The Old Kellogg Home in Lancaster NY

This is the house, built sometime in the 1800s, where John Kellogg lived until age 13. It's somewhere between 16 and 20 rooms.  He said both in his book. The photo, taken in 1940, shows the house next to another, sitting on a paved street with little land, compared to the 3 1/2 acres on a hill where it was in 1899 when John was born.

In Pieces of a Life I quoted a section from John's autobiography called "Life in Lancaster in the Early 1900's".  John sketched the small town atmosphere back in the 1870's and 1880's when his father, Charles, had his first three children with his wife, Clara Shotwell, who died.  They were born in the 1870's:  Charles, Kittie Clara and George.  These were John's much-older step-brothers and step-sister.

"Now let's go way back.  What was life like when Father lived in the little town of Lancaster?  Perhaps 5,000 people walked or drove buggies or wagons over dirt roads.  The sidewalks were of wood planks as were the cross walks.  Sometime later the Village paved Main Street with brick, which was a big improvement."

"Our house had been built many years before we bought and had about 20 rooms.  It had two floors, plus a cement floor, full basement.  In the basement there was a furnace in which we burned hard coal and which gave hot air through two ducts to the two living rooms and dining room on the first floor, also to both second floor front bedrooms.  The first floor also had a large kitchen and pantry, which were heated by a large range primarily used for cooking or baking."

John goes on to say that his room and those of the hired man and woman were not heated, yet "I did not feel bad about that for none of my friends had rooms with heat.  You piled on the blankets in zero weather and dressed fast in the morning."   When John speaks of the heat, "it brings to mind the fact that he turned off the heat at night in our house in Oak Park.  In the belly of the winter when pipes might freeze, he put on just enough heat to avoid that.  So I, too, remember bundling up at night and getting dressed very quickly in the morning."  

Summertime in the Back Yard on Iowa Street

Brother Jimmie and Ruth look intently at the photographer in the summer of 1940 or 1941 while Diane appears bored and Grandma Lottie looks away, probably unaware of the photo because of her increasing deafness. Was it young Ken behind the camera - or maybe Grandpa Jim Meredith? They're seated on a bench behind the Meredith two-flat, the kitchen window and basement door behind them.

On June 12, 1941, Ruth wrote, "Most of the Radio Stations are elaborating on the sinking of United States merchant ship 'Robin Moor' by a Nazi sub-marine.  There is much speculation about it.  So far only 11 survivors out of 46 crew and passengers."

On June 14, 1941 Ruth reported in her diary an incident that could have been a tragedy.  "Part of a punch press Papa was working on broke and fell on his head.  Made a cut about an inch long.  He had to to to company [Western Electric] hospital and have it taken care of.  Then he went back to work.  Everyone marveled that he wasn't knocked out.  Piece weighed 12#."  Western Electric did start to investigate why the piece loosened and fell.  It was just three years later that Papa (James B. Meredith) passed away at the age of 64.

Life is smooth for the Merediths and Kelloggs, but a bumpy road is ahead with World War II on the horizon. This picture is not in Pieces of a Life, nor are the quotes from Ruth's diary.

Timing is Everything, They Say...

I quoted my father's autobiography in Pieces of a Life.  John Kellogg said, "In October of 1929 a serious depression started.  Mail order houses (branches) quickly reflect any change in orders for houses they operate on a percentage of sales.  In 1930 the Chicago House [of Montgomery Ward] sold about 10% of what it had sold in 1928.  This meant that the House Manager had 2 million dollars in 1930 to do what he had done with 20 million dollars in 1928.  This called for the most vigilant curbing of all expense.  

We liked our little flat building, but with things so shaky we traded the 3-flat for vacant lots west of Wilmette; the payments on the lots were so low I was reasonably sure I could carry them.  I was not sure I could carry the 3-flat;suppose that some of the tenants lost their job or we did?"

This didn't work out as John had hoped.  The land ended up being taken for part of an expressway and, from what I heard, John didn't get all of his money out of it.  Yet no one could have predicted the terrible financial hurricane that was coming.  

The picture shows John and Ruth in Ann Arbor just weeks after their wedding in 1929.