle- and upper-class Chicagoans' "suburban fever." In 1870, Cossitt purchased a 600-acre tract of farmland and uncultivated prairie adjacent to the recently completed Chicago, Burlington & Quincy line through western Cook County. Cossitt named his tract La Grange, after a Tennessee cotton farm that he had owned before the Civil War. A French word for "barn," La Grange had been the name of the ancestral home of Marquis de Lafayette, a Revolutionary War hero. By planting hundreds of elm trees, restricting the sale of liquor, building large singlefamily houses, setting aside property for schools and churches, contributing to the construction of a rail depot, and laying out a street plan that allowed for large lots, Cossitt wanted to distinguish his small, ordered village from what he saw as the overcrowded chaos of metropolitan Chicago. Emphasizing the contrast between suburban and urban physical landscapes, Cossitt advertised La Grange as a utopian retreat from the perceived dangers of the city.
[1] United States Federal Census, 1900, [FamilySearchImage].
[2] Canada census, 1901, Ontario, Hamilton, Ward/Quartier No 1, [AncestryImage].
[3] United States Federal Census, 1910, lines 46-50 and next page lines 51-53, [FamilySearchImage], [FamilySearchRecord].
[4] FamilySearch.org, [FamilySearchRecord].
[5] FamilySearch.org, [FamilySearchRecord].
[6] FamilySearch.org, [FamilySearchRecord].
[7] FamilySearch.org, [FamilySearchRecord].
[8] United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, [FamilySearchImage], [FamilySearchRecord].
[9] Find A Grave Memorial 117947380, [FindAGrave].
[10] United States Federal Census, 1940, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[11] United States Social Security Death Index, [FamilySearchRecord].
[12] Find A Grave Memorial 117947159, [FindAGrave].
[13] Personal Communication, Notes from Judith Schafer Chevalley Hiss.
[14] Encyclopedia of Chicago, [URL].