Publisher's Synopsis
"Four generations attended the golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Corbett, 4815 Fifth Avenue. They gave Mr. Corbett a gold watch and Mrs. Corbett a brooch bearing a picture of her husband. Seventy-five relatives and friends attended the celebration, held Sunday. Mr. Corbett was born in Canada in 1833 and married Maria Keating in Toronto in 1859 after a tragedy in which another Canadian lost his life. The man who met death was Mr. Corbett's rival and thought Miss Keating was in danger of drowning. In attempting to save her he was drowned. It developed afterward that the woman who was rescued was not Miss Keating. Shortly after the wedding Nov.27, 1859 [sic] Mr. and Mrs. Corbett moved to Fergus, Ontario, where the husband embarked in the hotel business. Mr. Corbett retired after twenty-five years as a hotelkeeper." The couple were married a total of 52 years until Thomas Corbett's death. Corbett was the first generation of the family born on Canadian soil and first worked as a farmer. By 1871 he would become a proprietor of the Elgin Hotel and six years later the proprietor of the Queen's Arms Hotel both in Fergus, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. By 1882 the Corbett family relocated to Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and only a year later purchased property located at 4815 South Atlantic Street. Thomas would work as a carpenter in the Union Stock Yards for many years until retiring. This then is a tribute to the life and times of Thomas Corbett.
