Monday, March 29, 2010

William Bryce Mundie and His Descendants

William Bryce Mundie was the architect of the Scottish Home and for many years was the architect for the Chicago schools. His wife was Bessie Russell Jenney and they had four children, all girls: Mary Church, Elizabeth Jenney, Jean Fraser and Margaret Bryce.

Mundie died in 1939 at the age of 73 and his wife died in 1936 at the age of 67. The first child, Mary Church, died January 7, 1898, at the age of two years and 10 months. The second child, Elizabeth Jenney, never married and died at the age of 74 in Middletown, Conn. She was active in the Girl Scouts and served as the Director of Region 1 in New York City.

Margaret Bryce also never married, and died in 1953 at the age of 58. She left Chicago in 1918 to attend Johns Hopkins school of nursing in Baltimore and never returned home. She retired in 1951 as Superintendent of Nurses of Trudeau Sanitarium, Sarance Lake, New York. Colonel Walter Scott had been interested in the Trudeau Sanitarium and certainly would have known the Mundie family because of the Scottish Home connections. You wonder what influence Colonel Scott might have had on Margaret Mundie. We will write about Colonel Scott next.

The remaining daughter, Jean Fraser, married L. Bowden De Forest and they became the parents of two girls, Barbara and Betsy. Jean died in 1953 at the age of 50. They lived at 358 S. Liberty St. in Elgin, Illinois. Her husband was employed as a department manager for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. He died in Denver, Colorado in 1963.

All of the persons thus far listed are buried at Rosehill Cemetery, but the DeForest family is buried in a separate plot. One of the DeForest girls became Mrs. William H. Clemons and the other girl became Mrs. Bruce Belshaw. The Chicago side of the Mundie name apparently ends in Chicago and so does the trail of the family.

Where are Mrs. Clemons and Mrs. Belshaw? Did they have children? If so, they would be the great grandchildren of William Bryce Mundie.

Mundie was very important to the Illinois Saint Andrew Society since he was the architect of the Scottish Home. This is posted in the hope some distant family members will respond.

2 comments:

  1. My great grandmother was the sister of Wm Bryce Mundie's mother.
    Looking at same questions!Do know Dr Bruce Owen Belshaw d in Englewood Colorado 15 Mar 2000.He had a specially designed house to accomodate a huge church? organ.
    Cheers from Toronto,
    Bryce Hunter

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  2. I suspect that William Bryce Mundie was the great-grandson of David Bryce,the Edinburgh architect of Fettes College and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Two or three of his grand-sons emigrated to America. Can anyone confirm the relationship?

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