The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1949-08-17
hits as Tipperary, Beautiful K-k-katie,
The Camels Are Coming, etc.

His chief hobbies in those days were
hunting and fishing and Ireland had
open season the year around at that
time. He also enjoyed an occasional
game of amateur. soccer, which was
the Irish national pastime.
Following school days, Charlie
worked with his father in the Kin
lugh Post Office, serving both as a
clerk and mail carrier as we'll as a
messenger boy for the telegraph COM
pany. When the Irish Instruction
flared into a full-fledged revolution,
however, both he and his father were
thrown out of work.
The Irish Revolution
Charlie gained employment in the
Water Works Department in Belfast,
and there he became involved in the
mortal struggle of his countrymen.
All government employees automati-
cally became B. Specialists attached
to the regular police, known as the
Royal Ulster Constabulary. He was
armed with two pistols and carbine.
The maintenance of law and order
in Ireland in those days was almost
impossible as everyone became en-
broiled in the struggle, with brother
often fighting brother in most dead
ly and cruel fashion. Many of the
big buildings of Belfast were de-
stroyed and it was not uncommon to
see dead and wounded on the streets
at any hour of the day or night.
1t was while engaged in this har-
rowing duty that he decided to ac-
cept the invitation of Mrs. Bicket to
come to Zion. Charlie and his young
er brother, Jack, arrived in Zion on
Sept. 3, 1923, and made their first
home with Mr.. and Mrs. Bicket and
their three sons, Lyle, William and
Paul, at the old family residence, 29O6
Enoch Avenue. MIR. and Mrs. Bicket
have since died, but William and Lyle
today are prominent businessmen in
Zion and Paul is a minister in Wis
consin.
Remembers Kindness
The people of Zion all treated Char
lie and Jack with kindness and Charlie
remembers with effection two of
lions former citizens, the late Mr..
Frank Homerighouse and the late
Frank Snyder. When Mr.. Homerig-
house learned of Jack and Charles
plan to bring their family over to
America, he purchased the home at
1908 Enoch so that they would have
a home on their arrival.
Besides Mr.. and Mrs. Written, two
other sons, William and Hamilton,
and four sisters, Mable, Eileen, Violet
and Faith, also arrived in Zion in
1924. William is now living in Wau-
kegan and Hamilton died in 1910. Ma
BILE, now Mrs. Oran Jacobson, is a
resident of Burbank, Calf, while
Eileen, now Mrs. John Miller, and
Faith and Violet, all live at 21O6 Eli
sha Ave.
Incidently Violet at present is en-
ployed as secretary to Charles P. Wi
KEEL, manager of the Johns Manville
plant in Waukegan, and during the
recent war she served as a secretary
in the United States Intelligence De-
partment in this country and Alaska.
The Written family soon after ar
irving in Zion purchased their own
home at 2010 Elm Avenue. This was
one of the oldest houses in the neigh
borhood and needed plenty of repair
work. but the Whitten's promptly
went about the business of putting
the home in tiptop shape and lived
there for a period of over Is years.
Mr.. Written succumbed in 1929 and
Mrs. Written died in 1888.
A Treasured Heirloom
A treasured heirloom in the Whit
ten family, which at present remains
as the only real tie between the old
and new world, is very valuable set
of China, which Mrs. Written received
as a gift from Lady Eva Gore Booth,
a titled English Lady, who had been
Mrs. Whitten's Sunday School teacher
in her youth. This China set since
has been divided among the girls in
the Written family.
Although Charlie has never entire
ly lost his Irish brogue and still would