Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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Volume I Leland J. Kennedy SESSION 1, TAPE 1, SIDE 1 Q: When were you born sir? A: December 3,1908. Q: And where were you born? A: Alton, Illinois. Q: What part of Alton? A: Well, in Upper Alton on Mills Street. It was the only home my dad ever owned. We weren't there very long. And then we moved down to - my dad was with the glassworks - and we moved down to Broadway, in what they called the lower block, it's all Rats above the old Princess Theater and the furniture store and places like that. We weren't there very long and then we moved up on Washington Avenue in 1912 when I was four years old and my dad was with the glassworks. And I stayed there for 726 months. (chuckles) Q: Oh is that right? (chuckles) A: Sixty and a half years, yes, that's just before we came out here. Q: I'll be darned. A: So that would be the formation of my life, that house. It was a duplex house at 926-928 Washington Avenue. And that was referred to as maybe Glassblowers Row at that time. Prior to that time the Owens-Illinois had the glassblowers you know, and my dad wasn't a glassblower but he succeeded them. A Mr. Ferguson hired him. IIe came over from Edwardsville and he and my mother were married in 1904. They were born in Edwardsville. My parents were born in Edwardsville, Illinois, and my maternal grandparents were born in Germany and my paternal grandparents were born in Ireland. And all four of my grandparents came into the States young, and as far as I can - threc of the four of them, I've found that they landed around 1848 or 1849 or 1850, and I've just assumed that my grandmother - my maternal grandmother was the one that I've never been able to trace - must have been somewhere in that vicinity as a girl because they all landed in Edwardsville. How
2 they got up there, I don't know. Worked must have, that's all that I can figure. their way up the Mississippi River, their parents I don't know that that's the way it was, but I've been back to Ireland and saw the place where my grandparents were born and done a little research over there, to no avail though. I wasn't there that long. I was there just on a tour, maybe three or four weeks. I think I mentioned to you that - the first time I met you, the only time 1 met you - that my approach to politics I guess was just natural. My grandfather was - Grandfather Thomas H. Kennedy - was an elected official in Madison County, and they ran for oflice at that time and they had a county assessor at some part, and he was that for a number of years, and he was nominated for sheriff, on the Democratic ticket as far as I can discern, but he took ill and died before the election. He died when my dad and - my dad had one sister and they were like six and eight. But my mother came from a large family. There were nine children in my mother's family. Eight girls and one boy. And you mentioned Elbert Smith, one of my cousins was a social friend of his in Decatur. They were the shoe people - the Brown Shoe people, or something like that. Of course he died, and my cousin remarried and I don't see much of my relatives much anymore. SESSION 1, TAPE 2, SIDE 1 (EXTRACT) One thing I recall though that my dad - and this helped me in politics - the glassworks was still running. They had the automatic machines that followed the glassblowers. My dad was an automatics foreman, one of the foremen on the line, and he was just above the line as a foreman. He had a - what they called carry-in and carry-out. And it was hard labor. And they hired a lot of blacks to do that. And they called my dad "Mr. Joe." My dad would hire them right off the street. He had to have permission. And the blacks at that time, they lived either up on - oh, there was a settlement of them in Upper Alton and then there's some of them on Bell Street. Rut I'd meet - as I started I'd meet some black people that knew my dad, "Mr. Joe? Oh, he hired me, he hired my brother when he was a kid. And if you're Mr. Joe's boy you're alright." And things like that. And just to tell you how long people are living now, I just saw in the obituary in the last week or so that the wife of one of these fellows died, and this guy is still dive, and hell, he's got to be in his nineties. (laughter) Can you imagine Mrs. Uangrease being ninetytwo? Well this guy, he's got to be up there too, but his name was Hickman. His name is Hickman and his wife just died in the last, oh, thirty days. Q: Now your father - now let's see, is this - where did he learn his trade as a glassblower? A: Well he didn't - he wasn't a glassblower. IIe was a - he worked for the Illinois Tcrminal [Railroad]. Q: Oh? A: And he wasn't a glassblower. He came after the glassblowers. The glassblowers came at the turn of the century I guess and they worked up till - oh, it was about that plant that the automatic machine came out and that was in the teens, in the - oh I don't know, 1915 or 1916, I'm not sure of that. But he wasn't a glassblower. Where the glassblowers learned their trade, I guess that's a damned good question. They just - there had to be a school. Maybe the - I know that when I lived on Washington Avenue - I mentioned that I lived there for 726 months, and that I did, but the house right
Page 1: University of Illinois at Springfie
Page 4 and 5: ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ORAL HIST
Page 6 and 7: Preface This oral history of Leland
Page 10 and 11: next to us was a duplex house and a
Page 12 and 13: Q: Were these family meals that she
Page 14 and 15: I was awful fascinated by politics.
Page 16 and 17: Q: Yes sir. (chuckles) What part of
Page 18 and 19: that much about it, about the makeu
Page 20 and 21: out and there was the number of my
Page 22 and 23: A: Well. Yes, I always remember one
Page 24 and 25: Q: Was it a paddle wheeler or what
Page 26 and 27: een that far back, in that era, may
Page 28 and 29: that wanted to take roomers or boar
Page 30 and 31: A: As you go by, that's the Alton W
Page 32 and 33: Q: Oh? Were you a pretty good corn
Page 34 and 35: A: Maybe it makes good talking to m
Page 36 and 37: A: The Fourth of July and Christmas
Page 38 and 39: A: I mean his wife is I think, and
Page 40 and 41: golden handshake. They'd give you m
Page 42 and 43: A: . . . and the twenty-five. But y
Page 44 and 45: day I would say that half of the fo
Page 46 and 47: Young Democrat convention, elected
Page 48 and 49: in Edwardsville, and you had to pay
Page 50 and 51: - and we were for Smith, and fighti
Page 52 and 53: work. I never was drafted for nothi
Page 54 and 55: more German than I was I guess. (la
Page 56 and 57: Of course there were war clouds han
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A: Twice a month. Q: Twice a month?
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There was neighbor against neighbor
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A: And they did, so that's . . . Q:
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SESSION 4, TAPE 7, SIDE 2 Q: That w
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' I 59 you couldn't get across that
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A: Well they didn't have none of th
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A: Oh no, never saw any. I saw some
Page 72 and 73:
VOTE FOR LELAND J. KENNEDY DEMOCRAT
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Q: Now when you first went in did y
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A: A port of embarkation or for sup
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A: Oh yes. I'm sorry about that now
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A: Alright. August. I'll tell you -
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And he got out before I did, but he
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A: No no, never said a word. Oh the
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though. He was a good talker, and o
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play cards or just talk. Women like
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Q: Yes sir. A: We had a strike in s
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Of course you'd have a lot of lawye
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A: Well that was - that was the bes
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polls in a particular city and he's
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Q: Yes. A: Bond never did like bein
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wife and family when you're out, or
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of Illinois) library and muse aroun
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A: Well legislative process, commit
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A: Yes I think so, had a column. We
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A: Well I recall - I guess they're
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state central committeeman. Now sta
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not an Italian name, but what those
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Q: Oh? WOKZ in Alton, Illinois? A:
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This is going back, and I don't hav
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had twelve in the pool. I think it
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Q: Oh is that right? A: Oh my first
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a federal gasoline tax thirty years
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Q: No sir, no sir. Well let's see,
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they changed those desks after reap
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Q: He started that in the 1951 sess
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That wasn't a bone of contention a
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Q: Oh I see. A: I think they'd do t
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Talking about lodging, 1'11 always
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his wife's sister. Of course they w
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A: Oh did she? Q: Yes. A: Well some
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And a lot of those people are all g
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I believe there's a lot of that fam
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Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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