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Note: Marilyn Izzi's Family Entries: 2355 Updated: Sun Mar 16 16:03:02 2003 Contact: Marilyn Izzi
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ID: I156
Name: Kenneth Irving Guest 1
Sex: M
Birth: 26 MAY 1878
Death: 24 SEP 1938 in Glendale, California 1
Note: When Dad (John Guest) was born his father was experimenting withbeing a farmer in Virginia. Emma churned and sold butter. Shewrote a memoir of that time. Later he returned to Michigan andwas a food broker, selling to stores. His interests included theMasons (Knights Templer) where he wore black coats and hats withwhite plumes. He also liked bridge.
Change Date: 16 MAR 2003
Father: Adolphus Andreas Guest b: 1836
Mother: Martha Irving Thomes b: 1842
Marriage 1 Emma Farrand Whittemore b: 9 MAY 1883
Married: 14 JUN 1906 in Detroit, Michigan 1 1
Children
James Whittemore Guest b: 22 MAR 1909 in Detroit, Mich. Kenneth Irving Guest b: 18 AUG 1910 John Randolph Guest b: 4 DEC 1913 in Detroit, Michigan Elizabeth (Beth) Leggett Guest b: 3 JUN 1915 in Detroit, Michigan Sources:
Type: Book
Text: S. Guest's research "Genealogy of Stella Wold and John Guest"
Text: written 1979 by Stella Guest. Gathered from family records and
Text: anectdotal material and letters to source persons.
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Kenneth I Guest found in:
Census Microfilm Records: Michigan, 1910
Age: 31
Gender: M
Race: W
Birthplace: MI
State: Michigan
County: WAYNE
Locale: 4-WD DETROIT
Series: T624
Roll: 681
Part: 2
Page: 250A
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1920 United States Federal Census
Guest, Kenneth I
Age: 40 Year: 1920 Birthplace: Michigan Roll: T625_801 Race: White Page: 5A State: Michigan ED: 708 County: Wayne Image: 831 Township: Highland Park ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
1930 Census
Guest, Kenneth
Age: 51 Year: 1930 Birthplace: Michigan Roll: T626_1074 Race: White Page: 7A State: Michigan ED: 994 County: Wayne Image: 0681 Township: Highland Park Relationship: Head ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
[Letters from Eliza (Seaman) Leggett, (1815-1900), wife of Augustus Wright Leggett (1816-1885) to her granddaughter, Emma Whittemore (1883-?), later Mrs. Kenneth I. Guest, daughter of her youngest daughter, Blanche Irving (Leggett) Whittemore, (1860-1922) and James Whittemore, (1860-?).]
(Continued from Notes on Emma)
...
Did thee know, my dear, Wall Street was so named because of a great wall that was built to stop the spread of Yellow Fever?
For many years, when away for the summer at Long Island I had known "Gussie Leggett" but to marry him - I'd never even thought. He lived at 307 Pearl Street, New York. But in 1836 we were married, living in a dear little place on Mercer Street which was owned by father Leggett [her father-in-law, William Haight Leggett, (1789-1863)]. Later we went to Peekskill where our first baby was born till we moved to, I may say, our most loved home at Roslyn, Long Island. Right on the hill overlooking the Bay and surrounded with trees and flowers and fine neighbors. Oh! So good and kind.
We had been here some time when father came home to say the "Kirk" house next door was sold. (Mr. Kirk married a Seaman) I was so happy. Who to? I cried. To Bryant, [William Cullen Bryant, (1794-1878), poet and editor] he said. I asked, the great Bryant? Father answered - "there is only one Bryant" but I`m sure my arm is black and blue, thee has squeezed it so hard." Well, Mr. & Mrs. Bryant did move in and what wonderfully fine neighbors and very dear friends they proved to be.
We played games, sang songs, had plays and bazaars, read books and poetry together and met each other`s friends. Mr. Bryant was very quiet and shy outside his own home but with close friends he was jolly and full of fun. That friendship with Mr. & Mrs. Bryant was one of great happiness and was as well a liberal education, associating almost daily with such a brilliant mind and also meeting in an informal way many of the best known thinkers and writers of that time (about 1837 for twelve years following) who Mr. Bryant knew through his newspaper and writings.
Oh! What a happy time that was even though we often were nearly out of food and new dresses were scarce, through no fault of my dear husband, and what good, kind friends we had.
In 1853 your great grandfather, William H. Leggett decided to send your grandpa and me with our children to Michigan. It might be a better climate for my dear [asthmatic] husband. How we did hate to leave, but he had done so much for us, we felt we must do as he wished and so we left Roslyn in a large party - [my] father [in-law] William [H.], [my] mother Anna Ferris [Seaman (1771-1854)], Augustus and me and eight children (Augusta being a small baby), [four more were born in Michigan] two servants, also Brother Sam, [Samuel Mott Leggett, (1820-1883)] his two children, [Oscar Coles Leggett, (1848-1916) and Julia Coles Leggett, (1847-1920), their mother, Julia (Coles) Leggett had died in 1850; Samuel remarried twice in Michigan] a nurse, coachman and team of black horses. We took the train early in the morning at Albany and reached Buffalo at dark. I got lost on the way to the boat but found the family before the boat sailed. The boat was owned by Captain Eber Ward and it was named the "Ocean." He and his wife were aboard which was very lucky for us as the boat was so crowded people were sleeping on the floor and dear Mrs. Ward gave up her stateroom to us.
We arrived in Detroit and spent the night at the Michigan Exchange Hotel and then went to Pontiac where we bought the Baldwin home and lived there for a year. But it was all so civilized and strange, so we then bought the large rambling home at Clintonville and the mill where farmers for miles about brought their grain to be made into flour. Brother Sam took the Pontiac house and we were much happier and healthier in the country.
We had many friends and held Quaker meetings - much love, happiness and heartbreaks were in that home but it`s said it takes both to make a home. Here four more children were born. Thy mother was the baby of all and how we loved her.
Later we moved to Detroit and father [her husband Augustus] was Collector of Customs. We lived on Lafayette Ave., Winder Street and longest at 169 East Elizabeth Street, the old Beaubien homestead, where so many things of interest happened. Our home was the center for all who wished to come. From here Augustus started the Prismatic Club - and what a fine group of men and what times they had, each one having something of interest for the others. Governor Bagley [John Judson Bagley, Governor of Michigan from 1873 to 1877], Mr. Steens [?-?], Lewis T. Ives [married into the family, but also apparently a noted local artist], Albert Boynton [?-?] and many more gathered at each meeting, sure of much fun and interest.
My dear, I tried so hard to start a Historical Club and did keep it going for some time. We had such interesting subjects but it seemed to take more time than many felt they could give. Our October Club was a much happier success - we met each week with our papers on subjects of interest, people and places. So many people seemed to come to see us and we talked and read aloud. Bronson Alcott [Amos Bronson Alcott, (1799-1888), transcendentalist writer, father of the more successful authoress Louisa May Alcott, (1832-1888)] spent weeks at a time at our house. He was a man too far advanced for the time so was not appreciated as he should have been.
Before we left New York our friend, Mr. Willis [?-?], told us to be sure and see his brother, Richard Storr Willis [in Michigan]. We did and became fast friends. We were so fond of his wife who was a Mrs. Campeau. One day I was having dinner at their summer home on Belle Island - as I thought of the large, almost unused land so near the city [Detroit], I said "Richard, did thee ever think of using this island for a public park for the people who need just a place for recreation, it's so much more than thee can use?"
He said the property was his wife's but she said she had not thought of it but was interested. "How could people reach the island? I said, "a bridge" "Oh! Mrs. Leggett, that`s impossible." But I told them nothing was impossible when people put their minds to it.
So with their consent I went home and wrote to the "[Detroit] Free Press" and to all the people of influence in the city and state, all ministers, etc. to talk up the idea and finally the city saw what it would mean and bought it, and hasn`t it been delightful?
My dear does thee know there were many girls who could not find any place they could afford to stay in while working, so a group of my friends and I got up a huge bazaar called "Mother Goose Bazaar" and started a fund for a home for working women. How we worked, but it was happy work. The result of this was the building of the "Young Women`s Home" at the corner of Adams Ave. and Clifford Street.
We had a hard time getting drinking places on the street for horses and dogs but when a group of earnest women want a worth while thing they usually get it.
As I watched my grandchildren growing up I wondered if they will be interested in Suffrage - it is so necessary to advancement, and Prohibition, the evil of drink and also of smoking. Work for thee, dear children.
Does thee know of my great joy in writing? There were several Historical Societies, newspapers and magazines I did so enjoy writing to, and to our many friends, some of whom you will probably want to know about - Sojourner Truth [(c.1797-1883)], the uneducated but true minded negro woman who said her words were directed by God. [She was a fellow abolitionist and New York State native, who before adopting her now-famous moniker in 1843, was known first as Isabella (Dumont) as a slave, then Isabella Van Wagenen.] She spoke as on the platform with some of the great orators of the day such as Bensell Phillips [?-?]. She came to our house, we would have her talk and she would then go to the kitchen and cook and clean and so earn her way.
Many of the suffragists and women in all ways interested in their own sex we knew and greatly admired, such as Susan B. [Brownell] Anthony [(1820-1906)], Lucretia [(Coffin)] Mott [(1793-1880)], Elizabeth Cady Stanton [(1815-1902)], [Sarah] Margaret Fuller [(1810-1850)], Louisa Alcott [(1832-1888)] and others I cannot think just now. Many men who were interested in any educational line were our friends: I mentioned Bronson Alcott [(1799-1888)], then Charles [Anderson] Dana [(1819-1897), newspaper editor], Walt Whitman [(1819-1892)], Horace Mann [(1796-1859), educator], Ralph Waldo Emerson [(1803-1882)].
Of course, our good friends Mr. & Mrs. William Cullen Bryant and so many of his business associates and friends he`d bring home that we might all visit and discuss things together. He was so kind to ask Father [Augustus] and me to enjoy and absorb the meat from these fine minds. Education, my dear, is the gateway to so much pleasure and interest.
Your uncle said I was responsible for the starting of the Columbian Exposition [Chicago, 1893]. I`m not conscious of having done so but I guess I wrote the way I felt about such an exposition, such educational assistance - but didn't realize it would bloom into such a great affair. There are so many pleasures and interests seem to have come to us it is hard not to write on in detail even more than I have. I hope this is what you wanted or that it at least will help.
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