I posted a copy of a graduation announcement last week. I didn’t know who it belonged to, but it turns out it belonged to Uncle Joe DeKorn. A reader posted a link to the answer. It turns out that Uncle Joe graduated from Kalamazoo High School in a class of 26. One of his classmates was an Upjohn son, William Harold Upjohn, and one was a Todd daughter, Ethel May Todd.
When Uncle Lou (Lambertus) Leeuwenhoek passed away on April 20, 1949, another Todd–Mary Todd–sent flowers and a sympathy notecard. You can read about Uncle Lou and his wife, my Aunt Jen, if you click on the following links: a post about Uncle Lou’s hero brother who died at war, a post about Uncle Lou’s Bible collection, and one which focuses on my Aunt Jen, Uncle Lou’s wife. When I was growing up, she was the oldest person I knew. A post I still need to write is about the store Uncle Lou and Aunt Jen owned.
I don’t know how Aunt Jen knew Mary Todd, but maybe it was at church or maybe it was through the store.
Sent with a vase of mixed flowers
Mary Todd was Ethel’s sister-in-law, the wife of Albert John Todd, the President of the A.M. Todd Company. Mary’s husband was a son of the company founder. In 1950, Albert and Mary lived at 2344 Midvale Terrace in Kalamazoo. The house was in the middle of a section known as Westnedge Hill, where the houses are all large and custom and the lots large for city lots.
The 1920 census indicates that Albert and Mary lived with their four children and two servants, an “Englishman” and a local girl. According to the 1930 census, they had one servant, a different girl from ten years earlier. It’s hard to tell about the 1940 census because Albert and Mary are at the bottom of the page, and I am not sure how to find the next page. Any ideas?
When people think of the A.M. Todd Company, they think of mint. According to the company website, the history is summed up this way:
Quality. Purity. Integrity. An unwavering belief in these principles inspired Albert May Todd, then a teenager, to found A. M. Todd Company in 1869. It was an era when mint essential oil from Michigan had a poor reputation thanks to widespread adulteration by unscrupulous vendors. Albert May’s initiatives brought credibility to Michigan essential oils and early success to the A. M. Todd Company, now the world’s oldest and largest supplier of American peppermint and spearmint oil.
Maybe Uncle Lou and Aunt Jen were customers, through their store, of the A.M. Todd Company. This company was sold a little over two years ago. You can find an article here which describes the company, the sale, and the influence of the company on the Kalamazoo area.
This is a passage from a book entitled Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid by Tim Ecott:
Notice that the notecard also has the name Frances Haskell. Maybe that indicates that the flowers were, in fact, from women who knew Aunt Jen through a women’s group? Frances Haskell seems to be a middle-aged single daughter of Gertrude Haskell. The Haskells lived in the beautiful area near Kalamazoo College and the Henderson Castle.
Once again, this item and the information I’ve found leads to more questions than I had originally!
Related articles
The Family Kalamazoo 
I love all this Kalamazoo history. Such fun!
Dear Reader ;), I do, too! Thanks for staying for the ride!
Have you tried clicking the next image arrow on the 1940 Census? In ancestry it is at the bottom of the screen. In familysearch it is above the image.
Interesting history you have put together here – I always enjoy reading your posts.
Amberly, DUH. I didn’t realize you could click through the census images as if they were photos. There it is. One son, one daughter, and one servant on the the next page! Thanks so much for pointing that out to me!
You are VERY welcome! I am always happy to help.
Most likely Alice Mordyke Sp was doing sewing work for most of the leading families in Kalamazoo just like Marie Hanson did in Chicago. Alice was their daughter.
As an aside I was best man to my college friend Albert W. Todd who grew up on the Todd farm near Gobles. His uncle was Paul Todd who was a mich congressman and owned the property near your mom and dad’s condo out west main. My friend Bill Todd lives in the Orlando area and recently visited us while visiting his sister.
I had forgotten about Alice and her sewing! Thank you for reminding me about that! Interesting about your Todd connection. I guess the family has had interconnections all along!
I don’t know if I have mentioned that back in the 1960 some where in that area I worked for a Mrs. Maybelle Todd, she live in what is now Portage, in a big house on S. Westnedge. It was on the West side of the Street. She talk me how to play canasta, I went there everyday after school, M thru F and would sit with her and fix her dinner and put her to bed, did a little bit of house hold chores not much, mainly just to keep her company and see that she wasn’t alone. She was a lovely old woman, she had to be in her 70 or eighties. I enjoyed being there with her very much. Do you know if she was pat of you Todd family? At the tie I was working for her, people told me she was the second richest woman in Kalamazoo. But at 16 what did I know, other than she was really nice to be around, we use to talk about Ramona Park and the lake but that all I can remember..
I tried to do a quick search, and I did find Mabell married to a William Todd and living on S. Westnedge. But I wasn’t able to find their connection to the Todd family without a lot more effort. It sounds as if she might have been connected to the Todd family, but I’m not sure exactly how. In my search I did find some fun old newspaper articles about the ladies activities of early 1900s in Kalamazoo and the surrounding area. There were some references to euchre :), but not canasta. I love your memories, Paula! Keep sharing them, please!
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It has been fun to read a little bit of history about the home I lived in from 1960-1964 when I attended U-High. Two of the Todd boys, Henry and Win, were students at U-High at the same time I was there. I went off to college but always returned for summer vacations and have very fond memories of family times there. My parents remained in the house until 1971 or 72 when they briefly moved to Atlanta, Georgia and then back to Richland, Michigan. I have very fond memories of that home and drive by it whenever I am visiting in Kalamazoo.
Suzanne Stevens Brooks
Thank you for sharing your memories, Suzanne! I love to see the connections made between my stories and those of others!