 1857 - 1945 (87 years)
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| Name |
Grace Hamilton TODD [1] |
| Birth |
28 Aug 1857 |
Dundee Twp., Kane Co., IL  [1] |
| Gender |
Female |
| Death |
15 Jan 1945 |
Pasadena, CA [1] |
| Person ID |
I9307 |
Hole |
| Last Modified |
3 Oct 1997 |
| Family |
James Vantine MINK, b. 26 Jun 1852 d. 17 Nov 1931 (Age 79 years) |
| Marriage |
18 May 1878 [1] |
| Children |
| | 1. Anne MINK d. 1976, Carlsbad, CA |
| | 2. James V. MINK d. 1962, Pasadena, CA |
| | 3. Edna J. MINK, b. 30 Aug 1884, Elgin, Kane, IL d. 8 Aug 1885, Elgin, Kane, IL (Age 0 years) |
| | 4. Royal J. MINK, b. 1 Jan 1886, Elgin, Kane, IL d. 26 Oct 1896, Elgin, Kane, IL (Age 10 years) |
| | 5. Gladys MINK, b. 1890, Elgin, Kane Co., IL d. 12 May 1972, Orange, CA (Age 82 years) |
| | 6. Arthur Clyde MINK, b. 7 Jun 1893, Elgin, Kane Co., IL d. Oct 1980 (Age 87 years) |
| | 7. Jeanie Marguerite MINK, b. 7 Aug 1895, Elgin, Kane, IL d. 3 Nov 1896, Elgin, Kane, IL (Age 1 year) |
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| Family ID |
F4034 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
16 Nov 2011 |
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| Notes |
- From 'Old Elgin Tales' by Hazel Belle Perry - Free Press 2/14/1968 Jane Crichton McNeil, then a widow, trained her three children, Malcolm, Anna and John McNeil, in the career of merchandising by having them help her manage a general store at their home in Airdrie, Scottland. Jane married again in 1847 and she and her new husband, Abraham Archibald, and the children sailed for America in 1848 and settled on a farm they bought in Dundee Township. Soon they and all the mother's brothers who had come with them were busy turning the land into dairy farms which they felt was the best way to make money in the new land. Most pioneer women in those days were content to be good homemakers and mothers and to leave business success for their husbands to accomplish. But Jane not only was a loving mother and a shrewd and capable storekeeper, but she became so successful in managing the dairy farm that she was listed at the top of a column of Dundee Township tax payers in an old Kane County book as 'Jane Archibald, farmer.' Jane's daughter, Anna, married a farmer, Thomas Todd, in 1853 and Anna soon was following in her mother's footsteps as an exceedingly clever business women as well as a good wife and mother. By 1858, Anna and her husband had three small children; Jennie, James M. and Gracie. That should have been enough responsibility to absorb the attention of most young mothers, but Anna's active mind had been busy planning how she and her husband and her two brothers might establish in Elgin a family grocery like that which her mother had in Airdrie, Scotland. Before long, Anna had infected her husband and brothers with her enthusiasm and the firm of Todd and McNeil was erecting, with some help from Mother Archibald, a two-story building on the south west corner of Chicago Street and what is now Grove Ave. A grocery store was established on the first floor and up over this were rooms in which Anna and Thomas Todd and their children were to live. The grocery store was a success from the start, even though it was close to the Knott grocery on the northwest corner of Chicago and North Grove where the Elgin National Bank now stands. By 1866 Mr. Knott decided to retire from the grocery business because of his health and so he sold out his business to Todd and the McNeils. After 1866, the store expanded fast and soon became both a grocery and a dry goods store. Before long, it was necessary to have more help and at Anna's suggestion the dry goods added more merchandise that would appeal to women. It then seemed best to have some women on the sales staff and since Malcolm McNeil had married Catherine Dempster in 1859 and John McNeil had married Janet Crichton in 1864, by the late 1860's both Catherine and Janet McNeil were listed as saleswomen in the store. We do also know that Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Todd at one time had a dry goods store on the south side of Chicago Street, east of the Square. [1]
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