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Biography For the family of Hubert Deal Hagan and Mary Elizabeth Crego
HUBERT DEAL HAGAN was born on 24 July 1911 in Three Rivers, St. Joseph County Michigan.[1] He had, unfortunately, been born at a very sad time in the family. At home was his father John Van Hagan, his mother Mabel Deal Hagan, his older brother Jerry Hagan and his older sister Audrey Hagan. Jack (John Van Hagan) came down with pleuro pneumonia and died on 20 March 1911 at his home at the age of 35.[2] Mabel was 5 months pregnant at the time and Hubert was born 4 months after his father was buried.
When Jack died, his family had been living at 143 Portage Avenue in Three Rivers. Clarence and Cora had built a house at 503 Portage Avenue around 1901. So the families were already very used to seeing each other often. After Jack’s death, the family moved in with Mabel’s parents, Clarence and Cora Deal. Mabel had always been very close to her parents and it was mutually beneficial for both of them to live together.
Life went along very well for the families. They were considered among the top of the social society in Three Rivers. There were many parties, family gatherings, get-togethers, church meetings and also fraternal organization meetings, such as the Pythian Sisters.
Around 1919, Clarence sold his grocery store. According to Hubert, “Grandad saw the A & P chain stores starting to come into the area. He thought that he wouldn’t be able to compete with them, so he sold his grocery store.” He saw the end of the small, individually owned full service groceries coming and saw the future with the large self-service A & P groceries that were being built. So he sold his business in 1919 and went to work as store manager for several A & P Stores. That was when Clarence and Cora left Three Rivers and went to live in Mt. Pleasant, then Saginaw, then Lapeer Michigan. While they were living out of town, Mabel, Jerry, Audrey and Hubert still lived at their house at 503 Portage Avenue.
“One time I was mad at my Mom and I went camping in the middle of the park of downtown Three Rivers. I did that for 2 or 3 days. Then she came and grabbed me by the ear and took me home.” [3] In November 1922, Clarence died at Lapeer Michigan.[4] After Clarence’s death, Cora went to live with her sister Cynthia in Detroit.[5]
Then on 12 January 1923, Mabel remarried. She married Elwood P. Diehl, or Chub as he was known. Chub’s father and brothers were all in the railroad business. He became employed at the New York Central Railroad Company, Grand Rapids Branch in 1909. Chub and his family all lived in Elkhart Indiana for many years. I am not positive how Chub and Mabel would have met. I am sure that the railroad line he worked on stopped at Three Rivers. So somehow they met, perhaps at a church or social function. I have many letters written from Chub to Mabel and he writes of his love for her. Is it a coincidence that she finally married Chub less than 2 months after her father died? Was it that she could not financially care for her family, so she had to get married again?
After Mabel & Chub’s marriage, Chub took leave of absence from the railroad and Chub, Mabel and Hubert all lived at the house on Portage Avenue. Jerry was working for the Kalamazoo Gazette and didn’t live there, nor did Audrey who was married by this time. Chub took a job at the paper mill in Three Rivers. [6] On 15 December 1924, Chub was promoted to a conductor at the railroad.[7] So after he returned to the railroad, the family moved to Elkhart. In 1926, the house on Portage Avenue was auctioned and sold off. Hubert would have been 15 when they moved.
Hubert graduated high school from Elkhart in 1929. He then went to the Elkhart Business College for 1 year, working as a janitor in exchange for tuition. Then he worked for a short time in an office collecting rent. He then got a tuition scholarship based on his grades. So he went to Earlham from 1930 – 1931. Earlham was a Quaker school in Richmond Indiana. He worked in the school cafeteria washing dishes for 15 cents an hour. [8]
“At some point while I was going to Earlham, the college asked me for my mother’s birth date on her birth certificate. As she gave it to me she said “Make sure you don’t tell Chub what it is.” [9] Mabel was born in 1880 and Chub was born in 1886, so she must have lied about her age when they met.
While he was at Earlham, in his first and only year, he decided to run away from school. The following is the story of his trip, as he told Janet Hagan Monnin on 16 June 1994 and which he also wrote about in an English college class on 09 August 1981:
1931 was a depression year and I was fortunate enough to get a financial scholarship to Earlham. For some reason which is no longer clear to me, I decided at the end of the Winter Quarter to go off to Mexico. Collier, one of the dorm upper classmen, encouraged me in this and gave me a letter of introduction to an acquaintance in Mexico City. With the letter, a little money and nothing else I started on a warm day to hitch my way.
I remember a warm spring-like day riding the back roads in Kentucky and the glistening mud in the hills. I remember walking on a warm night somewhere in Alabama, with lights and sounds from the houses of the darkie families who worked in the fields. Voices were coming out of nowhere, disembodied. It was a very strange feeling.
So I hitched and hiked along the way to Mexico, not always going the direction I wanted to. At one point a traveling salesman took me with him to his family in Alabama. I remember the children doing their homework and their Sunday school lesson. At night, I got to sleep in a featherbed in a very cold room. Next morning, he loaned me a coat so I could go to church. I remember going to church with the family in his loaned suit, standing in the sunshine after the service with the people talking. Then he sent me to the grocer in the next town and gave me canned goods to take with me.
I then rode on a freight car on a train with bums. I woke up and found out that the hobos had taken my canned goods. Somewhere I slept in a town jail overnight to escape the cold. Other hobos were there for the same reason. We were all locked in. As I remember, there were not enough covers. It was cold and someone broke open something and started a fire in the coal burning stove in the jail. I thought we would all burn to death if it got out of control or in the morning when the jailer came to release us that he would keep us locked up for setting the fire. I thought I was going to have to stay in jail.
Eventually, I was somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico at Biloxi and seeing to my surprise the same hotel as Chicago’s Edgewater Beach Hotel.
I went to the Salvation Army to sleep one night. I took a shower and slept on a cot. A lot of men in there were sick. I heard coughing throughout the night. I remember the Captain who grabbed hold of me and took me aside and convinced me to give up my venture and go home. He told me that I didn’t belong here. He talked me into turning around and going back home. It didn’t take much to convince me at this point.
I decided to take a train back, instead of hitchhiking. I caught a ride on a passenger train and got in between the coach car and the first car behind that. This was at night and you’d see the headlight of the locomotive hitting the field. The train stopped to take on water and I was wet through. As we got further north, it was colder, colder with snow on the fields. Eventually one of the fireman on the train saw me. He motioned for me to come in the cab and said you’d freeze to death. He told me that when we would go by a signal tower, you get down on the floor so they don’t see you. I was so cold I was shaking like I had the palsy.
In the morning, we came into the LaSalle Street Station at Chicago. When I got out into the street my clothes were wet and covered with coal dust and my body was shaking uncontrollably. Some fellow on the street said you look like you needed to be warmed up. He took me to a place where I could get a shower and warmed up for 50 cents. I had enough money to take the train from Chicago to Elkhart.
Though I was a little late, I had enough time to go back to the last semester at Earlham. When I got back to college, I picked a fight with the fellow who gave me the letter. Collier was his name. He knocked me down. Afterwards he took a golf club and shoved it through the wall from his room to mine.”
When Hubert came back from Earlham, times were tough. Remember, that this was during the Great Depression. So Chub and Mabel had to sell the larger bungalow home in Elkhart. Then they bought a cheaper house on the south side of the tracks (1625 S. Main Street, Elkhart). Cora (Mabel’s mother) lived with them there until she died in 1951. [10] Then he worked for Joe Kies Realty for a year or so in Three Rivers.[11]
Mary Elizabeth Crego, or Betty as she was known, grew up in Three Rivers. She was the daughter of Richard Sheldon Crego and Carol Swartout. Betty was born in White Pigeon on 22 September 1914. Then in 1927, the family moved to Three Rivers, where they stayed for the rest of their lives. Richard and Carol had 14 children, 11 of whom survived to adulthood. Betty was the 3rd born and the oldest girl. Because of all the children, at the time when Betty had her first child, Carol had her last child.
Three Rivers had Newberry’s five and ten and a library. Betty worked at the dime store. Hubert thought that he met Betty either at Newberry’s or the library. [12]
They were married on 22 September 1934, (which was Betty’s 20th birthday) at the home of her parents in Three Rivers. After they were married Hubert and Betty rented a house in Three Rivers. It was really a small garage converted to house. It couldn’t even been as much as $5 per week rent. It had lights and running water. But you had to go to the Bergens house to use the toilet. There was no bathtub, but there was a galvanized tub. Betty didn’t know how to use a wash tub for bathing. So the first time she used it she filled it up too much and water went over the edge and everywhere. [13]
When they were married, Hubert was working in the office of the Eddy Paper Mill and Betty was working at the dime store. “I worked at the Eddy Paper Company. At the time I worked there, there was primarily the box factory. Corragated containers which different companies used. But still they made liner board, paper that I suppose was 5 foot wide in tremendous rolls, but that I believe was used in part in making the boxes. First of all, I worked for the credit manager, Dan Jackson, and I was really in part a stenographer. But he also had responsibility for the accounts receivable and he turned that over to me and before long I didn’t have any stenographic duties and was only working on receivables. He did a lot for the Eddy Paper Company.” [14]
They didn’t live in the converted garage very long. Hubert was transferred to Chicago by Eddy Paper. The company had decided to move their accounting offices to Chicago. They were part of the Kiekefer Company. [15] “I worked in the Palmolive building for Kiekhafer Container Company (under name of Eddy Paper). It was easy to get to the beach and to the Palmolive building. It was quite a modern building.”[16]
“While I was still working at the Eddy Paper Company, I studied accounting by correspondence at the LaSalle Extension, but I can’t remember the exact dates. After I earned my CPA certificate, I started working for the Albert T. Bacon Company, public accountancy firm in Chicago. I did some grading of papers for the LaSalle school (after I earned my certificate), while I was working for Albert T. Bacon.” [17] We still have his degree and the mailing tube that it came in. It was dated 12 April 1939 and was mailed to their apartment on Ainslie.
After the transfer to Chicago, at first, they lived in a motel. Called the Maryland (street?) motel. Then they moved to a place on Rush Street on the 2nd floor. This place was a little ways north of Chicago Avenue, across from a fire station and near the Loyola Branch School. “We had a bay window. Down the street was Club Alabun and lights would flash in our window. Club Alabun was a strip joint.” [18]
Then they moved to Superior Street. Per Hubert, “It was something I picked out while Betty was visiting her mother. I picked it out at night. I asked the fellow what was outside the window, but he didn’t say. When I moved in and woke up there was another building maybe a yard away from the window. So I carried stuff from the 2nd floor previous apartment to the new place. I sent Betty a telegram giving her the new address. She came back and wasn’t wholly satisfied with the building. I had left something at the old building and she went over to get it. The landlord there accused her of taking the blankets. Betty had stuffed blankets into the pillows to make them softer. I thought I was carrying just pillows. Anyway, there was an exchange. She said “I wouldn’t do that – I’m a Christian woman.” He said “Christian women are just like that.” Anyway, he got his blankets and she got her stuff. [19]
“Then we moved to Argyle Street as far east as you could go. [Note: I believe he meant Ainslie Street, as their address is listed as 840 Ainslie, Apt. E-1 on their first son’s birth certificate). We had a basement apartment. Betty was pregnant with (our first son) at this time. We paid $50 to the doctor for his birth. The hospital was a bit run down. I have a picture of Betty with the baby in this hospital. His undershirt in the hospital had holes all over it. It was the Rogers Post Hospital. I think they were closed up sometime later for running a lottery.” [20]
“On Argyle [Ainslie] there were coin washing and wringing machines in the basement. They had just repealed the prohibition about that time. For $1 or so, you could buy a big bottle of wine. So instead of putting a dime in for the wringer, I experimented by taking a bunch of the diapers that were rinsed and took the diapers and put them against my chest and squeezed. I was doing this while I was drinking the wine. I did this to save the dime. I didn’t do it very often or made a continuous practice of it because quite a bit of water would run down my pants.” [21]
“After Argyle [Ainslie] we moved to the street that runs past Amundsen High School. (5049 Damen Avenue). We had a third floor apartment. Our second, third and fourth children were born while we were living at this apartment.”[22]Betty was pregnant with the twins. One time she fell down the back steps and fell on our first son and his tricycle. Another time our second son fell out of the window and Betty managed to catch him before he descended. We didn’t have a car here. So when she had to go to the hospital (Swedish Covenant), there was some scare from California – broadcasts over the radio that there were Japanese subs off the coast. We couldn’t get a taxi (perhaps because of this sub scare), so one of the neighbors took us to the hospital.[23]We didn’t know that Betty was pregnant with the twins. When they showed the twins to her in the hospital, she said “you can’t make me take them, I won’t, I won’t, I won’t.” [24] Of course she did take them home and certainly had her hands full. At that time, their first son was 4, their second son was 2 and then the twins came along.
Then we rented a house on Montrose Avenue for $45 per month. This house was 2 doors past the house that we eventually purchased on Montrose. Eventually they purchased the house at 2121 Montrose Avenue for $5000 and lived there until about 1962. We lived there quite a few years. [25] During this time they bought their first car, when their second son was about 15. It was a black 1949 Dodge.[26]
“While I was working for Albert T. Bacon CPA, I used to take a trip to Walla Walla Washington every year and also to LeSeur Minnesota. One of their clients was also Ames Supply Company. They sold typewriter parts. They had a trade journal “Your Man Friday” and they had the Ames Rubber Company in New Jersey. The rubber plant made all the rubber platens in typewriters. It was the only place you could buy them. One time I was in New Jersey and I didn’t have any extra shirts, so every night I would wash one sleeve so the whole shirt wouldn’t be wrinkled.” [27]
“Ames wanted a treasurer and they hired me. I worked at the Ames Supply Company starting in December 1950. They were downtown and I took an elevated train home to my house on Montrose Avenue. I became secretary/treasure in 1956 and elected to the Board of Directors in 1961. Then Ames moved to Downers Grove and that’s when we bought our house in Downers. That was probably late 1960 or 1961.” [28] The year they moved, their daughter was a freshman in Downers Grove North High School. “We purchased a house at 3937 Forest Avenue in Downers Grove. We lived just down the street from Hazen Ames, who was the owner of Ames Supply Company.”[29] While employed at Ames, he continued his education and received a MBA from the University of Chicago in 1963.
Betty was always very active in various organizations. Besides raising all the kids, she was an Awana leader at the Ravenswood Baptist Church. Later on, when the kids were grown and they had moved to Downers, she was very involved in the Woodland Chapter Family Service League. One of their main activities was the managing of The Treasure House. This was a resale shop in Glen Ellyn. They would take donations/consignments and staff it. “I remember getting to work at the shop with Grandma Hagan whenever I visited them. I would get to sort out books and just look at all the treasures. [30]
About 1970 or so, Hubert and Betty purchased a cottage in Constantine Michigan. It was just down the street from her sister Ruth. They would spend many weekends there, and many happy family gatherings happened there, too.
There were always family get togethers. One Christmas, Betty decided to take all the grandchildren to downtown Chicago to look at the store windows. At the time, there were probably 8 or 10 of them. She only lost one in Marshall Fields, temporarily.
Whenever the family was together, Hubert was the quiet one. He didn’t get mad very often and was reserved. Many times when his second son would visit, there would be a whole evening spent just talking about public accounting issues, as both were in that field. Hubert spent much time downstairs in the basement with his antique radios and his stereo. Betty was quite the opposite – very talkative, the people person, the organizer and family matriarch. I remember Grandma saying to me once “Hubert and I were driving down the road. I thought he was going to go off the side and so I took the steering wheel out of his hand to right the car. That was the only time Hubert ever got mad at me.” [31]
About 1974, Betty received a letter from a lady who was writing a book on the Gallop family. After much correspondence and a little digging, she realized that this was her family. She became extremely interested in genealogy at this point and continued on with this until she became a member of the local DAR.
Then in 1975, Betty got sick. She got lung cancer, which eventually spread to other organs. She died on 04 June 1976 in the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange Illinois. She had smoked cigarettes for many many years, since she was a young girl. In fact, most of her brothers and sisters died from lung cancer.
After adjusting to life without Betty, Hubert went on with his life. He retired from Ames Supply Company in 1980. He took college classes and many trips in the US and abroad with his daughter and son-in-law. He kept himself very busy.
He later re-married and moved with his 2nd wife out to Colorado. He enjoyed good health throughout his life. But eventually, he was moved to a nursing home in 2003 and he died at the age of 92 on 06 February 2004. He was cremated, but a memorial service was held for him in June 2004 at the Three Rivers Cemetery and his ashes were interred along side his first wife.
by Janet Hagan Monnin [1] Per birth announcement [2] Per State of Michigan Death Certificate [3] Per Hubert Hagan in an undated note [4] Per Lapeer County Michigan death record number 166902 [5] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [6] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [7] Per New York Central Railroad seniority roster dated 31 March 1931 [8] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 1995 [9] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [10] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [11] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 1995 [12] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 1995 [13] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [14] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 13 September 1988 [15] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [16] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [17] Per Hubert Hagan by letter dated 21 August 1998 [18] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [19] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [20] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [21] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [22] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [23] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [24] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [25] Per Hubert Hagan in conversation with Janet Hagan Monnin 16 June 1994 [26] Per Jim Hagan [27] Per Hubert Hagan in an undated note [28] Per Hubert Hagan in an undated note [29] Per Hubert Hagan in an undated note [30] Per granddaughter Janet Hagan Monnin [31] Per granddaughter Janet Hagan Monnin
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Jan MonninThis web site was last updated on September 11, 2008 |
