In 2012, an abandoned tombstone was found under a cooler in the basement of The Lantern restaurant, formerly the Rainbow Café. The stone is now mounted in a case near the kitchen. Employees and patrons have witnessed many unexplained feelings and sensations in the restaurant as recorded on the notes found around the stone.
How the stone came to be in the basement of the building is a mystery. The Arthur R. Beidelman Marble and Granite Monument works was across the street where Rosebud Restaurant is now located. Broken or mis-carved gravestones can be found around Naperville often re-used as sidewalks, statue bases and yard art.
The name on the stone is Catherine Fallon. The date of her death was recorded as May 31, 1907. A quick search of the cemetery records revealed that Catherine (1830-1907) and her husband Michael (1835-1910) are buried with Michael’s sister, Ann McDonald (1842-1917) in the SS Peter & Paul Cemetery. All three names are on a large, grey granite gravestone. Since the large stone is marked McDonald, it might be assumed that the smaller markers for the Fallons were removed around 1917 at the time of Ann’s burial.
Catherine Murray came to America in 1866 from Ireland. Michael’s sister Ann also emigrated from Ireland in 1870 and Michael followed around 1875. Michael married Catherine in DuPage County on February 2, 1877. Like many Irishmen of the era, Michael worked on the railroad. He was a Section Boss, someone who oversaw the men and maintenance of a prescribed length of track. All three lived in a house on Spring Street where Ewing ends.
I could find no direct connection between the Fallons, specifically Catherine and the 1850s building built as the Naperville Bank (pre 1857) and later used for retail shops and at one time the headquarters for the Salvation Army, a protestant, evangelical church. One of the main thrusts of the Salvation Army was temperance, or the abstinence of drinking. Maybe the ghost of Catherine Fallon, an Irish Catholic, just wants a drink? Trick or Treat Naperville!
