John's Big Break Comes in 1934

Most people wouldn't look at this situation as a "big break", but with John's work ethic, he did...as you know if you have read Pieces of a Life.

In the early 1930s, deep in the Depression, John Kellogg took a sales job with a new company called "SealTex." They were starting to produce a new kind of bandage, invented in Germany in about 1930, which was cohesive instead of adhesive, so it stuck to itself rather than the user.

John was barely making enough money for he, Ruth and little Kenny to live on, even including repeat orders from Chicago area drug stores.  Kresge stores asked SealTex to provide demonstrations in stores all over the eastern U.S. John was doing that - and working with "a talkative female employee" in each store whom could he'd coach to demonstrate the bandage.  Even then, his income was low.

In 1934 when John was selling in Boston, he got a letter from Byerley, one of the 3 owners of SealTex.   "While I was trying to find answers to our money problems, I got a letter asking that I return to Chicago at once as the firm was broke.  The cash I had in my pockets was barely enough to buy the return bus ticket, and I knew that Mom had little also."  (Ruth no longer was working.)

My own comment was: "John must have been horrified to hear that SealTex was broke.  However, on the other side of the coin, John was focused on achieving - and would have looked at this as his best chance to make his mark in the world.  He was a risk taker.  It's a good thing he was not a gambler."

It appears that poor management undermined the company.  Byerley was finding new items to have his 12 detail (sales) men take to drug stores, but they flopped - and SealTex was stuck with those bills of $8,000- $9,000, some 2 years past due.  "Byerley said that if I would take the responsibility for paying all those old bills he had run up, he would give me his stock in the firm and just bow out.  I agreed."

1930: The Stress of Being "Laid-Off"...and Rehired

As you know from Pieces of a Life, Ruth Meredith, pictured above, and John Kellogg were married in June, 1929.  The Depression hit just months later in October and the economy began to slide precipitously. This was shocking to the Kelloggs - and to everyone else in the country.  At this point, both Ruth and John still worked for Montgomery Ward, but a rocky road was ahead.

Thurs., Jan. 8, 1930 - "I was laid-off.  More than 50% of office got it.  Am all broken up over it.  John found an opening for me in Hse. Auditor's Office.  Hard to get transfer."    Doubtless, Ruth was stressed out about the sudden loss of a job she and John counted on for extra money.  That was also familiar work in a department where she knew everyone.  Without John's help, Ruth never would have been transferred over to the House Auditor's Office.  Everyone fired - both at Wards and elsewhere - was job-hunting.

Fri., Jan. 9, 1930 - "Finally got transfer - but keeping it quiet.  Packed all my belongings and left Gen. Methods (what there is left of it) tonite.  Florence is still there."   Years later my mother, Ruth, told me that Florence Childers kept her job, at least at first, because she had no spouse employed by Wards.  Florence, a close friend of Ruth's, was married at the end of 1930 to Clyde Ballentine. He didn't work for Wards.

Sat., Jan. 10, 1930 - "Worked straight through until 2:00 today (Sat.) - hard - so tired I cried when I came home.  Didn't go to show.  We baked our first pie - butterscotch - for tomorrow."   Ruth was trying to take on a new job of tedious typing job involving a lot of numbers and columns, I'd imagine.  She was also working for and with people she didn't know. There were no computers to handle rote tasks, so typists did that work.  On top of that, Ruth and John were having a few people in for a light meal and dessert the following day - more pressure!