Boschong Subscribers, Back in February 2013, I posted to the BOSCHONG List, an obit and a census record. I left the impression with the List that the census record and the obit were related and I now realize that is not what I meant to convey. Sorry about that. There were two different Charles and two different Williams and two have not been identified as to their lineage. ------------------------- This post is in regards to the Charles Bushong, brakeman, of the obit below, a real man of mystery. ----------------- The South Bend Weekly South Bend, Indiana Saturday, 9 January 1904 Page 7 LAKE SHORE BRAKEMAN DEAD BLOOD POISONING AFTER AN OPERATION KILLS CHARLES BUSHONG ELKHART, Indiana, 1 January -- Charles Bushong, a Lake Shore railroad brakeman, who suffered a broken arm three weeks ago at Englewood, Illinois, resulting in an amputation at the shoulder, is dead in the Union hospital, Englewood, from an abscess on the left hip. The abscess was caused by blood poisoning, resulting from the amputation. The remains were brought here for interment. ------------------------------------------ I spent the entire day yesterday on the telephone and on the net, trying to get more information on Charles Bushong, brakeman. This Charles Bushong has not been identified at this point in time and complicating the matter is the vague obit with the statement "The remains were brought here for interment." Does that mean in St. Joseph County where South Bend is located or Elkhart in Elkhart County? ---------------------------- I have tried every which way to find the identity of this Charles Bushong. I have called every Union Hospital in Illinois to Indiana to see when they were established to no avail. The Customer Service person in each was so nice. I have called the Vital Records, Elkhart County Health Department, but because this Charles died in Illinois, the Clerk said they would only have a shipping order, if it even existed back in 1903 which the County Clerk doubts. I have called funeral homes in the South Bend area and found that the one that probably existed back in 1903 went out of business a few years back and no one knows what happened to the records. The only possible clue would be what cemetery existed in Elkhart back in 1903 and to check those records. The only one that comes to mind in Elkhart would be the Elkhart City Cemetery which is now combined from three earlier cemeteries: The Grace Lawn Cemetery which was surveyed by Charles Beardsley in 1864. The Rice Cemetery which had it's first burial in 1913 which rules that one out and the Mennonite Cemetery. Was he a Mennonite? Probably not. I have searched the Cook County Illinois Death records and only came up with one Charles that even remote fits the date of death and burial in Indiana. There was no Charles Bushong in the Cook County records dying in 1903 but there was a listing for a Charles Brockway. Did someone mix up the last name or was it unreadable and they guessed? And if so, which is correct, Bushong or Brockway? --------------------------------- Cook County Illinois Deaths CHARLES T. BROCKWAY Died: 27 December 1903, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois Male, White, Workman Aged 56 years, 4 mos, 2 days Born: Michigan Burial: 29 December 1903, South Bend, Indiana ----------------------------------- CHARLES T. BROCKWAY {Is this really Bushong? Or is this death record correct and South Bend obit incorrect?} Born: 25 August 1847, Michigan {Calculated from death record} Died: 27 December 1903, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois Burial: 29 December 1903, South Bend, Indiana - Unknown Cemetery ----------------------------------- There is a Union Hospital at Terre Haute, Indiana that was in existence in 1903. I am wondering if this is where he died rather then in Illinois. I will be calling Vigo County Courthouse later today to check that out. They aren't open yet. ----------------------------------- This brings up a very important point. If I had not found this obit for this Charles, even though, I cannot identify him and have been running in circles and there is a possibility that he was not a Bushong, he would never have been acknowledged as existing since there doesn't seem to be any census records for him, his obit tells us nothing, and there is no exact place of burial or a tombstone. If it turns out he is a Bushong, how many more Bushongs are out there that haven't been found in any record? ------------------------------ More research will have to do done to solve this mystery. ----------------------------- Researched and Submitted by Gloria Neiger Bushong