At St. Mary’s Cemetery there is the centerpiece Bishops’ Mausoleum, but there are also three other family mausoleums, one of which is the John J. Murto mausoleum. I was curious as to who he was, figuring he must have been a prominent resident of some sorts. He was, but not here.
This is the story as I know it.
John J. Murto was born in Ireland. He came to America as a boy, around 1850 and made his way to Keithsburg, a small Illinois town on the banks of the Mississippi, founded by Robert Keith of Scotland. Originally called Keith’s Landing, John and his brother Dennis became two of the earliest settlers there. His father died in Ireland around 1860, afterwhich his mother and other siblings came to America and also settled in Keithsburg.
The new village wasn’t exactly a big hit. Only a dozen or so families lived there a decade later. Keith made a couple of attempts to build a sawmill but they both failed when the buildings sank in the liquid soil near the river. The village got a boost when it became the county seat in 1847, which helped trigger the boom years of the 1850s. During that time, the Dove began ferry service across the Mississippi River, a slaughterhouse opened, and the population grew from 252 in 1850 to 1,017 ten years later.
John married Anna, also of Ireland, in 1863. Together they had six children, all born in Keithsburg; all eventually moving away to the Chicago, Northern Wisconsin, Providence and Boston areas. Back in Keithsburg, John ran a “prosperous mercantile business” with his younger brother Dennis, likely supplying travelers heading west.
John died in 1898 in Keithsburg at the age of 60 and was interred in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Keithsburg, later to be reinterred at the John J. Murto Mausoleum in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Peoria at the behest of his wife Anna and daughter, Marie.
John J. Murto’s Obiturary, Aledo Democrat, Mar 22, 1898, reads:
John Murto, one of the pioneers of Keithsburg, died at his residence on Washington St., Friday morning, March 18th, 1898, at about 3:30 o’clock. Mr. Murto had been ailing for about five weeks, but was not thought to be dangerously ill. He was up and around the house nearly all of the time, until Wednesday, March 16th, when he took to his bed, and from that time he never rallied.
He was born at Hull, in the north part of England, of Irish parentage, Nov. 27th, 1837, and came to this country about forty years ago, locating at Keithsburg, nearly all of which time he has been a resident of Keithsburg. He was some seven or eight years ago one of Keithsburg’s foremost business men, and having gained a competency retired from active business. He was a kind father and a loving husband, and the interests of his family were always uppermost in his mind. The sympathy of the entire community is extended to the family in the hour of their bereavement.
The funeral services were held at St. Mary’s Catholic church, Monday, at 10:30 a.m. where solemn Requiem High Mass was held, Father William Murtaugh of Keithsburg acting as celebrant; Rev. B. Macken, of Burlington, Ia. as Deacon; Rev. M. Madden as Sub Deacon, while Rev. Chas Frencken, of Keithsburg, acted as Master of Ceremonies. The Alexis choir furnished the music, which was impressive and the Acting pall bearers were Messrs. Clyde Venable, E. L. Tobie, Dave Adeisdorf, Ed Sievers, Ed Wickett and Edward Scott. The honorary pall bearers were F. P. Burgett, H. W. Olcott, Joe Venable, D. H. Wolfe, R. C. Humpert, O. S. Frick and W. Hadley. Starker Bros. conducted the funeral, and too much praise cannot be bestowed upon them for the systematic way in which they handled everything, not the smallest detail was overlooked, everything seemed to be satisfactory to all.
His daughter is mentioned in a newspaper clipping as living here in the year of his death, although the census two years later shows her living in Cook County with her mother. They both died in Chicago but are also entombed in Peoria. What was their link to Peoria? It’s a mystery to me, but whatever it was, it was strong enough to have an impressive mausoleum built and their bodies moved here after their deaths.
