by Tom McGann
The next time you stroll by 1629 W. Morse Ave., take a good look at that house. You just might catch the presence of Cornelius Henry Ceperly (1839-1936) – Rogers Park pioneer, soldier, carpenter, builder, neighborhood activist.
Ceperly built that house on Morse – and many of the other Victorian frame houses in Rogers Park. He raised his family at 1629, took part in the formation of the Village of Rogers Park, saw it become part of the City of Chicago, and watched as the apartment buildings rose.
Cornelius Henry was born in Troy, New York, on October 31, 1839, the youngest of at least 12 children. Widowed when Cornelius was a youngster, Mrs. Ceperly decided to join an older son who had migrated to Illinois. she packed up her brood and made the tedius and dangerous voyage by barge down the Erie Canal, then by sailboat through the Great Lakes to Chicago.
The Ceperlys settled on farmland in Northfield, Illinois. Ceperly had this boyhood memory: “The Indians used to be all about, but they didn’t bother us, except the wanted to trade now and then.”
When the Civil War broke out, Cornelius, like most Northern farm boys of the day, joined the infantry and served three years in the bitter Western campaigns between the Union and Confederate armies.
Sergeant Ceperly returned safely to Northfield in 1865. he and Frances Janet Kerr of Roscoe were married on April 19, 1867 and moved to Chicago. They were living on the West Side during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The following year they moved to Rogers Park where Cornelius was supposed to work as a carpenter for the Rogers Park Land Company. In his words, “I was to build the houses they were planning on, but after I came here, the panic that followed the Chicago Fire came on and the company failed.”
So, Cornelius Ceperly went into business for himself. He later said, “I guess I built most of the first houses in The Park.”
Among the first was his own home. Cornelius recalled that when he put up his house in 1874, there was nothing but wasteland east to Lake Michigan and truck farms to the south and west.
That changed rapidly. The Village of Rogers Park was incorporated in 1878, and Cornelius Ceperly was active in the affairs of the developing community that lasted as a political entity until its 1893 incorporation into the City of Chicago. Ceperely served as a Village Trustee, Park Commissioner, and School Board President.
“Our first schoolhouse was built on the Indian Boundary Line (now Rogers Avenue) at about Robey Street (now Damen Avenue),” he recalled. “We never had much difficulty in getting teachers for the schools. There were always people in The Park who were qualified to teach.”
As Park Commissioneer, he established the first park on the lake between Farwell and North Shore, which is still in existence today as part of the city park system.
Cornelius and Frances raised five daughters and a son at the 1629 W. Morse address. Cornelius became a familiar figure in “The Park,” as he referred to his neighborhood. At five foot eight, he was a man of about average height for his time, but he was remembered for his dignified bearing. He kept his full beard and mustache even as such male adornments went out of style.
The beard, mustache, and his full mane of hair turned snowy white over the years – as clearly shown in a photo that accompanied a feature story in the Chicago Daily News, November 4, 1931, when Ceperly announced that at 92 he was “going on vacation.” The reporter quoted the “first citizen” of Rogers Park as saying, “I’ve worked in and around these parts for 87 years and I figure I ought to rest a little.”
He also stated, “All summer long I’ve kept my garden going, raising tomatoes, beans, peas, beets, cabbages, squash, pumpkins, and what not.”
He also related to the reporter that he was an ardent Cubs fan and listened to the game every day.
Ceperly wanted the reporter to mention that for the past four years he had taken care of his wife, bedridden after a fall down the basement stairs. That personal care continued until her death in 1933.
Cornelius Henry Ceperly died in the house on Morse on March 4, 1936 at the age of 96. He was buried next to Frances in the Ceperly plot at Rosehill Cemetery.
In 1983, the U.s. Government – at the prompting of his descendents – erected the gravestone that Cornelius was entitled to as a Civil War veteran. The stone bears his name and this notation:
Sgt. Co G 113 Ill. Inf.
A cryptic message perhaps for those who are unaware of Ceperly’s pride in his Civil War service and his subsequewnt membership in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – the poltically powerful organization of Union Army veterans.
Cornelius Henry Ceperly (1839-1936)
Ceperly was 22 when he answered Abe Lincoln’s call to arms, enlisting in Company “G” of the 113th Illinois Infantry at Northfield on August 9, 1862. He served in seven major engagements, fought by the Union Armies of the West under the command of Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Sherman, including the siege and surrender of Vicksburg – the battle that opened the Mississippi for Union shipping, turning Grant into Lincoln’s favorite general and eventually commander of all Union Armies.
A comrade was blown to bits at Ceperly’s elbow during the siege, but he escaped untouched. He was mustered out as a sergeant on June 29, 1865, two months after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House.
Ceperly joined the local Cumberland Post #737 of the GAR, ending up Post Commander as the ranks of the Grand Army dwindled through the years. Ultimately, he was the only surviving member of the Post. He told a 1927 interviewer in a bittersweet way, “I have been the Commander of the GAR here for a long time. Now, all the others are dead, so I guess I’m still the Commander.”
All the blood, sweat, and tears of battle together with the loyalties of a lifetime are encapsuled in those brief and abbreviated words on the stone at Ceperly’s grave site. It would require a large marker, indeed, to record the other achievements of this “first citizen” of Rogers Park.