Grace Hamilton TODD

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.

Grace married James Vantine MINK on 18 May 1878. James (son of Robert Russell MINK and Sarah Jane FONTEYN) was born on 26 Jun 1852; died on 17 Nov 1931. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Anne, with her first husband Arthur, moved to Montana near Harriet Burlingame's ranch. They lived there during the time Clyde Mink was foreman at the ranch. Anne divorced Arthur Snyder and returned to Elgin where she subsequently married Charles Springer who worked for the Elgin Sweeper Company and later the Elgin National Watch Factory. While in Elgin they lived in a home at 456 Douglas Ave. After the watch factory closed they moved to Los Angeles where Charles Springer worked for Parker Bros. Furniture Store. They bought a home in Carlsbad, CA. After Charles died, Anne sold their home and went to live in the Lutheran Home there in Carlsbad. She died there in 1976. (#9)

Family/Spouse: Arthur SNYDER. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

James V. Mink II moved to California in the early 1930's. It was there he married Azalea Presley. He lived in the Pasadena and Los Angeles area where he worked until his death in 1962.

Notes:

died - acute nydroceph

Notes:

Gladys M. Mink lived in Elgin at 521 Douglas Ave. with her family. In 1945, when her mother died, she moved to Los Angeles. At the time of her death, May 12, 1972, she lived in Orange, CA.

Notes:

The following is part of a letter from James Vantine Mink III dated June 1996. 'My father was born in Elgin, IL, the son of James Vantine Mink and Grace Todd Mink. He attended Elgin Public Schools and was graduated from Elgin High School. (class of 1910) After graduation he spent time in Michigan and adjoining areas working on pipe line construction projects. He responded to an advertizement placed in the Elgin Courier News by my mother, Harriet Burlingame, who had recently divorced Henry Dakin and was searching for a foreman to help her run the ranch she had received from Mr. Dakin. The ranch was located near Miles City Montana, and my father went there to help manage this cattle ranch. He also filed a homestead claim on a parcel of neighboring property which he had intended to improve with a dwelling, well, etc. During the earlier period of U.S. involvement in World War I, he had an agricultural deferment. However, in 1917 he joined the U.S. Army and was married to my Mother Harriet Burlingame Mink. When my father left the Army, they sold the ranch and purchased a farm near Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. Their son James Vantine Mink III was born there in 1923 and in 1924 they sold the farm and moved to South Pasadena, California, where my mother's mother, Amelia Winchester Burlingame was living with my mother's sister, Anna Mary Burlingame, and Richard Burlingame Dakin, my mother's son by her first husband, Henry Dakin. Richard had remained on the ranch in Montana until of high school age and then went to Elgin for his high school years. After finishing high school he came to South Pasadena with Ameila and Anna Burlingame and obtained a position with the South Pasadena Branch of the Security First National Bank at Fair Oaks Ave. and Mission Street. Also living in South Pasadena at that time were Dale Tussing and Hattie-Belle (Vale) Tussing, her mother, Grandma Vale, and her husband, Dale Tussing, together with three of Dale Tussing's nieces, Frances, Virginia and Shirley Tussing. Dale Tussing was a Vice President of the Security First National Bank and worked in the Los Angeles offices. He was able to get a position in the bank for Richard Dakin, as mentioned, and for my father at the Broadway & Colorado Branch in Pasadena. During this period, family and social life was centered around these people. Hattie-Belle was a childhood friend of my mother's and of the Burlingame family in Elgin. Also at this time my father's parents and his sister, Gladys M. Mink visited the family during the winters and staid at the Burlington Hotel Apartments in Los Angeles. James Vantine Mink II, dad's youngest brother, came out (c.1933) and staid near him in an apartment on Fair Oaks Ave. and Foothill Blvd. Shortly he married Azalea Presley and Richard B. Dankin married Frances S. Tussing. They had one son, Richard Bryant Dakin. During the Great Depression, the Security First National Bank foreclosed on a great amount of property all over Southern California and it was necessary to create Real Estate Offices at the main offices and at certain branches. Dad became Assistant, and subsequently, Manager of the Pasadena office, Marengo and Colorado Streets. In the early 30's there was a great deal of vacant property, buildings, houses, offices, etc. Dad's job was to manage these properties which were scatered throughout Pasadena, South Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Baldwin Park, etc. I recall he was able to get vacant offices in the buildings on Colorado Street the bank owned, so the family, including Dad's mother and sister Gladys, were able to see a number of the Tournament of Roses New Year's Parades in grand style durning the early 30's. Another relative that was living in an apartment hotel in Los Angeles area was Jenny McPherson. I believe she was my father's aunt, my great aunt, Grace Todd Mink's sister. Aunt Jenny had a son Malcolm McPherson. At the time I was taken to see aunt Jane (Jenny) she was blind and had a nurse by the name of Dora. As the Depression eased off and the bank sold off a great deal of its foreclosures, all its property was administered from the head office in Los Angeles and Dad was put in charge. He obtained a California Real Estate Broker's License and went into the real estate business for the rest of his career. The exception was during World War II when Dad took a defense job with the Jet Propulsion Labratories in Pasadena. While in the real estate business in Pasadena, Dad was affiliated with the firm of C.J. McCormmack & Company. In 1936, Anna M. Burlingame built a home at 361 South Greenwood Ave., Pasadena, near the Huntington Library. At this time Harriet Mink's great aunt Phoebe Ann Burlingame of Adams, MA, passed on, and Harriet and her sister Anna shared in the estate. They brought back to Pasadena a great amount of fine antique furniture which was used to furnish the new home and to this was added furnishings from the house of James Vantine Mink, 521 Douglas Ave., Elgin, Illinois, when Grace Todd Mink passed away in 1945. During these years the family and social life revolved around Elgin friends who came to live in Southern California. The annual Elgin Picnic, held in one of the region's parks, was a very special social event not to be missed. In 1949 the residence in Pasadena was sold and another purchased in Saratoga, CA. Dad entered the real estate in Los Gatos, CA. In 1952 Anna M. Burlingame died and the residence in Saratoga was sold. Mother and Dad continued to live in Los Gatos until they moved to Glendale. Richard B. Dankin divorced Frances (Tussing), his first wife about 1952 and in that year married Colette Johnson. Harriet B. Mink died in 1967. For the first year after her death Dad lived with his sister. Anne Springer in Carlsbad, CA, but returned to Glendale where he lived until 1975 when he moved to 8070 Selma Ave. to live with his son, James Vantine Mink III. He lived there until his death in 1980 at 87 years. Arthur Clyde Mink and Harriet Burlingame Mink are burried in the Winchester Lot, Bluff City Cemetery, Elgin, Illinois. Clyde Mink was very active in the American Institute of Banking and was for a time President of the Pasadena, CA, Chapter. As such he attended the 1932 AIB Convention in Chicago. While there he went to the 1932 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago and visited in Elgin.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

DIED DIPHTHERIA 1-3-26 days