Street of Immigrants

James and Margaret Abell paid $275 for the empty lot at 2828 W. Lyndale from developer John Johnston, Jr. in early 1882, just a few months after the land was put up for sale. The house may not have been completed until several years later, as the Abell family is listed at another address in the 1885 city directory.

Like most of their neighbors, the Abells were recent immigrants. Many families on the street came from Sweden, others from Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Italy as well as Illinois. The Abells were the only nearby family who had immigrated from Canada.

According to great-great-granddaughter Kim Thorn, James Abell was born in Gloucestershire, England in 1850. When he was only a year old his father died, and he grew up with his grandparents working in farm fields. He immigrated to Québec where he met Margaret Trihey, the daughter of an Irish shoemaker, and married in 1877. Shortly after the birth of their first child William in 1880, they left for Chicago. Settling in on Lyndale Street, the family welcomed babies George, Anna and James Jr. to their small house. They were parishioners of St. Sylvester's Church, which was then located a block south at California & Palmer.

Margaret Trihey Abell (b.1853 - d.1932). Source: Ancestry.com

James Abell passed away in 1911, and Margaret continued living in the house with her son James Jr. and grandson William. After she sold the house in 1920 to Edward & Elizabeth Rogers, she moved in with her daughter Anna where she lived to be 78 years old.

The small house at 2828 W. Lyndale was demolished in 2011 to make way for a new single-family house.