Chicago firefighter laid to rest 113 years after his death
Married father of 8 was buried without a grave marker in 1895
By Joel Hood | Tribune reporter
November 23, 2008
During a chilly, lakeside memorial Saturday in Evanston, Chicago firefighters laid to rest own of their own—more than a century after his death.
Lt. Patrick O'Donnell was one of four firefighters killed Nov. 21, 1895, fighting a blaze in the Dry Goods and Wollen Exchange building in downtown Chicago. The 36-year-old father of eight was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Evanston four days after the fire, but—and no one seems to know why—without a grave marker.
That changed on Saturday.
"It doesn't matter when you serve; once you're sworn in as a firefighter, you're family," Chicago Fire Commissioner John Brooks said over the wail of bagpipes on the 113th anniversary of O'Donnell's death. "We don't let the past go off into oblivion."
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