Biographies: M

(1876-1914) Grave 40, Sector G

Johann or "JD" Mack was born in Langenau, Württemberg, Germany. He arrived with his parents and brother in 1883 and settled in Menominee, Michigan. Johann's father Matthaüs was a glazier/carpenter, and probably a union member.

The family surmises that Johann came to Chicago with his father for the May rally in 1886 as the rally was publicized in their hometown. JD became an electrician.

He met his wife Olga "Goldie" in Chicago. He was thought to have been an electrician on the construction of Chicago's City Hall. Johann photographed the Haymarket Martyrs Monument (circa 1912), possibly one of the oldest photographs of the Monument to exist in its majestic state. JD died in Jacksonville, Florida and was buried alongside his wife Goldie Mack in Forest Home Cemetery.

(1871-1953) Grave 40, Sector G

Born Olga Mechanic, "Goldie", as she was known, was born in Kovno, Russia (now Kaunas, Lithuania). She was a seamstress and family understood that she knew Lucy Parsons. Goldie met her future husband Johann in Chicago.

(1893-1988) [ashes scattered]

Leon Markiewicz was a Lithuanian-American who was a founding member of the Communist Party in Chicago in 1919. He was a 30-year veteran of the militant struggles at International Harvester's Tractor Works on Chicago's South Side. There he was a rank-and-file union leader and founding member of the Farm Equipment Workers Union, which later merged with the United Electrical workers (UE) and then still later affiliated with the United Auto Workers, local #1301.

Markiewicz defeated attempts to deport him back to Lithuania during the Palmer raids of the 1920's.  He became a naturalized US citizen in 1940. Leon was a steadfast supporter of both the People's Weekly World and Vilnis papers. He was active among Lithuanian, Russian and Polish workers, speaking all three languages in addition to English.

(1909-2010) Grave 41, Sector C

Ann Magdalin Markin was born in a mining town in Pennsylvania. Her father was a miner and the family followed the mines to Harrisburg, Illinois. When the family was denied food by a local priest, Ann's mother left the church. This incident had a profound influence on Ann. To escape the hard life in Southern Illinois, Ann's mother left with her children for Chicago.

Ann's first job in Chicago was in a local factory at poverty wages. She became an avid reader and lover of libraries, and helped found the Lincolnwood Public Library. In the 1920's she got a clerical job at Cook County Hospital and met Dr. Leo Markin and other progressives. In the 1955, Ann and Leo learned about "the Clearing," a complex of arts and humanities courses taught through the University of Chicago, where they met lifelong friends. Ann was an avid reader of the People's Weekly World.

In the 1950's she dedicated her energy to save the lives of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and continued contributing to the Rosenberg Fund for Children set up by their sons. In the 1960's Ann worked tirelessly to end the Vietnam War.

(1911-1996) Grave 41, Sector C

Dr. Markin was a Chicago native who attended Senn High School. Leo trained at Rush Medical College of Rush University in 1936. Leo was an orthopedic surgeon and worked at Cook County Hospital, where he lectured on bone grafting. At Cook County, Leo met clerical worker Ann Greben. Markin spent years caring for wounded WWII veterans as well as children needing orthopedic care.

It was Leo's wife Ann who was the activist in the family. Both frequented the Marxist Modern Bookstore and were friends with the bookstores founder, Samuel Hammersmark.

(~1869-1942) Grave 42, Sector A

Markstall was a Socialist and a shareholder in the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company. He was the companion and comrade of Lucy Parsons during the last 32 years of both their lives. In 1942, there was a fire in Lucy Parsons' home. It not only took her life but George Markstall died the next day of burns and wounds he received after having rushed into the burning house in an attempt to save Lucy Parsons. There is a gravestone for Markstall and his ashes are interred in the grave of Lucy Parsons.

(1923-2001) Grave 43, Sector F

Stuart McCarrell was a well known Chicago playwright, poet, engineer and political activist. He founded Macan Engineering and developed electrosurgical units that were used in the dental field. His "factory" in Wicker Park was around the corner from the well known Busy Bee Restaurant.

Stuart was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln vet, Eddie Balchowsky and devotee of the famous Chicago writer Nelson Algren. Stuart and the longtime writer and visual artist, Robert Burleigh founded the literary magazine Xenia Press. The Press published numerous works of Stuart's including 3 books of his poetry and 7 plays. All of McCarrell's plays were about the lives of noted historical and literary figures including a modern version of Faust, Other Summer, Emily Dickinson and The Great Love Affair That She Encouraged and 4 plays on different time periods of Goethe's life. His play, Voices, Insistent Voices, a series of poetic monologues was adapted for the stage and produced in New York and Chicago.

(1897-1977) Grave 44, Sector G [unmarked grave]

Albert Moreau was born in Argentina and was an expert on developments in Latin America, Central America and the Caribbean. Moreau's activities in the working-class and revolutionary movements spanned more than six decades. He figured prominently in the U.S. anti-imperialist movement of the 1920's, and helped to found the influential Obrero Español (Spanish Workers) Club in New York in 1927 with Cubans, Spaniards, Venezuelans and Puerto Ricans. As a member of the Central Committee of the CPUSA, Moreau gave special attention to the struggle for Puerto Rico's independence and against U.S. domination of Cuba. He was the Havana correspondent for New Masses magazine when the Machado dictatorship was overthrown in 1933. He was also highly regarded as a teacher of Marxist theory. Moreau worked in collaboration with the Communist International (CI)to help the early Communists in Cuba and elsewhere on behalf of the CI.

(1905-1954) Grave 45, Sector G [unmarked grave]

Mucci grew up in central Illinois, south of Springfield. His father, an Italian immigrant, was a coal miner who had traveled there to find work. Frank followed in his father's footsteps and became a miner at a very young age. He soon became a union organizer and later a leader of the Progressive Mine Workers of America in southern Illinois. In the 1940, Mucci was among the miners who split with John L. Lewis.

Mucci was the first CPUSA member to be elected to public office in Illinois as City Councilman in Taylor Springs.

1913-1955) Grave 46, Sector A

Edward Mueller is buried within the Meta Neebe Lot. His connection to Phillip Mueller and the Neebe family remains unknown. On his gravestone is a unique and probable religious symbol.

(1857-1895) Grave 47, Sector A

On his gravestone are the words "Friech, Frei, Stark und Treu" (Clean, Free, Strong, True) which is the motto of the Nordamerikanischer Turnbund, now known as the American Turners. The Turners were progressive liberals who shared the values of the 1848 German revolutionaries who attempted to unite Germany under a parliamentary system. Many immigrated to the U.S. when that did not work out. Turner clubs did not simply hold gymnastic exercises, they carried arms and drilled. A few of those 19th Century Turner buildings are still standing in Chicago and an American Turners organization functions in Schiller Park, Illinois.

Phillip Mueller is buried as part of the lot with Meta Neebe. More needs to be learned about on the connection to Edward Mueller, the Neebe family and the Friech, Frei, Stark und Treu movement.

(1891-1971) [ashes scattered]

Born in Wigan, a coal mining town in the Lancashire district in England, Myerscough worked in the coal mines of Lancashire before emigrating to the U.S. with his family. He moved to Pittsburgh where he worked in the mines. Soon Tom became a militant spokesman for rank and file miners and a member of the CPUSA. In 1922 he led volunteer organizers in a strike of 50,000 coke field workers in Western Pennsylvania, but the next year was kicked out of the United Mineworkers by the John L. Lewis grouping along with many other communist and left wing members.

In 1928, Myerscough became president of the newly-formed left-wing National Miners Union. The NMU led a rank-and-file based strike in 1931 in Harlan County, Kentucky against starvation wages, dangerous working conditions, and Jim Crowism. At one point Myerscough and union organizer Jim Grace were arrested by the county sheriff and turned over to company gunmen. "They didn't want my body found," said Tom, "They wanted the strikers to think I had run away." Taken up to the top of Black Mountain in the middle of the night, the men only escaped by jumping off a ridge and escaping into the mountains. Later Tom was arrested for "inciting to riot." While he served his prison term, the strike ended, brutally suppressed by armies of company thugs. The militancy of the NMU became a part of all aspects of the UMWA for years to come.

Blacklisted and unable to support his family, Tom moved to New York and became an active member of the CIO's Fur Dressers and Dyers Union.