My Family Fifty-nine Years Ago

This would have been the winter of 50-51 when Ray and I were married just over a year and I was pregnant with Sherry who was born in June of 1951. We lived in an apartment owned by an Italian couple, Sam and Rena Marini. They lived on the main floor and had a spaghetti restaurant in the basement. What great food Rena cooked! The house was on the "old hard road" that ran right along the river. In the picture, you can see the seawall and the river right there. Ray and I are on the left, my sister, Joanne, has her hair in a bandana, then Nan and Charlie (our mom and dad) and brother Bud. My Aunt Nelle and her husband, Lambert, were back from California for a visit. I only saw Nelle maybe twice in my life.

Here is a picture of four of the Pearce siblings - Leah, Ed, Nan and Nelle. I will post two more pictures later on that shows all of the siblings and Maggie, my grandmother, at a dinner we had at Marini's. In that picture everyone is there with the exception of Dan, my grandfather, who was deceased, and my Aunt Del, Uncle Harry's wife, and I don't know why she was unable to make it. So long, long ago. (Click to enlarge)

Down on the Farm Much Earlier

A different farm and taken much earlier than the post preceding this. Here is Charlie, my dad, when he worked on the Benton farm in Rome, Illinois, sometime in the middle teens. I love the hat that he wears - he was a great looking young fellow.

Here he is again high atop the big wagon - that's really a tall one. In the background is the farmhouse. When we moved back to Chillicothe in 1984, we bought a house that was right up the street from that farmhouse which was still there but no longer a farm. Probably our yard was part of the farm in the early days.

Plowing - those are four big horses! Looks as if he knows how to work with them just great.

I found this picture of two contented looking cows and assume that they resided at the Benton farm, also.

This picture is much more recent - probably in the early seventies. I am not sure, but I think the tractor belonged to the people who owned the house my parents rented at that time. Anyway, Charlie looks right at home on that tractor, too. (Click to enlarge)

Down on the Farm

I have no idea where this was taken or when or who is in it or what the machine is - I only know that it was in with the pictures that were in Ray's mom's things. It surely was a long, long time ago and isn't that a magnificent piece of machinery? Wonder what it is?

Here is a really cute picture of Ray trying to use the pump--I'm not sure what he is aiming for but I think it is the little bucket on the platform. This was probably taken at his Uncle Sammy's farm just west of Chillicothe at a much later date than the photo above. Hope you enjoy the pictures from a much earlier time. (Click to enlarge)

Such A Bummer

In the fall of 1962, Ray was transferred to Topeka, Kansas, to be in the engineering department of the Santa Fe at their headquarters there in Topeka. Although we were sorry to leave all the friends in Ft. Madison, we were happy that he would be home instead of "out on the road" so much. Then, when I went down and looked for houses and we found this, we were so thrilled to have a garage again! Can you imagine how we felt when he pulled the car in the garage the first time and went to put the door down? Funny, funny! When it came time to get a different car, Ray would first bring one home to see if it snuggled right in and have the door close behind it. That was a cool house. According to the abstract, it had been built by a bootlegger named Sam Williams who ended up in Leavenworth. Under the garage, he had a still. The makings were not there anymore, but there was a big concrete vat not unlike a bathtub. And a manhole went up into the garage where the hootch could be put into the car without being seen. I did find some old pop bottles and a "corn liquor jug" like Snuffy Smith in the comics used to drink from. The still was also a perfect storm shelter since there would have been two sources of egress - the basement or the manhole. In June of 1966, the four of us and our neighbors did go down and stay in the still when a tornado went through Topeka. Our neighborhood was unscathed, but a lot of Topeka was damaged badly. That was a scary night - I don't like storms!! (Click to enlarge)

One More Wedding Announcement

Here is the newspaper article announcing the wedding of Nan and Charlie, my parents. And below is their wedding license which I have. This was in an earlier post on my blog but I thought it needed to be here, also. Oh, and the Rome that they drove to was up the river from Peoria about twenty miles. And Nan was the middle daughter of Dan and Maggie, not the youngest.

(Click to enlarge)

The Pearces in the News

My grandparents as I remember them from my childhood. This picture shows them holding a little fellow and they have written "Bud", but it looks much more like my cousin, Hap. Will have to ask my brother what he thinks. Following are some very old, very yellow old newspaper clippings of events in the lives of the Pearces. The first one is the announcement of Dan and Maggie's marriage.

Next, an account of a trip taken. That was a lot of miles to drive back in those days.

When my grandfather was on the Peoria City Council, this article was in the Peoria paper. At the time, he was Superintendent of the Garbage Department. Dan was very politically minded.

Here is his card when he ran for City Treasurer. I think he had a third grade education - my mother went to school through the 8th grade. Times were much different back then.

The next article announces the birth of my cousin in California, the first grandchild.

Finally, the wedding announcement of my Uncle Ed and Aunt Henrietta.

(Click to enlarge)

Party Time at the Pearces'

I kind of think this might have been a Halloween party judging from the outfits worn by most of the partygoers. The lady on the right in the front row - I am trying to decide what is going on there. Surely she has some stuffing in her blouse! And I think some sort of makeup on her face.
My mom is the girl far left in the middle row with kind of a silly expression on her face. The little gal just right of the pointed hat is hamming it up royally. Betcha they had a good time together at the party.

Written on a picture directly back of the photo above, is a list of the party girls. The two Monch girls would have been cousins of my mom and her sister, Nelle, who evidently took the photo. There are two Wiltz's and they would be related to the man my Aunt Nelle married. The names Roth and McGann are familiar to me, also, as I can remember hearing those names way, way back. And the girl called Katz has her name crop up in the pictures every so often. The list on the back also pinpoints the place the party was held - 319 Behrends Avenue, the Pearce home. Enjoy the goofy girls. (Click to enlarge)