My dad has been researching his family history for getting on for twenty years; a task made much simpler because he came from a LONG line of hoarders. When my grandmother and great uncle died within a short space of each other, we inherited boxes and boxes of letters, photographs, photo albums and curiosities. The latter have turned my 78 year old father into a detective and amateur historian.
The internet has made geneaology so much easier, and we found after sowing some random bits of information on various websites, that the “fruit” came back to us in the forms of distant cousins, in the USA, Australia and the UK. Most of these folk were descendants of the rather prolific and fecund branch of the Sollitts.
A few years ago, Dad was contacted out of the blue from San Francisco. This cousin (several times removed) was also researching the Sollitt family. The US branch had an insignificant impact on the city of Chicago and as this newly found relative had a Doctorate, he was no stranger to digging around for information and cross referencing and making connections. The rest of us looked like happy amateurs compared to him.
So here follows excerpts from an article about my Great Great Uncle, John Sollitt, taken from an article housed at The University of Illinois Library, Kuhois Historical Survey Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois.
JOHN SOLLITT, now in his eighty-first year, was in his younger days one of the largest contractors and builders of Chicago. He was born November 19, 1813, in Stillington, County of York, in what is one of the most beautiful sections of England. His ancestors were Huguenots, who emigrated from France to England some two hundred years ago. His paternal grandfather was John Sollitt, and his maternal John Cass. The former was a stone-mason, and the latter a carpenter. The father of our subject, John Sollitt, was also a stone-mason and a sculptor. All were prominent in their professions and lived and died in England.
At the age of six years the subject of this sketch entered the common schools of Stillington, and was graduated therefrom in his twelfth year, after which he began learning the carpenter's trade with his grandfather. He remained in his employ until his twenty-first year, when, in May, 1834, with his wife and child, he went to Canada.
He worked at his trade in Hamilton and Toronto for a year or two, when a friend, residing in Madison, Wisconsin, wrote to him glowing accounts of that country, and he decided to remove to that place. He started by way of the Lakes for Milwaukee, but, experiencing difficulty in reaching that point, on account of a storm raging on Lake Michigan, he landed in Chicago. This was on the 6th of June, 1838, and he had but $5 in his pocket. Chicago, at that time, contained a population of about four thousand.
Business was very dull in this city then, and he had difficulty in obtaining employment; but he finally made an arrangement with Azel Peck, a prominent contractor and builder, in whose employ he remained for three years. He then entered the service of Peter Lewis Updyke, with whom he continued for five years. On the expiration of that period he entered into partnership with Messrs. Peck and Updyke, and their 's became the leading firm of the kind in Chicago. Mr. Peck died in 1848, and the partnership was continued between Mr. Sollitt and Mr. Updyke until the latter's death, in 1850. In the fall of 1849 they erected the old Tremont House, which was destroyed in the great fire of 1871. Mr. Sollitt then carried on building operations alone, with great success. He erected several of the finest buildings in Chicago, including the old courthouse, built in 1852-53, and having acquired a competency through thrift and enterprise, he retired from business, and has since given his time to his private interests and the enjoyment of a well-earned rest. Soon after his retirement from building operations, he purchased large tracts of land in Kankakee and Will Counties, forty-three miles from Chicago, and there moved his family, hoping the country air would prove beneficial to his wife's health. This hope, however, was disappointed, for she died in 1871. During this period Mr. Sollitt spent a portion of his time in Chicago and the remainder with his family. The town of Sollitt, in Will County, was named in his honor, and he gave to the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company $1,000, with which to build a new depot at that place. After the death of Mrs. Sollitt, he brought his family back to Chicago, and now resides in his handsome home at No. 515 Jackson Boulevard.
When scarcely twenty years old Mr. Sollitt was joined in wedlock with Mary Smith, daughter of Thomas Smith. Her father, a farmer by occupation, resided in Tollerton, Yorkshire, England. Her uncle, Thomas Pollard, carried on a large and popular hotel, called the "Angel Inn," situated near Tollerton, on the main stage road between London and Edinburgh. Mrs. Sollitt died of cholera in Chicago, in 1850, and was buried in Graceland Cemetery. Eight children were born of their union. Elizabeth, now a resident of Englewood, has been twice married. Her first husband was Alfred Bromfield, and her present husband is William Ivers. By each marriage she has had three children. Mary died in childhood. Hannah, deceased, was the wife of Henry Curtis. Jane, deceased, was the wife of Thomas Wallin. James J. lives in Sollitt. Oliver died when one year old. John resides in Oklahoma; and Fanny died in Chicago in 1865. In 1854 Mr. Sollitt was united in marriage with Anna Rowntree, who was one of a family of seven children. She was born in or near Richmond, Yorkshire, England, and came to America with her parents, who located in Rochester, Racine County, Wisconsin. On their deaths she went to live with her brother Christopher, who resided near that city, and at his home was married. After a happy wedded life of seventeen years, which was all passed in Chicago, with the exception of one year in Sollitt, she died of consumption, and was laid to rest in Graceland. She had two children. Charles, who resides in Sollitt, where he follows farming, is married and has two children, Leslie and John. The daughter, Blanche, is the wife of Nathaniel Board, a solicitor for the Chicago & North- Western Railroad, residing in Oak Park.
In 1874 Mr. Sollitt was married in the town of Waterford, Wisconsin, to Anna Blackburn, and they have a son, Walter, a bright and promising youth of seventeen years, who is now preparing for college in a Chicago academy.
Mr. Sollitt cares little for society, preferring to give his time and attention to his family. He was reared in the Episcopal Church, which he attended for a time on first coming to Chicago. Later, he joined Robert Collyer's Unitarian Church, and occupied a pew there for a number of years. He erected the first Unitarian Church built in Chicago, its location being on Washington Street, between Clark and Dearborn. Politically, Mr. Sollitt is a conservative Democrat, and has, with few exceptions, voted that ticket. He is an advocate of free trade, the advantages of which have been made evident to him since leaving England. While never aspiring to office or taking an active part in politics, he ran for Alderman in 1852 and County Clerk in 1854.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that his great great niece also lives in a windy city in the southern hemisphere, we are still wandering Hugenots!
