This picture was taken sometime between 1930 and 1934. The people pictured are my grandmother Elizabeth Jane (Reynolds) Packard, my father Arden Packard, and my grandfather Walter Hetherington Packard. The picture was probably taken in Pasadena, California, where my grandparents lived. My father is in the uniform of a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. He was on leave from the Academy, which suggests he was in his third or fourth year there.
My family, paternal and maternal, keeps coming up with ties to Bloomington, Illinois.
My sister and her husband used to live in Champaign, which is just a few miles southeast of Bloomington.
My paternal grandfather Walter Hetherington Packard was born in Normal, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump north of Bloomington, and appears to have been swallowed up by the Bloomington municipality, looking at it on Google Earth.
My great-great grandfather Mathew Hale Packard and several of his siblings settled in Bloomington both before and after the Civil War. Mathew Hale Packard died there. They had all come down from Canada. Some went first to Massachusetts, others to New York, before all settled in the Illinois city. Some of these Packard family members were in Bloomington by 1855; others did not arrive until ten years or so later, after the Civil War.
Mathew's brothers whom he joined in Bloomington were Charles R., Major Wellman, William B., Thadeus Bullock, and Francis A. (“Frank”). Two of his sisters were also in Bloomington: Mary Frances, married to Joseph Munroe, and Emeline, married to Joseph Munroe's brother George.
My mother's side also has ties to Bloomington, in the person of Nathaniel Strong Sunderland, widely known as N. S. Sunderland. He provides a bridge between my maternal and paternal lines, being related to both. He is mentioned by his brother-in-law, Major Wellman Packard, in a letter Wellman wrote to a fellow Illinois lawyer, Abraham Lincoln. N. S. was the uncle of Sarah Ann Sunderland, my maternal great-great grandmother.
N. S. Sunderland had a farm somewhere between Towanda and Bloomington. Towanda lies just a few miles northeast of Bloomington. His farm was prosperous. His livestock was valued at $1,200, which in 2023 dollars, would be $21,837.89. His farm, exclusive of livestock or crops, was valued at $11,000, or $200,180.65 in 2023 dollars.
Not all of these branches on the Packard and Reed family trees remained in Bloomington. N. S. Sunderland later moved to Larned, Kansas, where he served several terms as a popular mayor. Oscar Merry Packard, son of Mathew Hale Packard, moved to southern California, where he prospered in his occupation as a real estate agent.
They all left their mark on Bloomington. Major Wellman Packard even had a street named for him. Bloomington also left its mark on the family, with both branches experiencing many events there.
Thanks, Bloomington.
This week's title phrase can mean a variety of things. It can literally mean taking care of one's means of supporting self and family. Here on this blog, I've discussed businessmen and businesswomen in the family: Emily [Hoyt] Packard, who was a milliner; Nelson Reed McKee, a jeweler and watchmaker; Frank A. Packard, Bloomington, Illinois, merchant; Perry Wilmer Reed, head of the Pensacola, Florida, Chamber of Commerce; my father, Arden Packard, and his brother Jack, advertising agency owners; Oscar Merry Packard, builder and developer; Walter Hetherington Packard, builder and developer, and stockbroker.
The phrase can also mean buckling down and taking care of the serious stuff in life. Samuel Packard's religious convictions caused him to take his wife and their firstborn, a daughter, on a risky and most probably quite uncomfortable sea voyage in 1638, from their home in Suffolk, England to a hardscrabble new settlement in a wild land called Massachusetts. There was Richards Packard, who did his part in taking care of a certain dispute with England at the end of the 1700s. After that was settled, Richards began a northward migration that left him disappointed in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, on up into Canada, which was practically giving land away and not being terribly picky about who they were giving it to, even to those who had previously taken up arms against His Majesty, George III. The succeeding three generations of my line were born in Canada. Mathew Hale Packard, a member of that third generation, took a chance on what I call "retro-migration," going from Canada back to the U.S. He took care of other grim business from 1860 to 1865, serving in two regiments of New York cavalry. Farther west, at the same time, Charles Reed did the same in a regiment of Indiana infantry. My father took care of the business of serving in the U.S. Navy, from his education at the Naval Academy to World War II service.
They all, with their brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts and all else, took care of the business of living, as best they could.
Some of my ancestors were involved in business in one way or another.
My adoptive maternal grandfather, Perry Wilmer Reed (1885-1938), was a railroad freight agent, having to do with the business of shipping goods for all sorts of commercial enterprises by rail. After retiring from railroad work, he became the Executive Secretary of the Pensacola, Florida, Chamber of Commerce.
My paternal grandfather, Walter Hetherington Packard (1879-1937), had his fingers in all sorts of pies relating to business. He was a builder and developer in California during the early 20th century boom. He was a stock broker. He sold real estate. He had mining interests. Whatever fortune he may have accumulated from these enterprises up to that point vanished in the Crash of 1929. He managed to rebuild some of that by the end of the Depression. It was on his way to sign a mining contract that he was killed in an automobile accident.
My paternal great-grandfather, Oscar Merry Packard (1849-1932), began his professional life as a builder and developer in the Chicago area, but moved to California at the end of the 19th century. He settled in the Los Angeles area at the beginning of a real estate boom.
With my father Arden Packard (1911-1954), the apple didn't fall far from the tree, as he had some projects relating to business after retiring from the Navy after World War II. The Navy was his primary and most-loved occupation, being graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1934. I've already posted about his brief adventure in advertising with his brother, John Creighton "Jack" Packard (1909-1987). After their advertising partnership dissolved, Uncle Jack continued in advertising, with his sole proprietorship, Jack Packard Advertising, until his retirement. My father also sold insurance in California and in Florida, and used his degree in engineering on a project in Pensacola, Florida.
Francis A. Packard (1833-1911), brother of my great-great grandfather Mathew Hale Packard, was a merchant in Bloomington, Illinois. His career also was interrupted by the Civil War, in which he served in a unit of Illinois volunteer infantry. After the war, he returned to Bloomington, where he sold insurance and real estate.
Some of my ancestors got up to business of a different kind -- monkey business! I've blogged about that in the past, and as soon as I find out about any more monkey business on the part of my ancestors, I'll blog about that too. It's the mischievous who are most interesting.
