Holbrook line: Fremont Holbrook and my happy, happy, happy genealogy dance

He was a mystery, and he was my great grandfather.  Mystery and great grandfather should not be in the same sentence, in my opinion.  All I knew was his birth date, quite a bit about his wife, and of course I knew his parents and his children and his siblings, because I did have census data.  But that's about the end of the line. 

Thanks to an obituary and a funeral report found on Newspapers.com, from the Chicago Heights Star, I now have the following additional information.

His father, Joseph Holbrook, had married Mary Elizabeth Whittemore.  They came from New York with Job Campbell, and purchased land from the federal government. Joseph Holbrook eventually owned about 1000 acres of land, including what became the Holbrook subdivision in Chicago Heights. 

Fremont was born February 10, 1851 in a log cabin on the old Holbrook homestead two miles north of Chicago Heights,  He married Phoebe Brown on October 10, 1877 and they settled on the family homestead, where they lived until 1901.  They had three sons, Ray Rockwood, Loren F, and Clark.  The obituary mentions there were three grandchildren, (actually, there were four), numerous other relatives, and a host of friends who survived to mourn a fine character. 

It also mentions that he was a member of the First Methodist church and had been active until the last five years of his life, when he became ill.  Finally, I learned that he was buried at Oak Lawn cemetery (I knew that part), "the land which Mr. Fremont Holbrook and his father preceding him, had owned and managed for many years".  The date of death was Wednesday, July 21, 1926.

I am so happy that I subscribed to this website.  I spent an hour or so on it this morning and pulled quite a bit about the Brown family, too, although I haven't yet found an obituary for my great grandmother.  (As an aside, there are some fascinating newspapers on this site, and I plan to explore more of them in the days to come.  In the meanwhile, I think I already have my money's worth!)

So, here's another happy, happy dance on a very cold and snowy day.  Slowly, I'm learning our ancestor's stories, and I'll continue to share the joy of the hunt and the nuggets that I find about our ancestors.   

Line of descent:
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Lois/ Gladys Holbrook