Flowers for Hull House

Guest post by Steve Ferrigan, Collections Digitizer for the Dunn Museum

When the Dunn Museum staff were told to shelter in place back in March and work remotely, one of the first things collections staff did was to take digital photos of diaries in the Minto Family Collection in order to transcribe them from home. 

It turns out you can learn a lot more than just about your own family by being cooped up at home for months. Sometimes you can learn about farm life in the early 1910s. 

The diary I was tasked with transcribing was Susie Minto’s from 1912. Every once in a while, very rarely, something happens in a Minto Diary. Between the days listing who is working where and on what; between the small trips to nearby towns for supplies or new equipment; around the brief recounting of church services attended and occasional church events; the greater world and its events and characters reaches through and touches the lives of the Minto family. 

In 1912, the family living at the Minto homestead included Susie and David J. Minto, daughter Una Jean, and son David Harold and his wife Mildred and their two daughters. (See Diana Dretske's Minto post for a history of the family).

Susie Smith Minto and daughter Una Jean Minto photographed about 1898. Minto Family Collection, Dunn Museum, 93.45.89.

One such diary entry occurred on Monday, August 12, 1912: "Una rec’d her mail today a letter from Jane Addams of the ‘Hull House.’”

Throughout her diary, Susie Minto (1839-1914) of Antioch/Loon Lake, then in her early 70's, makes mention of her daughter Una Jean (1876-1963) gathering flowers from the family’s garden to send to Hull House. They sort and tie bunches late into the night and box them up to be sent with the milkman on the earliest Wisconsin Central line train to Chicago.

By 1911, Hull House had grown to a 13-building complex in Chicago. In 1912, Hull House added a summer camp, the Bowen Country Club in Waukegan (today's Bowen Park). V.O. Hammon postcard. 

Jane Addams (1860-1935) was a pioneer in the settlement movement of the late 1800s. Hull-House, opened in 1889 by Addams and Ellen Gates Starr (1859-1940) soon emerged as a vital tool for immigrants, children, and the poor of Chicago. They provided childcare, an art gallery, a library, and classes in English, citizenship, job finding, art, music, and theater.

Jane Addams photographed at her writing desk about October 30, 1912. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 

Susie’s diary entry continues: “[Jane Addams] kindly thanked Una for sending the lovely flowers & said ‘the size of bunches did not really matter although the small bunches such as came yesterday seemed to give particular pleasure to the small children in the Mary Crane Nursery which is housed in one of the Hull House Buildings. The flowers were in splendid condition with much appreciation of your kindly thought of us & the courteous letter, I am sincerely yours.’ The above is a partial copy of letter rec’d by Una [and signed] Jane Addams Aug 12, 1912."

Susie Minto's diary entry for August 12, 1912. Minto Family Collection, Dunn Museum 93.45.289.

After seeing this routine mentioned numerous times, and after seeing the thank you letter Susie describes, I decided to do a little investigating to find out what the flowers were used for.

I quickly found some Chicago Tribune articles covering the Hull House and mentioning flowers for the children. From the Chicago Tribune on November 1, 1891:

“In the dining-room is the ‘advanced’ class, absorbed in the mysteries of cutting and putting together in a logical fashion muslin underclothes. On the sideboard is a great shining tin dish-pan filled to the brim with marigolds, and geraniums, and sweet old-fashioned mignonette—an explanation, perhaps, of the presence of some of these light-hearted, carefree little daughters of Italy, to whom a whole afternoon of serious application to anything but play must be irksome to a degree. But all the children love flowers—none more than these.”

Illustration of Jane Addams distributing flowers at Hull House. Chicago Tribune November 1, 1891. 

The small bouquets in this illustration are similar to the ones Una and Susie Minto had worked so tirelessly to gather and send.

Susie Minto in her flower garden. Minto Family Collection, Dunn Museum 93.45.77.7

The Tribune article continued: 

“And after the sewing is all folded neatly away, the awkward thimble and troublesome needle safely hidden in the depths of the sewing-bag for another seven days; when all the hats and coats have been given to their rightful owners, then that dish-pan is moved out into the hall and every child receives from Miss Addams’ hands a bunch of flowers for her very own. It is worth traveling a long distance just to see this distribution, the joy in it is so evident. With a funny compromise between a bow and a curtsey, a 'thank you, teacher,' and a face wreathed in smiles, each child receives the bit of bloom and fragrance."

After reading Susie Minto’s diary and day after day of chore lists and weather reports, discovering this small glimpse of the larger world as seen through the Minto lens was a beacon of sunlight on an otherwise gray page. It made me start reading closer and looking for even more details connecting these early 20^th century rural farmers to larger world events.

Reading old script can be difficult, but by transcribing these diaries the Dunn Museum can make them more accessible to researchers and the general public to enjoy and to make their own discoveries about the past. 

~ ~ ~ 

The Bess Bower Dunn Museum's Minto Family Collection is available online through the host site Illinois Digital Archives.

Historic Minto Home, 1857 - 2016

Nearly everyday I drive past the Minto homestead on Deep Lake Road in Antioch Township. I have spent years researching and acquainting myself with this historic family of Scottish immigrants through the letters, diaries and objects preserved by the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County (formerly Lake County Discovery Museum).

The Minto home on Deep Lake Road with original 1857 house (center two-story structure) 

and additions. (BBDM 93.45.44).

The Minto family were some of the earliest Scottish settlers to Lake County, Illinois.

In the spring of 1840, David Minto, Jane Johnstone Minto, their sons William, John and Robert, and Jane's sister Margaret Johnstone, left Scotland for the United States. They sailed out of Liverpool, England on the ship Fairfield, arriving in New York on May 16th. 

David Minto and family, including Margaret Johnstone, on Fairfield's manifest.

Note the signature of the ship's master William L. Lyons at bottom right.

(Ancestry.com New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, "David Minto," [database on-line])

The family lived for three years in a Quaker settlement in Canandaigua, New York, where son, David J. Minto was born in 1841. That same year, cousin George White of Annan, Scotland joined them, and in September married Margaret.

In the spring of 1843, the Mintos headed west. (George and Margaret would remain in New York an additional year). The Mintos traveled via the Great Lakes, landing at Southport (now Kenosha), and continuing to Lake County, Illinois by ox cart. There, David Minto purchased land east of Loon Lake along today's Deep Lake Road in Antioch Township.

The land was heavily forested, affording David plenty of timber to build a log house and barn. These structures were built on the west side of Deep Lake Road, north of Grass Lake Road. David and Jane's daughter, Jannet, was born in this log house in 1844.

Jane Johnstone Minto with her children, Robert, William, Jannet and David, 

circa 1855 (BBDM 93.45.75).

On March 31, 1844, cousin Andrew White (also living near Loon Lake) wrote to his brother George White (still in New York), and mentioned "David Minto has been rather poorly, but is better again."

David's health did not improve, and just six years after settling in Lake County, David Minto died on March 17, 1849, aged 45. He left a widow and five children (the oldest being twelve).

With her sister and cousins living nearby, Jane was supported in this tragic loss.

Deed for 40 acres purchased by Jane Minto, September 1, 1849. (BBDM 93.45.113).

By 1857, Jane Minto built her family a new home a short distance from the original log house, which they then used as a granary.

Floor plan of the Minto home showing the original house outlined in red and its additions. 

By Katherine V. Minto, 1964. (BBDM 93.45). 

In 1869, Jane's son, Civil War veteran David J. Minto, married Susannah Dale Smith from neighboring Millburn. The newlyweds settled into the home with Jane. 

David Minto and Susie Smith were married on May 20, 1869, 

and lived in the Minto home. (BBDM 93.45.52 and Private Collection). 

The first addition was made for the newlyweds by taking part of another home from the neighborhood and adding it to the north side of the house (Dining room, Bedroom, Kitchen and Back Room as shown on floor plan).

In 1905, when David and Susie's son, David Harold Minto (known as Harold) married Mildred Holloway, a bedroom was added on the south side of the house.

Eventually, Harold and Mildred lived in the north half of the house, while David and Susie, their daughter Una Jean, and Hannah Smith (Susie's sister) lived in the south portion of the home.

David J. and son were partners in the family farm. They raised sheep, purebred Shorthorn cattle and Clydesdale horses. 

Susie Smith Minto's garden at the southeast corner of the house, circa 1905. (BBDM 93.45.77)

Minto family pictured at their home in 1898. Seated: Susie and David, 

standing Harold and Una Jean and kittens. (BBDM 93.45.91).

Susie Minto died in 1914 and David in 1915. In 1920, Una Jean left to become a missionary in Angola, West Africa. 

David Harold and his daughter Ruth were the last Mintos to live in the home. Harold died in 1963, and the old home was vacated, and property sold. 

Sadly, in the early morning hours of Friday, March 4, 2016, the Minto home (undergoing renovations, but unoccupied) was destroyed by fire. I was heartbroken when I drove past that morning to find the ashes of the Mintos' home. 

Remains of the Minto home after the fire, March 4, 2016. (D. Dretske)

View of the Minto home fire in the early morning of March 4, 2016. Antioch and Lake Villa Fire Departments responded. Photo credit Joe Shuman for Lake County News-Sun. 

The Minto family lived on the property for 120 years from 1843 to 1963. It was remarkable that the 1857 home remained intact for so many years after the family's departure. 

Thankfully, the stories of this Scottish-American family will continue to be told, because of the foresight of David and Susie's granddaughters, Ruth Minto, Katherine Vida Minto, and Lura Jean Minto Johaningsmeier, who donated the family's personal belongings to the Lake County Discovery Museum (now known as Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County).

For more on this family, check out my previous post Susie Smith's Romance with Richard Thain and the Illinois Digital Archives where the Bess Bower Dunn Museum's photos and letters from the Minto Family Papers are hosted.