Owen Fields (1829-1879), the oldest of six children, was born in Ireland around 1829
and was 19 years old when he came to the United States. Owen's wife, Catherine "Katie"
Powers (1833-1884) was born around 1833 and emigrated from Ireland to the United States on
June 2, 1851. She was 18 years old at the time and apparently made the trip alone. They were
married in 1854 in Rosenda1e, New York and a few years later had their first child Mary
"Maime" (1857-1930). Shortly afterwards they moved to La Porte, Indiana, where they had
seven more children: four girls, Honora (1858-) don't know anything about her, Julia (1859-
1937) who never married, Margaret "Maggie" (1862-1936) who married Albert Reece and had
five children, Catharine "Kit" (1864-1932) who also did not marry, and three boys, Patrick
(1867-1888) who died at the age of 18 of tuberculosis, grandpa John "Jack" Morris Fields
(1868-1945), and Frank 1874-1957) .. Great grandpa Owen worked in a vitamin factory. He
died on March 31, 1879, and Katie died on May 27, 1884, neither ofthem reached more that 51
years of age.
Mary "Maime" was engaged to an attorney who tragically died of pneumonia before they were to be married. She never married. In 1910, she was listed as the head of the household in
Chicago Ward 31 and shared the home with Julia, Catherine, and Frank. Both Mary and
Catherine were milliners, i.e. they worked in a knit factory where they made women's hats.
Grandpa Jack Fields was only eleven years old when his dad died, and sixteen when his mother
died. John's older sister Mary probably cared for him after their parents died. Apparently,
grandpa learned to swim when his brother Frank pushed him off a boat in the St. Joseph River
which flows through Elkhart. Frank married Elizabeth Carrier in 1917 and was drafted to serve
in World War I in 1917. Strange, since he died in 1957 in Chicago, I don't recall ever meeting him.