Charles ‘Charlie’ Ambrose Plamondon was born in Ottawa, Illinois, in the United States of America, on the 14th September 1856, the son of Ambrose and Cecelia Plamondon (née Higgins), and the second eldest of five children.
His father was a millwright who founded the A. Plamondon Manufacturing Company in Chicago, Illinois, in 1859. The company manufactured machinery, and when he was aged 16 years, after being educated in public and private schools in Chicago, Charlie joined his father at the company.
On 6th May 1879, he married to Mary Letitia Mackin and they set up home at 1344, Astor Street, Chicago. When his father died in 1896, Charlie became the president of the company, with his brother, George, serving as vice-president. By now, the company was heavily involved in manufacturing machinery for the brewing industry.
Charlie Plamondon was also vice-president of The Saladin Pneumatic Malting Construction Company, a director of the Fort Dearborn National Bank, a director of the Illinois manufacturers’ Association – being the president of the association for a year, as well as being involved in public library and public school committees.
The Plamondon’s had two sons, Charles Ambrose Junior, who was a student at Columbia University, New York, and Harold Machin, one daughter, Blanche, married John Henry Smith in January 1909, another named Charlotte married Allan B. Ripley in April 1910, and Marie, who was single. Henry Smith’s father was a former United States Senator who lived with his family at 241, Prospect Avenue, Newark, New Jersey.
In the spring of 1915, realising that the possibility of future prohibition laws in America would seriously affect his business, he made plans to travel to Europe to seek new outlets for his brewing machinery there. Having made arrangements to meet representatives of Arthur Guinness and Sons, the Irish stout manufacturers, in Dublin, he twice postponed his sailing so that he could be present at the birth of a
grandchild to his daughter in Newark.
Once the birth had taken place at the end of April - a little girl named Blanche - he and his wife took the train to New York, arriving on the last day of the month. Having stayed overnight at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, they joined the Lusitania at her berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915. They then boarded, with ticket number 20697 and they were escorted to room, B18, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward William Williams who came from Liverpool.
The liner’s sailing was delayed until the afternoon, however, as she had to embark cargo, passengers and crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service at the end of April. The Lusitania consequently finally left New York just after mid-day and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May; she was torpedoed and sunk twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her home port.
Both the Plamondon’s were killed, and it is probable that they both went down with the ship as Kitchen Porter Edward Skay from Liverpool later reported that he saw them both clinging to the promenade deck and refusing all entreaties to get into a lifeboat! Charlie was aged 57 years, and his wife, 56 years. When the news of their deaths was reported in Chicago, many of the buildings there flew their flags at half-mast!
At first, only the body of Charlie Plamondon was recovered, and it was landed at Queenstown and taken to the temporary mortuary set up in the yard of the Cunard office at Lynch’s Quay, where it was given the reference number 25. This indicates that it was one of the first to be landed there. Once its identity had been ascertained, however, probably from documents found on it, it was embalmed and sent to New York, N.Y., on 14th May 1915, on the S.S. New York, under the instructions of Messrs. Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd.
By this time, the body of his wife, Mary, had also been recovered, and accompanied that of her husband on the same sailing of the S.S. New York, eventually bound for Chicago. On 26th May 1915, following a requiem mass for the couple at The Holy Name Cathedral, there, they were both buried together in the family mausoleum in Block 3, Section L of the Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Chicago, where they lie today. The occasion drew huge crowds. When the family doctor examined Charlie Plamondon’s body before his burial, he found his diary still virtually intact in his pocket and noted that his watch had stopped at 2.30!
Property recovered from Charlie Plamondon’s body was later handed over at the American Consulate at Queenstown, to the American Vice Consul, there, Mr. Lewis C. Thompson for forwarding to his family in Chicago.
Bedroom Steward Williams, who had looked after the Plamondon’s in room B18, did survive the sinking, however and eventually returned safely to his Liverpool home.
After the War, the Mixed Claims Commission considered claims submitted by Charles and Mary Plamondon’s children, and also by The Saladin Pneumatic Malting
Construction Company, the company Charles was representing on his trip to Dublin. The company claimed that they had lost the valuable contract to Guinness as a result of Charles’ loss, and therefore sought compensation from Germany.
The Commission awarded Marie Plamondon the sum of $20,000.00, Charles Ambrose Plamondon Jr. and Harold Mackin Plamondon the sum of $15,000.00 each, and Charlotte Plamondon Ripley and Blanche Plamondon Smith the sum of $10,000.00 each, in compensation for the loss of their parents. In addition, the Commission awarded Charles Plamondon Jr., as executors of his parents wills, $812.57 for the costs involved in transporting his parents remains from Queenstown to Chicago for burial, and a further $5,034.73 in compensation for the loss of his parents personal belongings which went down with the Lusitania. The Commission declined to make any award to The Saladin Pneumatic Malting Construction Company.
Tragedy seemed to dog the Plamondon family, for on 24th July 1915, Susan Plamondon, the wife of Charlie’s cousin Edward K. Plamondon, was drowned when the S.S. Eastland capsized and sank on the Chicago River, killing some 812 people! Twelve years earlier, Charlotte Plamondon had survived the burning down of the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, which had claimed 657 lives!
Illinois U.S. Marriage Index 1860 – 1920, 1860 U.S. Federal Census, 1870 U.S. Federal Census, 1880 U.S. Federal Census, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 474, 475 & 477, Eastland Memorial Society, Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Newark Evening News, New York Times, Sacramento Bee, Last Voyage of the Lusitania, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, John Geary, Nyle Monday, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.