Benjamin Arthur Reid (1906 - 1963)

Born 2 Dec 1906 in Turner, Michigan

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 12 May 1963 at age 56 in Elmhurst, Illinois

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Birth

Birth:

User ID: 8F320A60-9F66-47B8-9DFA-B0E141C1FF1E

Record ID Number: MH:IF661

Date: 2 DEC 1906

Place: Turner, Michigan

Death

Death:

User ID: 58275FD3-93C0-410B-BE53-A70759FD76EE

Record ID Number: MH:IF662

Date: 12 MAY 1963

Place: Elmhurst, Illinois

Record ID Number

Record ID Number: MH:I489

User ID

User ID: 494D11DB-7944-4FB7-B076-FDF5DB503DB9

Note

Note: #N111

Notes

Note N111Notes for BENJAMIN ARTHUR REID:

There is much in Benjamin Reid's life that is a mystery and may well remain so. His early life was difficult as a result of a father who, for his own unknown reasons did not give the love one might expect. He was sent off to live with his grandparents at an early age following the death of his mother and from the records found his first marriage ended in divorce with Benjamin taking custody of hisson (what happened to his daughter remains a mystery).

Using a journal that Benjamin wrote and data collected from other sources we have been able to fairly accurately trace his movements thereby shedding some light on his life. The best way to visualize his movements is to place his life in a timeline:

December 2, 1906 - born in a frame house in Turner, Michigan.

1908 - Family moves to Bay City, Michigan.

1911 - Mother (Nancy) dies, his father turns Benjamin and his younger brother Cleo over to Nancy's parents Benjamin and Mary Trombley in Turner, Michigan.

About 1914 - The store run by the Trombley's in Turner, Michigan burns down and the family moved north to Tower, Michigan where Benjamin opened another general store which also served as their home. During this time Benjamin when he was 8 or 9 worked building a dam on the Big Black River which ran right near the Trombley home and store.

1918 - A flu epidemic struck Tower, Michigan and Benjamin worked as a grave digger. His grandfather suffers a stroke as a result of the flu and is incapacitated.

1918-1921 - Benjamin is visited by his older brother and sister (Clifford & Myrtle) who are brought by an aunt and uncle to visit. This is the last time Benjamin sees Clifford for in about 1919 he is accidentally killed when an oil taker explodes. Not being able to care for Benjamin, Grandmother Trombley has him live with his Uncles Charles Weishuhn and Joseph Trombley on their farms. Cleo is sentto live with his father (most likely in Flint, Michigan).

1921 - Grandfather Trombley dies, Grandmother Trombley sells the store and home in Tower and takes Benjamin to Detroit to stay with his grandmother's sister.

1921-1924 - Works in Detroit in a seed factory and as an assistant to a plasterer. Travels to Flint, Michigan to see his brother Cleo. Locates his brother who is working shining shoes but does not seehis father.

1925 - Meets and marries Marion Jean Falfinburg. The couple lives at 5739 Lawton Ave. Detroit.

About 1926 - His daughter Shirley Jean is born.

1927 - His son, Benjamin Arthur Reid Jr. is born.

About 1928 - His marriage to Marion appears to fall apart and Benjamin moves to Grand Rapids, Michigan where his father is now living and he rooms with some people who are planning on going to California. Benjamin plans on going with them because he has a job waiting for him there. In late 1928 or early 1929 his son Benjamin is put in a orphanage most likely in Detroit.

1929 - He travels to Chicago to visit his sister Myrtle and decides to remain there. Meets Elizabeth Rinder who will become his second wife. On February 12th he takes a job with the A & P food store chain. Works there until April 22, 1930.

1930-1932 - Benjamin makes plans to return to Detroit and he contacts his Uncle Harold Trombley to go to the orphanage and pick up his son Benjamin. It is logical to assume that he has been in contactwith Marion about obtaining a divorce for while he is there divorce papers are filed by Marion and the divorce is uncontested by Benjamin. After arriving in Detroit he takes a job with the C. F. Smith Grocery Company on on May 29, 1930. He works there until September 29, 1930. His divorce is finalized on October 16, 1930. He returns to Chicago with his son Benjamin. Status of his daughter is not known. It is most likely that she remained with her mother Marion as part of the divorce agreement. Benjamin's second daughter Elizabeth Ann Reid is born. Family takes up residence in a series of homes located at 7009 S. Lowe, 627 Marquette, 70th & Union, 70th & Sangamon and finally at 7105 South Park in Chicago living above a Funeral Home.

1932-1936 - Works as a carpenter and laborer in the Insurance Exchange Building in Chicago. Begins work there on December 23, 1932 and leaves the position on July 30, 1933 to become a janitor for the company on August 29, 1933. He remains in this position until March 24, 1942. In 1933 the family moves to 7536 S. May St. in Chicago.

1937- 1939 - Family moved to Elmhurst in 1937 living at 360 Elm St. Works for the Board of Education in Elmhurst, Illinois from April 1, 1942 to February 27, 1943. Returns to work for the Insurance Exchange in Chicago on March 1, 1943.

1940-1963 - Family moves to 390 Concord in a house built by his father in law Arthur Rinder (the address would become 15W104 Concord in later years).

May 12, 1963 - Benjamin dies at home from a heart attack.

The best way to understand the life of Benjamin is to read what he wrote one day in January of 1959 in a journal he kept. These are his words....

To Whom it won't concern:

Not quite certain why I should jot down a few odds and ends in this book, possibly it is because I found it so hard to find out just who my relatives were (Reid and Trombley), where, and why I was born, also when I was born.

In the years that have passed, I have found, and have seen, the unpainted frame house built in the woods near Turner, Michigan. Born of parents, who like other married couples, where one parent (my mother) seems to have better qualifications of parenthood than the other.

I was the third of four children, and mother passed away soon after the last child was born. I was possibly two or three years old at the time, so if I tried real hard I could not tell you anything about her or how she looked. I have one picture of her as she laid in her coffin. You can find elsewhere in this book a small obituary about her. When I read it, it told me that she was a wonderful person, because she was a daughter of a wonderful mother, Grandma Trombley, and a wonderful grandfather Trombley.

After the death of my mother, our family of four were separated, not for a day, but a life time. And only eternity can tell if we shall ever meet again. I am hoping that it will be possible.

It was my dear grandparents, the Trombleys, that were the kind of people who would not shirk a duty, who took my younger brother (Cleo Reid) and I into their life and home and become every bit or evenbetter parents to us.

My grandfather was in business in Turner, Michigan and a few short years after we called their place our home, his business burned down leaving him with a total loss. May I remind you that back in those days, the early 1900's, life and your existence depended on your own thinking and brawn. Far different that today when everything is at your fingertips. If you don't have what you want or desire, you have the where with all to purchase it. If not with cash, a very liberal credit system. Those days were hard days, but they were the best days. You were mentally and physically far better off. Now days other people do your thinking for you. I will never forget the horse, cow, dog and the many other animals that can become a large part of your life. They serve you so faithfully, without complaint. I even had an old horse (owned by Uncle Charlie Weishuhn that saved my life by standing over (he ran back to do this) me when other young horses wanted to trample me as I lay on the ground when a young boy.

As you may want to know, I will tell you that I was born Dec. 2, 1906. After the fire at Turner, Michigan my grandparents moved to Tower, Mich. with my younger brother and I. He started a grocery and general store there. I remember going with my grandfather to buy live cattle and hogs from farmers taking them back home and doing our own killing and dressing these animals for our meat market. I went to Sunday School and church even in those days, and can remember my grandmother reading the bible to me at home. The 1918 flu epidemic caught us as well as others and I remember crawling on my handsand knees to bring water to my grandmother. No doctors available and no help from others as they were also sick. In case you don't recall, people died faster then you could bury them.

During my years at this time (12 yrs old) I used to help dig graves by hand as our regular grave digger was very old. One time he told me we had to dig up a body as the people wanted to move it else where. The body had been buried for many years and the experience will never be forgotten, even tho I have found it hard at times for some to believe my story about the woman that I dug up. Her bones were all as they had buried her, but they fell as ashes when air got into the coffin as I opened it. Her hair was shiny black and it had grown down the side of her body, and was curled up at her feet. I shoveled her hair and ashes into a small apple box for shipment elsewhere. She didn't complain about my disturbing her.

My grandfather had a severe stroke as a result of the flu of 1918 and this caused a lot of extra care for him. I remember that I fad to feed him oatmeal every night at midnight because he wanted it.

I am thankful for Uncle Joe Trombley and Uncle Charlie Weishuhn and their families for providing a home for me a number of times when I was a boy, and it was hard for my grandmother to keep me. Often my grandfather became ill. I enjoyed life on their farms. I possibly wasn't to much of a farmer but the animals seemed to like me and they did not mind my feeding and caring for them. I must say here that only once an aunt and uncle brought my sister (Myrtle) and my older brother (Clifford) to Tower to see us. I was in my late twenties before I ever saw my dad since we left him at Turner. He kept the two older children with him. My brother Clifford was accidental killed when he was fourteen years old so you can see how young I was when I saw him at Tower. Also just before I was taken to the farm by my Uncle Joe, my grandmother had to send my younger brother (Cleo) to live with my father where ever he was living at the time. This was a sad thing to have to do, for life with father, as I understand it was always on the rough side. Even when we were very small my father used to throw us across the room so say my grandmother. We were always so scared of him that we would hide under the bedwhen we knew he was coming home. God never planned that any human should have this kind of heart inside of them.

While at Uncle Charlies I remember he and I would relax under a shade tree after we finished dinner. I should like to remind you that meals at a farm house were always something real good and you could eat heartily.

I am not certain if it was Uncle Charlie or Uncle Joe who took me along fishing in the river one time. I could not understand why we did not take fish poles etc, only tubs to put the fish in. We walked out into the river with these tubs floating and my Uncle threw a stick of dynamite in the air above the water and believe me we could not pick up all the stunned fish fast enough. Well that's one way of fishing and less expensive (unless you got caught at it).

I did return to grandma's place a number of times, for this was still my home I guess. The time came when grandpa died and later grandma sold the business and property and she took me with her to Detroit, Mich. where she had a daughter living. Cannot remember just how old I was at this time, maybe 16 or 18, and I will never forget seeing a big city with all its lights for the first time in my life. I stood on the back end of the old streetcar as it went from the heart of the city to where we were to stay. Amazement is not the word to express what I was experiencing for the first time.

My Aunt was married to a policeman and they had a few children (one about my age, a girl name Iva) but they found room for us to live with them in a flat above a store on a busy street. I soon found ajob in a seed factory, later worked in a theater, because the seed factory was a seasonal job. Later my Uncle Harold Trombley came from the north where we lived and I soon found myself a laborer for a plastering contractor. My Uncle Harold and a Clint Johns worked on the same job. I remember that we worked on the ball park at Detroit. Don't know how long I worked at the but I can remember when they had a strike and things were troublesome so I dropped out of it as did my Uncle Harold. He and I were quite good pals for many years. My next job I guess was working for Sherwin Williams paint co in Detroit. My father and brother were living in Flint, Michigan at the time, and one day my grandmother and I drove there to see or try to find them. My father was at work (did not even know what he looked like nor did I see him at the time). We were told the boy was shining shoes in a shoe parlor so I went there. I got in the chair and he shined my shoes without looking up to see who it was. Whenhe finished I handed him a dollar and told him to keep the change. When he looked at me and realized who it was, it was something that neither one of us will forget. He told me that dad made him workall the time and long hours and would take all his money from him. My dad of course remarried a couple of times. My brother ran away a couple of times and would come to Detroit where I was living, but I could not keep him or support him at the time.

As we grew older, and while I was in the hospital for surgery in Detroit, once again my brother showed up. This time he came to the hospital with two show girls and he wanted me to give him money to go to New York with these girls as they promised he would get a job on the stage. He did win a couple of times when they first had contests when the charleston was all the rage. I finally gave in and he did travel in Vaudeville shows with Mitzi Green. He was a tall handsome guy by this time. He always was the black sheep of our family I guess, but this show business made him worse, for he would rather sponge off someone rather than work.

I spent about eleven years in Detroit, Michigan, then moved to Grand Rapids, Mich for a short time. At this time my father lived there. I did not stay to long, maybe a year or so. I was rooming with some people who planned to move to California and I was supposed to go a little later to Calif. also because I had a job waiting for me there. I first wanted to stop in Chicago and see my sister that Ihad not seen in years. This I did and because of her, at the time I never did get to Calif. She wanted her big brother to stay around, for she claimed she always wanted to have a brother around but her life was just about as unfortunate as mine. About thirty years of my life has past since this time and I find myself still in or near Chicago. God only knows if my life would have been better or worse off if I had not stayed here. There have been blessings upon blessings, but also trials upon trials.

For the most part I am to blame (this must be true for I have heard it from others). while living in Chicago I accepted Christ as my Savior, and I believe my sins of the past, present and future have all been put under the blood that he shed while hanging on the cross for me. This is something I certainly do not deserve. It is mine, solely by the love, mercy and grace of a loving God. John 3:16. Iam thankful to God for all that he has done for me, and I regret that I have failed him so many times. Have been working quite steadily but never made much money. Have been able to pay off a house mortgage and other items that seemed necessary as time went on. There won't be anything to much to leave behind, as far as worldly goods are concerned, but it will be a bit more then I received during my early life. My children have now married and have given grandchildren unto me. I am happy that they know the Saviour and are teaching their children likewise. Right at the time the grandchildren getbig enough to romp and play with, I have to get feeling bad and sot able to do the things I had hoped to do. Many thoughts have been left out of these pages. It would not add to or take away anyway. People have entered and left your life and about all I can say is that you can find some good and bad in all of them. It has been hard and as I look back I feel certain that it would have been far better to never have been born, but God deemed it otherwise so here I am. Do not feel sorry for my life or for anything I have jotted down herein. No two people walk the same path from the cradle to the grave. Each one has an experience all their own, and it is better this way. It would be too dull if everyone's path were lined with roses. The life hereafter will be so much better for the imperfections, mistakes and our acts of hurting others in one way or another will never be a part of you there.

Take heart everyone, give everyone his rightful place, esteem others higher then yourselves, give help when help is need. God gave so why shouldn't you forgive that you might be forgiven. This is so very important.

Ben Reid, Born Dec. 2, 1906

More About BENJAMIN ARTHUR REID:

Burial: 15 May 1963, Chapel Hill Gardens West, Oak Brook Terrace, Illinois, Garden of the Cross, Lot 68 A, Grave 2

Cause of Death: Heart Attack (Acute Coronary Occlusion)

Residence: Bet. 1925 - 1930, 5937 Lawton, Detroit, Michigan

Marriage Notes for BENJAMIN REID and MARION FALFINBURG:

There is little to go on in determining just when Benjamin met Marion. From Benjamin's journal we know that he moved with his grandmother (Mary Trombley) to Detroit, Michigan from Tower, Michigan after his grandfather died. He states that he was between 16 & 18 when this happened. We know that Benjamin's grandfather died in 1921 so Benjamin would have been about 15 when they relocated to Detroit. While in Detroit Benjamin had several jobs. He worked in a seed factory, then a theater, and then as a plasterer with his Uncle Harold Trombley. The last job he remembers in Detroit was working in theSherwin Williams Paint factory. This is the occupation that is listed on his son's (Benjamin) birth certificate.

Whenever he met Marion the couple's divorce certificate shows that the date of marriage was December 9, 1925 and divorced on October 16, 1930. Benjamin's journal shows that in about 1928 he left Detroit and went to Grand Rapids, Michigan and from there to Chicago.

The divorce certificate shows that Marion filed for divorce on the grounds of non-support.

Record ID Number: MH:N111

User ID: 4ABF3EBA-498C-4611-8872-BECD1902F589