Newlyweds in 1929

Just a few of Ruth Meredith Kellogg's many diaries are displayed, priceless to me because of the people they bring back to life.

Oct. 30, 1929
"Foggy day.  As I wasn't busy for a time this morning, I wrote Mamma a letter, telling her about the new Retail Store, plumbing to be done in our flat, etc.  

John refused to to go the Chicago tonite because I said it was a silent picture.  We got there and I managed to get him into the show.  He had to admit that he liked it but - it would have been better with talkies.  It had music, dancing and crowd noises in sound."

Talking pictures were quite new, but all the rage.  In the transition from silent movies to talkies, background noises and music made the silent movies seem more modern.  Both John and Ruth loved going to movies, so perhaps John felt a silent movie was better than none - and apparently he enjoyed it more than he thought he would.

The "Retail Store" belonged to Ward's where Ruth worked in the offices across the street...It seems quaint that Ruth wrote to her mother, whom she saw and talked to often.  At this point Ruth had been married about 5 months.  The two families lived a few miles apart, with Ruth and John in a building he'd bought at 4705 Byron St. in Chicago.  People used to write letters frequently.  I kept a chart of letters written in my twenties, 25 to 30 a month on average.  

Engaged...and A Bit of Choppy Water

Friday, May 18, 1928
"John shocked me this morning by telling me he traded his 2-flat building in for a new fashion 3-flat brick.  I have thought about it all day.  We drove out to see it tonight.  I don't care for it."

Saturday, May 19, 1928
"John signed for the 3-flat house.  The two of us saw the best play yet - 'Just Married!'  It was a scream - the whole four acts!  Home at 11:00."

Ruth is clad in true flapper attire, including the cloche and the long straight top with the fur-trimmed coat.  She seemed to get over the disagreement with John about the 3-flat quickly.

Ruth would learn over time that John liked to talk about financial plans, but did not want or accept her advice.  That went back to his feeling that he was the smart one, the college grad, unlike Ruth with her high school diploma. Did he make mistakes in investing?  Yes, but one did not remind him of that!  The Depression was only 17 months away, but no one really saw the depth and breadth of it coming.

First-born Baby Kenny Arrives Early!

 Ruth and John Kellogg greeted their first baby in September, 1931 when Ruth was 25 and John 32.  The first photo shows Uncle Jimmie Meredith (20) holding Ken on the front porch.  They're  at the Meredith's two-flat at 5458 W. Iowa St., Chicago in January, 1932. You can see the baby buggy behind them.

The second photo is also on the front porch. Taken in March, 1932, it shows Grandparents Jim (51) & Lottie ((45) Meredith with Kenny this time.   Both pictures are in Pieces of a Life, as is the first quote from Ruth's diary.

Sunday, Sept. 6, 1931 - BABY'S BIRTHDAY    
"(Am catching up in these records.)
Pains started 7:15 AM.  Doc Anderson came 9:10 & took us to hospital.  Baby boy born 12:00 noon - Central time.  
Weight 7# 5.5 oz."


Monday, Sept. 7, 1931 
"What a relief; it's all over & 3 days ahead.  Labor Day!  Folks here in afternoon.  John in morning and night.  Stitches bother me. Named baby Kenneth Alan & mailed announcements."

Tuesday, Sept. 8, 1931
"Doc was in & said baby's fine.  Mama and Jim up this afternoon.  Jim saw his nephew for the first time.  John here when Mable & Edith popped in for a while & brought dress and slip.  Irene came just at 8:00 & saw baby at nursery before."

Ruth mentions some visiting girlfriends, Irene, Mable and Edith.  The baby wasn't due until Sept. 9, which is why Ruth says he was "3 days ahead."  I never did know where the name "Kenneth" came from.  No one in the family has it, so perhaps they just heard or saw it in print and liked it.  Odd that it's Scottish in origin and so is Kellogg, though neither of my parents knew that.  (Both knew that their families had some roots in England, but were unaware of the Scottish.)

John Speaks of Esther Clara Webb, His Mother

The quote below is from the beginning of my father's section in Pieces of a Life.  It's taken from the brief autobiography John Kellogg wrote in 1974 called 75 Years - Where Did They Go? 

The picture shows G.A. (Guy Ashford Wood) and his wife, Esther, in their home on Hamilton Ave., Detroit MI in 1922, both in their 40s.  This was after they'd moved from Buffalo NY as newlyweds and before they moved on to Walnut St. in Ann Arbor to buy and manage a rooming house for University of Michigan students. When this picture was taken, they had two young children, Junior (Guy) and Sara Jane.

I remember my grandmother saying that after trying both male and female students as roomers, she settled on only men because they were easier to deal with.  Like my father, she had strong, definite opinions - nothing wishy-washy about her!  Also like John, Esther was very interested in politics and current events.

Esther's first husband was Charles Kellogg, who had died in 1913.  She had been married at 18 and had two children with Charles as well - John Webb and Dorothy Helen.

"By luck I was born into a family which knew gracious living.   One of my earliest memories is my Mother, a young, attractive woman with a flat velvet ribbon around her hair to keep it in place.  One day I asked her why she wore that kind of decoration when none of the other ladies did.  The next day she appeared with her hair fluffed around a metal form called a 'rat.'  We have a 1907 picture of her dressed in that manner with her two children.

Actually she was much younger than the other women she knew.  As a farm girl, at an early age she learned to make her clothes.  Her next step was to do dressmaking in Buffalo NY.  At the age of 18 she married my Father, a widower about 44.  The farm was on Grand Island, which is in the Niagara River below Buffalo and above Niagara Falls."  

I recall a few early pictures of Grandmother Wood, but haven't seen them in years.  I'm sure that I saw the picture my father mentioned from 1907, but it may have been on a wall in Ann Arbor.  Sad that old pictures, letters, journals so often are lost in the dust of time.

Uncovered: A New Date for Jimmie's USN Service

A tiny address book stamped in gold with " Michigan Lithographing Company" on the cover looked to me like an address book.  However, it turned out to be a 4 1/2 by 2 3/4-inch diary in dark green leather, one of many sizes and shapes Ruth wrote in over the years.   Because I had not read it until after the book was published, it's not in Pieces of a Life.

The picture shows Ruth Meredith Kellogg and her younger brother, Jimmie, fooling around in the back yard on Iowa St. in Chicago where the Merediths had a two-flat.  You can see the stucco garage, which matched the two-flat (originally a house), in the background as well as the Petersen's garage next door.

This would have been around the time - the early 1940s - when Jimmie was in the United States Navy.  I had always thought that my uncle, James William Meredith, was in the service briefly early in 1942 after the start of World War II.  But Ruth's 1940 diary corrects me, as you will see.  Uncle Jimmie was a kind, soft-spoken man, but his mental illness gradually controlled his life.

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 1940 -   "Jim joined Navy and left for Great Lakes Naval Training Station for 2 months."

Saturday, May 25, 1940 -  "Jim home from Navy with Honorary Discharge papers and button."

And that's it - nothing more about what happened, though I had thought Jim left the service because he had had what used to be called "a nervous breakdown."   Ruth was very careful not to say much about Jim's schizophrenia in writing.  Since there was mandatory military service at that time, perhaps the button was something he could wear to show he had served.

"He Tackles Tennis, Life With Zest."

The Clearwater FL newspaper article about John Kellogg was headlined with the quote about tackling tennis and life with zest.  John had just written the short autobiography that's part of Pieces of a Life.  and apparently sent a copy to the newspaper along with the ones he sent to his children (myself and Ken) and five grandchildren.  He turned 75 three days after the article was published on Aug. 22, 1974.


I'll quote some of it, though you'll know what's coming if you've read the book.  His philosophy was written in stone.  "Not many 75-year-old men play tennis three times a week.  J.W. Kellogg does, and his arduous schedule tells a lot about the man."

" 'I hadn't played in more than 35 years, didn't have the time.  After I retired, I took lessons and it all came back, ' said Kellogg, a member of the Clearwater Tennis Club. ' "  Note:  He did play with Ken and a little with me when I was in grade school, but maybe that didn't count.

"Although his game is slower now, he plays it with the same dedication and seriousness with which he has tackled work and play all of his life.  Dedication to a goal and extra effort to 'make each job successful plus' pay big dividends, Kellogg said.  With that in mind, he is leaving his five grandchildren a double legacy:  several thousand dollars in bonds for each and the story of how one man toppled from the lap of luxury as a child, working his way from poverty to riches."

"He inched his way toward the edge of his chair.  The crow's feet deepened around his gray eyes as he recalled the first work room for his big manufacturing venture, SealTex, an adhesive bandage.  'It was a basement room next to the boiler with one window and one pigtail light.' he said, squinting at the still-remembered glare.  But the rent was only $10 a month, that was the important thing."

"It is the story of a self-made man.  It is also the story of a growing, industrialized nation and an era now almost lost in the mesmerizing hum of a computerized society.  Kellogg's father, a graduate of M.I.T. and a builder of bridges, died when the youth was about 11 years old.  Kellogg set his goal of financial security early.  He has attained that goal and is satisfied.  But perhaps the best legacy, after all, and one that any grandparent can leave, is a first-hand account of days that are gone forever. " 

Note:  It seems that Charles Kellogg, John's father, did not go to M.I.T., but he and his father did build bridges all over the eastern part of the United States.  Also, John was 13 1/2 when his father died, not 11.   

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!