Rock Island News – Lillian

I recently found some newspaper articles that give a glimpse into the lives of the Remington family, especially Lillian, while they were living in Rock Island, Illinois. Based on where their children were born, we can tell that the family moved from Michigan to Rock Island about 1918.

Most of the articles are from the Rock Island Argus. The articles date from 1919 to 1936.

One of the earliest, from 9 February 1920, announced the meeting of the “Larkin Club.” This club was sponsored by the Larkin Soap Company, which by 1920 had organized groups of housewives to market their products. Their product line went far beyond soap and was second only to the Sears catalog in offerings.

Several articles gave social news related to church activities:

              

The next article, from 1921, notes that Lillian Remington passed the examination for her teacher’s certificate. She was 29 years old with four young children. In 1911, when she was 19 years old, Lillian was a teacher in Manton, Michigan. A ledger book from that time recorded three pay periods - 9/29/11 - $30, 10/2/11 - $5, and 11/10/11 - $14.45 (see The Red Book). I don’t know that she ever taught in Rock Island.

This was a few years before her husband, JM, left the family. There were no articles that mentioned him.

On 4 September 1926, Lillian was in police court where she won a judgement of $3 from a neighbor after he assaulted her.

                    

Articles from 1929 and 1934 let us know that she could also sing.

            

In the early 1930s, Lillian’s name appeared regularly in the newspapers. She authored book reviews, published original poems, and entered contests, some of which she won. She also started using the surname Schuyler – sometimes alone and sometimes in combination with Remington. Schuyler was her paternal grandmother’s maiden name.

Some snippets of the book reviews:

        

                          

 Her contests:

She even got my dad into the act:

     

 Her poetry:

 

And finally, from 24 September 1936:

Rock Island, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, 1936

This account was written by my father Glen S. Remington. It was not dated, but the mention of his brother’s death in the last paragraph indicates it was written about 1989. Photos and map were added by Nanci Remington.

 

My First Trip

It was September in 1936 when my family was getting ready to drive from Rock Island, Illinois to Santa Monica. California. My oldest brother had been offered a job with Douglas Aircraft Co. and we were going to new opportunities.

"All six of us" - Kate, Ken, Bernard, Glen, Ruth, Stan @1927

My father had left the family about ten years before leaving my mother to raise six children. Needless to say, we had a very rough going through the depression without a father to help with our income. My mother got a small mother's pension, and it was up to the rest of us to earn a little money to help provide the bare essentials. My oldest brother, Bernard, had the major responsibilities to supplement our - income, but as soon as we were old enough to get around, we were selling newspapers, magazines, and anything else that might bring in a few dimes. Of course, we were known as the poor folks on the other side of the tracks, and if we had remained in Rock Island it would have been tough to ever remove this stigma. So when we had the opportunity to move to California and get a new start, we were very excited.

Bernard, Lillian, Kenneth 1932

In those days companies did not provide moving expenses; if you wanted to work for them, you had to get to them the best way you could. So in our case, we had to acquire a car and enough money to get there. We had an auction of all of our household goods and managed to raise enough money to buy a used 1929 Model A Ford.

1936 - address in Rock Island - 1420 16th (the empty lot)

When we were finally ready to leave, we tied a rug and just a few other items to the outside of the Model A, and six of us piled into that small car and away we went. Since none of us had ever driven, Bernard was given the responsibility to learn to drive. In those days driver’s licenses were not required, so we did not need to worry about acquiring one. My two older sisters Katharine and Ruth did not want to drive, so I had to learn on this trip to relieve Bernard. My next older brother, Kenneth, decided to go to Chicago rather than California, so he was not available to help. At the age of 14 years, I took over the driving on part of the trip.

With very limited cash, we could only afford to buy two new tires and had to take a chance with the other two well-worn tires that came with the car. My other brother, Stanley, was just too young to drive, and my mother was unable to help.

So we crossed the Mississippi River at Davenport and then headed down the river to Fort Madison. We drove past the walls of the large prison there; it was my first view of a penitentiary. We then got on Highway 24 and managed to get to Kansas City without any problems. 

 

Our next large city was Topeka, Kansas where we drove around the state capitol where Alfred Landon was governor, and also the Republican candidate for President. It struck me funny that most of the cars parked around the state capitol were displaying “Roosevelt for President” bumper stickers. From Topeka, we continued West towards Colorado Springs. Since we were fast running out of money, we had to look for help. We stopped at a farmhouse and asked the farmers if they would help us out with a meal. They were very nice and invited us all in and gave us our first good meal since we had left home. After eating with them, and thanking them we continued on towards Colorado Springs. As we approached Colorado Springs, I had my first view of a mountain: Pike’s Peak. This was a beautiful sight for me, and I have loved the mountains ever since. We finally arrived in Colorado Springs after driving through our first mountains. It was a real thrill for all of us to get this new experience.

Pikes Peak Avenue with Pikes Peak in the background, 1940

From then on, though, we had more mountain passes to drive through than we were prepared for. Just south of Colorado Springs, we had to drive through Raton Pass. Today it is no problem since Interstate Highway 25 provides an easy way through the pass, but in 1936 it was just a very narrow winding road, with steep ravines on the side of the road. There was just enough room for two cars to pass each other.

             

After crossing many miles of this treacherous road, we finally came to a wide intersection with a gas station. Just as we approached the intersection, we had a blowout. Had we had this blowout along any other part of the road, we would have been in real trouble. But God made sure we got to this area before the tire blew. With the help of the gas station, we got the tire patched, and we were on our way to Santa Fe.

I’ll never forget that first trip to Santa Fe. It was raining when we arrived, and we walked around in the rain to see the city. What struck me as strange was the houses had rain pipes to the sidewalks; you had to watch that you didn’t walk under the spouts and become soaked.

Photographer: T. Harmon Parkhurst. Title: Santa Fe Fiesta parade, East San Francisco Street, Santa Fe New Mexico. Date: 1925-1945

My mother knew a doctor who had moved from Rock Island to Santa Fe, so we looked him up and he loaned us a few dollars to help us get to Santa Monica. (My mother sent his money to him as soon as she was able.) From Santa Fe, we took another mountainous trip south to Albuquerque. Even though we were able to borrow a few dollars in Santa Fe, we hardly had enough money to buy gasoline to get us to California. Therefore, we had to look for help in Albuquerque. The Salvation Army gave us a helping hand. They sent us to a restaurant for a nice meal and filled our gas tank to get us part way; it was a real big help and I have tried to repay the Army since.

Going west from Albuquerque you must climb a long steep grade. It was all our little old Ford could do to make it up this grade, but through the grace of God, it made it. Since we were afraid to try to drive through the mountains west of us, we had to drop south and head for Phoenix, Arizona. We managed to get through Phoenix after 11 days on the road, and headed toward Blythe, California on the old rough ’66.’ It took most of a day to go from Phoenix to Blythe, but we finally made it.

When we got to Blythe we ran into another new experience. California has an inspection station, and they made us take everything out of the car and open all suitcases and boxes to prove that we carried no fruit. It took us nearly an hour to get through this inspection station, but it really was great to finally arrive in California.

Fortunately for us, we had some distant relatives living in Covina, so we had a place to stay until Bernard had a chance to go into Santa Monica and report to work and find us a place to live. While staying in Covina another treat was in store for us. Our cousin’s house was located in the midst of orange groves, so we had the opportunity to pick nice ripe oranges from the trees and enjoy their luscious taste; it was a rare time that we ever had an orange in Rock Island. We remained in Covina for about two weeks when we finally received word from Bernard that he found a small house for us to rent.

The first stop was 1918 6^th Street in Santa Monica, California. That address now has apartments, but this house across the street may have been typical of the neighborhood at the time.

As we came down Pico Blvd. to our new house, we got our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, and what an awesome sight it was. What a thrill for me to know that I was to live just six blocks from the great Pacific Ocean. I had never dreamed I would even see this ocean, let alone live just six blocks away. As it turned out I became a real beach bum; spending almost all my time away from school at the beach.

Route Map – this map follows highways that did not exist in 1936 (over 2000 miles)

In all, it took us 13 days to make this trip. After many flat tires and crowded days for six of us to travel in this model A Ford, and with the help of our Lord, we entered into a much better life. All six of the siblings got through high school; some of us managed to get a college education, but all of us have led a very productive life. Bernard, who gave so much of his life for the rest of us, died here in St. Charles five years ago. He was the greatest brother one could ever want. Thanks to him the rest of us were given the opportunity to make something of our lives.

 

Glen S. Remington