John's Blissful Summers on Grand Island As A Boy

In his short autobiography, John Webb Kellogg spoke of idyllic summers as a little boy on Grand Island, NY, which was near Buffalo.  His mother, Esther Clara Webb Kellogg, was the granddaughter of Irish immigrants who journeyed to Canada and then upstate New York in the late 1840's.

Many Webbs farmed on Grand Island, as did Esther's family.  Born in 1899, John probably was an infant when his mother, Esther, began to take him to Grand Island to visit her parents and other Webb relatives in the summer.   The following quote is from
Pieces of a Life.  John's younger sister, Dorothy Helen Kellogg, was born in 1903
  
  "As John reminisces about Grand Island, he makes it sound as though that was where he grew up.  He was there only a few weeks in the summer, with his mother and sister and perhaps an occasional visit from his father.  Summer would have been the best season for the bridge-building
Kelloggs and their crews to be out of town."  

     "John probably enjoyed Grand Island where he could play with other children, see his grandparents, aunts, uncles as well as do chores.  It must have been much more relaxed than his time with his father and step-brother.  I wonder when he realized that the Irish -- his mother's many relatives on Grand Island -- were lower in social status than the English and Scottish in his father's line?"

   Here's a little of John's writing from "75 Years - Where Did They Go?.  "Where did one buy things?  Virtually everything we ate came from stuff raised on the farm or from basic raw materials they bought.  Flour came in barrel lots and each day or two one of the girls or Grandmother would bake bread.  That did not last long with a lot of hungry men to feed.  Farm machinery was scarce.  Most jobs were done by hand.  All were up and had finished breakfast before 6.  When the crops were ripe. they often worked until dark, which might mean 8 or 9 at night.  Suppose that the grain were ripe;  if not promptly harvested, rain would beat it to the ground where it was without 
worth."
  

Ruth's Grandbaby, Lynn Meredith, in Dec., 1966

Lynn Meredith Pellettiere enjoying the little yellow tub, sitting on a counter in the upper level bath of our first house in Mt. Prospect.  She's 7 months old and smiling at Daddy, the camera man, while Mom gives her a bath.  Ruth's diary entries follow, starting with the 3rd day of their drive from FL to IL.  She is 60 and John 67.

December 13, 1966 - "Up and out by 6:45 A.M.  Good day again.  Best yet when we hit Chicago we got sun - only traces of snow in parts of Indiana & Illinois on ground.  Arrived at Diane's at 2:30 & surprised her at early hour.  Roger also here.  Beth & Philip came later & talked to Ken after supper.  Phoned Mom & got Jim so told him we'd see them Thurs.  Lynn is studying us!"

December 14, 1966 - "We took Diane grocery shopping & J. paid bill.  Lynn peevish - lack of sleep I guess.  We went out a 2nd time to the big Niles shopping area & Diane bought herself dress material & pattern for shift.  Tired tonite.  Baby missed good naps so had to go to bed early as she was unhappy.  Diane made Sukiyaki for the 3 of us as Dan flew to Memphis today."

December 15, 1966 - "Diane had a bad night and got up this A.M. to vomit so I took care baby and food.  Called Mom to say we'd not be there today, of course.  Tonite I gave Diane tea and toast, but she lost it.  She must have intestinal flu, but has no doctor yet, except new gynecologist she has first date with on Sat."

Roger and Philip Kellogg are our 3- and 6 -year old nephews.  They are the children of Diane's brother, Ken, and his wife, Beth.  Grandpa John Kellogg had the flu in Florida, starting on Dec. 7, which may be
where Diane got it.  She was going to the OB-Gyne because she was expecting another child in July.  Ruth's mother and brother, Lottie (80) and Jimmie (55) Meredith, lived about a mile away from the Pellettieres, also in Mt. Prospect.  They had moved out of the west side Austin area of Chicago where they had had a 2-flat on Iowa St. since 1922.

Kate and Daddy Dan in 1972

Kate and Daddy Dan Pellettiere enjoy a moment together in one of the new chairs in the living room in Palatine.

Grandparents Ruth and John Kellogg flew in from their new home in Florida the night before Kate's 2nd birthday.  They came in for birthday parties for Kate and also Lynn in May - and to babysit while Diane was at with several AOII functions as brand-new alum chapter president.  They stayed long enough to babysit for a week while Diane and Dan were in Las Vegas at an ad agency business golf function.  Ruth's diary entry is below.

Saturday, April 22, 1972 - "Seemed like Sunday today.  Girls came in to watch me unpack.  Didn't sleep very well.  Lot of preparation went into birthday dinner for Katie and other grandparents and Vi.  D&D spent morning furniture shopping alone.  Girls (not Katie) went to a party in afternoon.  Olive Kenney phoned.

I went with Diane on a ride to take folks home at 7 - all the way to Austin.  Katie liked birthday presents."

The "other grandparents" were Dan and Josephine Pellettiere, who lived in Austin where Ruth lived from 1922 to 1929.  Dan's older sister, Vi, helped her parents a great deal.  By then they were 80 and 82.  The woman who called Ruth was one of her church friends who was still living in Oak Park.  When Ruth and John visited our family, they also saw some of their old friends from First Baptist.

3 of Ruth's Diary Entries in October, 1965

The picture is of me, Diane, in 1964 after Dan Pellettiere and I had been married.  I was sitting on the bed in our apartment in Riverdale, which is part of NYC.  Dan worked for N.W. Ayer, a famous old advertising agency, and I worked for an insurance co. as a technical writer in the EDP department.

Ruth and John Kellogg. my parents, had sold their house in Oak Park.They were living in an apartment, so still involved with local friends, especially from their church, First Baptist.  That would all change when they
moved into the condo they had bought in Clearwater FL, but were renting to a tenant for a year.  Their house had sold faster than they had thought it would.

October 12. 1965 -  John got the CHECKER CAR today.  It looks like a station wagon!  Bulky!"  The huge Checker car (also used for taxicabs) was big enough for guests like my brother and his wife,  who had 2 little boys, plus Ruth and John.  Eventually it also served our family of 5 by 1970.

October 17, 1965  - "Diane phoned with big news (while she had Beth on the phone) that she's expecting first baby about June 1.  
   Beth was expecting luggage we gave her."  The luggage must have been Beth's birthday gift.  She was
Ken's wife at that time.   In a later diary entry I said I thought the doctor's due date was wrong - and he did change it to mid-May - a week after the baby actually arrived.

October 18, 1965 - "Dropped note of congratulations to Diane & Dan.  Went to bank for my household money.  My sewing machine returned at cost of $30.  I used it on towels - seems okay.  Phoned Kay and Roberta."   It was so typical of the times to send a note rather than picking up the phone to make a call, especially a long distance one.  I used to love to write notes and letters and enjoyed getting them from others.  At one time I kept a schedule of who I had written to, trying not to leave any one out inadvertently.  Between friends and relatiives, there were probably 30 people on it.
"Kay and Roberta" were two of Ruth's friends from church.  The Kelloggs joined First Baptist in Nov., 1941 when they moved to Oak Park.  Ruth was 35 and John 42 at that time.

Neither the diary entries nor the picture are in Pieces of a Life.

Ruth & John Celebrate Their 25th in 1954

In the photo Ruth and daughter Diane are about to enter the new 1953 Packard in front of the house,  Nov., 1953.

At age 18, I wrote the following article for the Oak Leaves, published early in June, 1954.  Sounds a bit stilted, but that was the way social items appeared.

Fete John W. Kelloggs' 25th Anniversary
   "The 25th anniversary of Mr. & Mrs. John W. Kellogg was recently celebrated with an open house at their 1210 North Euclid home.  More than 70 villagers and friends from neighboring suburbs conspired to make the occasion a memorable one.

    Of the Kelloggs' two children, their daughter Diane, a senior at high school, was present to take part in the celebration.  Kenneth, their son, a graduate of Northwestern University, is serving in the army, and is presently at Ft. Hood, Texas."

Earlier that day, May 31, I came back from a 3-day First Baptist Church teen outing at a cottage near Sheboygan WI.  Here's a little of the page in my diary from that day.  "Picked up hors d'oeuvres.  Di really beat.  There were about 70 at the Open-House for parents 25th wedding anniversary.  Was a mad house.  Received belle cadeaux.  Bonnie and Di helped me engineer food.  Morey too.  He came home at 7.  Big surprise!"

"Di" was Diane Karis, my best friend.  We met in our alphabetically-arranged home room as freshmen (Kellogg and Karis). "Belle cadeaux" means beautiful gifts for my parents.  "Bonnie" is the daughter of long-time friends, the Ballentines, who were guests.  Morey McDavid was my boyfriend toward the end of high school & had been out of town.  Ken was fulfilling his two-year military obligation after college.  He later went to Univ. of Illinois at Champaign for an MBA.  That's where I went for my Journalism degree.

This was not in Pieces of a Life  nor was the picture.



  

Ruth & John Help Ken & Family Move to Florida - 1971

The picture shows Lynn, Kate and Cindy Pellettiere at Kate's 2nd birthday in April, 1972.  They're in the balloon-clad dining room of the Palatine house with beach pails and shovels on the table in front of them, favors for the kids about to come to the party. The painting is one of Dan's.

Ruth's diary talks about how she and John stayed at Ken's home for a few weeks.  They helped show the house, clean the house, make meals, take care of the boys, do laundry etc. while the Des Plaines house was on the market.  Ken's family would move to one in Clearwater FL that summer, joining Ruth and John as well as Ruth's mother and brother in Largo FL.

June 1, 1971 - 42nd Anniversary!
"I made 2 phone calls to pick up furniture & clothing, etc. before Diane phoned for help.  Out I went to Palatine to stay with ailing Cindy and the baby so she could go register  L & C for summer school.  She or they returned about 11:10 and I had to hurry right back here for boys' lunch, then took them to school and went to beauty shop (Tiffany's - Joann) where had hair done.  

Back here to put roast in oven, clean up lunch dishes  & make a few more beds before Philip got here to go to the store with me.  Roger went right to a birthday party from school.

Anniversary card in the mail from D & D.  She & girls phoned & sang over wire the 'Birthday' song - and substituting Anniversary.  Had good meal for 5 of us at 6:10 - only I and boys didn't like the taste of the sweet potatoes."

The "summer school" was an arts/crafts class at the Palatine Park District facility over on the east side of town.  It was one or two hours each time, met twice a week and ran several weeks.  Lynn & Cindy seemed
enjoy it.  Ken's first wife is mentioned periodically in Ruth's diary.  She must have been living separately, perhaps in a hospital.   Neither the diary quote nor the picture are in Pieces of a Life.  The 5 people who ate Ruth's dinner would have been all Kelloggs - Ruth, John, Ken (39), Philip (10) and Roger (7).

John's Exciting Encounter with the Police, Guns Drawn!

This is not from a diary, but sketches an incident that turned up among the papers left by my parents, Ruth and John Kellogg.  It's in John's handwriting, hastily written on the "scrap paper" with an ad for his bandage business on the other side.  I know he wrote it at 6:15 AM, but don't know the day or the year.  My guess is in the late 1950s or 1960s. The neighbor he mentions is not familiar to me, so I was not living at home at that point.

"I went to the garage and found door jammed.  Would not open.  I raised it a foot & crawled under & was looking at it when 2 men with guns rushed up & said to come out.  They said they had said they were police officers, but if so I did not hear them.

Citro girl & boyfriend were held up as they came home about 4 AM from a dance.  The Citro garage door makes noise so the girl, not yet asleep, heard door being opened.  Citro put on garage light & burglar rushed away.  Police said they saw me crawl under the door & figured I was the burglar.  

Good thing I got a good heart!  

Never had anything like this before."

I've never heard this story before, nor did I know the Citro family, who must have lived nearby, either on Linden or Euclid in Oak Park.  Both streets shared our alley.  Evidentally the attempted burglary was after the boyfriend dropped off the Citro girl at her house.  John usually left for work by 5 AM, so the fact that he wrote this note at 6:15 is telling.  He was upset enough to get off schedule - and doubtless was interviewed by the police as well, though his driver's license would have quickly proven who he was.  I wonder if the burglar first tried the Kellogg door, accidentally jamming it.

So far I haven't found out anything else, but perhaps a newspaper or The Oak Leaves might have covered the story.  This is not part of Pieces of a Life.