Timeline

John Winthrop Howell Timeline John was born in Chicago at St. Lukes Hospital. His Aunt Lawle was on duty around 2:30 am. || His dad lived on Winthrop (6000 N Winthrop) when he was born and gave John that middle name. shortly after moved to 1613 Greenleaf Ave, in Rogers Park. Methodist church across the street. Ashland and Greenleaf was the Eugene Field Elementary School grades 1-8. When 7 - Delivered Howard News on Weekends, local paper up on Howard Street. Delivered newspaper age 11 Harold Examiner in the morning (got up at 4 am) and in the afternoon delivered Chicago American. Ten years old then. Finally go to deliver the Tribune (morning) got first bike for five cents and Daily News (afternoon). Later got another bike for fifty dollars. Saved fifty cents a week towards bike. He gave all his money to his mother for food except the money he saved for the bike. His father did not have enough money – had money tied up in Cranes and then the depression hit. 1929 Depression started, John went to work to help family. Worst problem delivering was collecting. Patrons would tell him to come back tomorrow. When they did not pay after a couple of times, Grandpa would take a competitors paper and threw it in window. Mother and Lawle always had rice pudding waiting for him. People figured John was a better paperboy because his papers did not go through windows. Age 14 saw a sign for help in Harry Lavin Clothing Store. Worked there cleaning and dusting and stacking all the clothes. Worked there a year or two. Next store, Harry Wineburke, bigger clothing store, worked there a year or so after school. Tired too much. Got enlarged heart in sophomore year(Aunt Lawle took him to her doctor in Fairbury), took digitalis for one year. Freshman year and a little of sophomore at William Senn High School, was working only in store, no paper route at 4 am. Sophomore & Junior Lane Tech High on Addison. Learned mechanical drawing, and machine shop. Makes things out of iron and tin. Last half of junior year and all of senior year went to Morgan Park Military Academy. Mother wanted him to have more regulations. His father was on the road most of the time. 88 Oldsmobile. His father used to leave the car with him and John would race on Longwood drive near his school. Uncle Dave did not have to work or do the dishes. In Grammar school, 7th grade, a clown made fun of grandpa so he whipped him and the whole class chased him home. When approaching home, he called his dog Shag, Airdale, who helped John chase the class. Shag loved to chase fire engines and eventually caught one. Age 8-10, went w/Uncle Dave to Fairbury. Playing with Bob Wharton when Bob shot him in the eye with a rubber band gun. || Graduated from Morgan Park. Father said he had to get a job. Right after this LZ and Grace lost the house. Grandma Mrs. Frye’s in Highland Park. She took care of her for a few years. Mrs. Frye left her the house. Got a job -winding wires electric motors downtown on Congress. He had to be at work 8 am and work til 6 every night. Ten bucks a week. Had to take the Elavated to work and pay his own expenses and meals. LZ took a big chunk of what grandpa made. He quit after a few weeks. LZ talked to his friend and Link Belt and he got Grandpa a job as a laborer. LZ said I doubt if you will be able to keep up. Grandpa worked hard and the foreman took him off the labor gang and put him on a boring mill. He got going pretty fast on that. The foreman would tell him don’t work so hard. Eventually he had worked on every machine in the factory. After he was there a year, they sent him to Detroit in the summer time to take care of a factory up there while the manager took his vacation. Grandpa, got a nickel a mile for every mile he put on his car while he was up there. 39 Mercury. Stayed at Lynn-son of grandma H older brother (Eve) and Ruby. Stayed there two summers in a row while he took care of this factory. Still gave LZ money but not so much as before. Charlie Leonard, friend of LZ, told LZ how hard John worked. In Detroit, Grandpa put money down at a Carnival and the guy switched it and did not give Grandpa his prize. Grandpa punched him. Crowd backed him up to police. Ruby was disappointed the next morning that he had ripped his coat. He learned a lot in the factory about how to figure out problems. || 1939-42 worked as shop apprentice at Link Belt-worked on all the machines eventually. Summers, 1941-42 they sent him to Detroit to run the shop while the manager went on vacation. He stayed with Lynn and Ruby Williams. Link Belt paid him 5 cents a mile for every mile that went on his car while he was gone. Evan and Sonny Williams hung out with grandpa while he was up there. Went around racing police cars, in Grandpa's red 1939 Mercury convertible. Evan and Sonny had never done that before. Worked in the factory all day and at night went to amusement park. Won money at wheel spinner. Guy would not pay him. Grandpa worked the guy over. Cops came. All the witnesses backed up Grandpa and he got all his money he had spent on the game back plus a little more. Grandpa has ripped his new coat for his new green sports coat. Lynn agreed with Grandpa, you do not let anybody beat or rob you. Evan Williams the grandfather was a plumber in Saint Shores, Lynn followed in his footsteps. Young Evan ended up in Arizona, Lake Havasau City as a reporter. Washing car in gas station when they announced Pearl Harbor had been hit. Kept working on a big machine at LB. making axels for anti aircraft gun. Worked hard and old guys were belly aching because he was going to fast and messing up their piece work. You got paid by so much to do this and so much to do that. Grandpa did not like to wait for a Crane to move work towards him so he would pick it up and moved it. || July grandpa signed up for the Navy Air Corp V5 program. They did not call him up until 1943. They sent him to Monmoth College, in Monmoth Illinois. Had to exercise and work and study. Every other meal was Chocolate. Kept getting headaches like crazy. They they sent him to Great Lakes Naval Station, where they found out he was allergic to Chocolate, pickles, mayo, coffee, onions. Lois Patricia Blider born. June 12. || LB wanted him to stay there but he joined V5 Program. With friend Chuck Shanafelt. Grandpa used to race around with him. Spring? Went to Monmoth College for preflight training. They feed you all kind of chocolates there and grandpa was getting a lot of migraines. 4 months of this and he was sent to Great Lakes Hospital, navy base. They give you a lot of chocolate. Was in hospital four months. They could not figure why he was getting the migraines, so they gave him a medical discharge. Went back to Link Belt. He did not eat so much chocolate after he left the Navy. Doctors had told him to leave choc, onions, pickles, alone. ||
 * 1/1/1921 ||
 * June 1939 ||
 * 1941 ||
 * 1942July ||
 * 1943 ||

Went back to Link Belt when he was discharged in the winter of 43. Back at Link Belt, he was put on the biggest machine but given little pieces to work on. Grandpa hit boss and quit because he said Grandpa had turned in time cards for too much money when he left for Navy. LZ did not really like that. Machine Shop in Evanston, for Shorty Vollman on Green Bay Raod. He took Grandma with him. Answered an ad for a machinist and the guy had him run a machine. He was hired as night foreman right away. Boss got a better job at Automatic Tool Production engineers at 4300 N. Kedzie in Chicago. He took Grandpa with him and he was the night foreman working 12 hour shiftes. Gra ndpa hired a few people to work the night shift including, Joyce. Joyce used to sleep in the car or the office a lot because she knew the boss. Worked some. The big thing on those machines, once you set them they make a lot of parts. She did not have to do much just take the parts out. All the training at Linc Belt came in handy to help Grandpa work on all the machines. On the screw machine they made bomb releases for the B 29. Shorty talked grandpa into getting a drill press for home and he had Aunt Lawle and his Dad worked on them Grandpa worked awhile on them when he got home. Took raw materials home and took back the finished bomb releases. This was subcontract work. Every time a bomb was released it took this with it so they needed a lot of replacement. Grandpa's trunk was filled all the time hauling raw materials home and finished parts back. 43: Got a ford convertible. Blue one. LZ and Lawle took turns running the press, made about 400 bomb releases a day. Grace took care of the house. Lawle worked a few hours after 12 hour night duty in Chicago at 900 North Michagan Ave for a gentleman who had had massive stomach surgery. No cranes to sell so LZ had to do this for money. One night on the way to work, he picked up a motorcycle cop following him and he tried to ditch him. Parked in the alley, with Joyce and other guys who worked for him. People on street told cop where he was. Grandpa told him that he was late for work. He was surprised that Grandpa could go so fast with the people in it and the stuff in the trunk. He could not believe Grandpa was the boss at work, Grandpa gave him a tour. || Day manager, Shorty, quit and then called Grandpa to come run night shift at new place. Automatic Production Tool Engineers, 4000 North Kedzie in Highwood. Grandpa worked 12 hour nights, J worked 8, slept in car or office other four. Grandpa worked five or six days a week. Shorty wanted Grandpa to get a drill press for home and work, LZ, Grandma H, Lawle, everyone ran it. Uncle Dave did not run it. Made bomb releases for the B 29’s. Car carried parts in the truck and releases back to factory. One night going to work Motorcycle cop pulled him over. He did not believe him, Grandpa took him to the factory and showed him around and got out of the ticket. The cop because a friend. Grandpa worked there until the war was over. Blue 41 Ford when he was pulled over. Always gave 4 or more people rides to work. Incl J. Picked them all up. Work was 20 miles away. Everyone lived within a mile or two of Grandpa. Highwood was all Italian. || After the war, LZ got a coal mine, strip mine down in Southern Indiana Switz City, ,. Grandpa had 41 Buick Limited-big engine, big car, red convertible. He told Grandpa he was in charge of the strip mine. Huge crane, engine broke first week,. Grandpa had to go high up in the air with the mechanic to fix it. He could look down at the fog. Switz City. Grandpa lived in the office building that LZ owned with Mine. ( mine 6/7 miles outside of town). Old steam crane. Had to get up at five to go out and get steam up every morning. He got there late one day and wanted to hurry things up so he threw in a bucket of gas. He was blown out the back of the Crane. He had to replace the sheet metal the next day. Other people told his father about it. He did get the steam up in time for the crane operator. It was cold that January. LZ had bought mine on nothing down. Grandpa worked down there six months and then LZ about lost it because he did not have much money. It was not making a big profit. Cranes were a big problem. Something always breaking. LZ was never there to show him anything. LZ ran out of money for the payroll so they closed the mine. Grandpa had been paid minimally. Big old steam crane, Grandpa had to get up steam every morning before the operator got there. One morning in the winter, he put some gas in there to start the fire quicker and that blew him backwards right through the crane's sheetmetal sides. Coal Tipple is like a grain elevator for coal. They filled it up and then trucks would come in and Grandpa would load them up. His father was not a coal businessman, after awhile it did not pay to dig the coal out. The crane was an immense. Buyceris Erie Steam Shove. Had to rebuild the engine. Had to close it down. LZ never showed Grandpa the finances. Around end of war, LZ had two big tumors. Cancer. Stomach. Lawle was there taking care of him. Uncle Dave got home at the end of the war when his father was sick. He was Army. Machine gunner. Lost his glasses over there. GrandmaH sent him another pair. Bob Wharton lived under a truck on the beach at Anzio for six months. His mother, Esther, died while he was over there on that beach. He could not come home. His whole army battalion was pinned down. She died of a hemorrhage of the pancreas Lawle said. |
 * 1943-44 ||
 * 1945 ||
 * 1944 ||
 * 1945 ||

1946:

End of 46: LZ got his Building and the Block behind it that was all fenced in. He went into business, three way split with John and Dave. Grandpa had to unload the cranes in the South parkway because the alley was not big enough to get them in. Drove them across the sidewalk through the yard to the back where it was fenced in.

This land was kitty corner across the street from where McCormick Place is not. It is now a big apartment building. Dave bought John out. Then Dave bought LZ out and moved to South chicago, maybe on South Kedzie avenue- then Howell Tractor moved to Elk Grove Village. Dave sold Howell Tractor and went to work for Willett. Lawyer he went to school with wanted him to take over Willett because the guy who owned it was dying. Dave bought into Willett with the money made from Howell Tractor. LZ ended up moving to California. Dave handled all of his mothers affairs. He was good at managing money. She had gotten house from Mrs. Frye because she took care of her while she was dying. Dave was born to be a salesman. Betty helped Dave with his business social stuff. Took a lot of business vacations. Boat races with millionaires and then sold them a lot of equipment. LZ wanted John to go into business with him fixing cranes and Dave selling them. Every time, Dave came home from college Grandpa gave him ten bucks for spending money. Dave went to college three years before the war and four after on the GI bill. He finished at the U of I. LZ Howell Company. They each had a third. Dave was a great sales man. Too buddy buddy and drinking and stuff. Lucky he did not get alcohol poisoning. When he first came home from Army, he and grandpa went of a hambuger at Walgreens and he used over a bottle of ketchup. || Grandma H and Lawle cooked for him when he was growing up. He loved their rice pudding-cooked it raisins. Makes a good breakfast.. Favorite thing he remembered about Lawle, she had a cure for everything. She used to take boys swimming at GreenLeaf Avenue Beach after working all night. She slept on beach. || Started LZ Howell. Grandpa wound up having to do all the heavy work. LZ was a good salesman. He sold lots of Crane. Bldg at 2600 South Parkway. Had fenced in yard behind two story building. He started bringing Cranes into year. Lawle gave Grandpa money for down payment on lowboy. He got a used truck. Grandpa did not like to sell. He would rather haul them. Grandpa worked really hard for this company for two years. Nobody showed him anything – he had to learn it by trial and error. He had a two axel mac truck. Second one was two engine Ford Thorco. Ran cranes out of Cedar Rapids and Link Belt for his Dad. Grandpa wanted to get Interstate commerce commission rights. Lawyers Axelrod, Goodman and Steiner ten thousand to help him get rights. . Grandpa hauled a lot of Cranes. Had difficulty getting Illinois permits. 1949: Dave and Betty bought his third of the business. She was always a good person. They had a pretty big business built up then. He got in the truck and liked that better.|| LZ broke up with Grandma. She thought he had a girlfriend. LZ was a hard worker-a real tough guy. One time when someone tried to run Grandpa off the road, he got out of the car fist and hit the guy who flew clear across Skokie highway. || When grandpa was real little he saw the truckers moving cranes out of link belt, letting the air out of the tires to get under a viaduct. Grandpa’s idea later was to unload crane, walk it under viaduct, and then load it back up. That would save the tires and the rims. || Had the cab. 41 Cadillac. Big cab-held 8 passengers. ||
 * 1946 ||
 * 1943-44 ||
 * 1946 ||

1949: Still working with Dad and brother. Bought 49 tandem drive Ford Truck to move machinery before he bought the 49 Kenworth. Gave truck back to Ford because parts kept wearing out and then bought the Kenworth in 1950 from Northern Illinois Finance Company in Dekalb for about 50,000$$$. Had to work, never thought about how much money the truck cost. 1st truck operating East of the Mississippi River, no one had ever seen a Kenworth before. It had a plate on the dashboard that said overspeading will void your warranty, governed at 105. He had a 200 horse power Cummings engine and in those days Cummings could not keep their engines running more than three or four months so you had to overhaul them. Cummings did it. He had to move a big crane for his Dad, but the Kenworth was broken down. So he bought a prime mover, a super large tow truck and wrecker, six wheel drive to move the big crane for LZ. Got pinched in Joliet. Had to take Crane apart to get it out of Joliet. Sold prime mover back to company when he got his Kenworth back. Went to hauling beer, etc. after the big pinch. Sold stock to Dave and Betty. Dave was appointed dealer for International Harvester. Dave was a born salesman. Dave had Howell Tractor for over a dozen years and sold it out for a million dollars.While he had Howell Tractor, he raced in on Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, Lake Superior and then off of Florida. Went from Clearwater to Ft Lauderdale. He used the boat to entertain customers. Grandma H did not have any part of the company. His attorney introducted him to Howard Willett who was dying of cancer. Howard wanted someone to take over the company, run it right and take care of his family. He made a lot of money for Mrs. Willett. Had a big charity, the Glenwood school for boys. When Uncle Dave died (at 72) 1987, his cars were auctioned off for $400,000 which was given to the Boys Schools. Grandpa used to haul cranes out of cedar rapids on Saturday nights to bypass closed scale. One night they opened the scale and stopped him. They chased him to the bridge and got a picture of him going up the bridge to Illinois. |

Early 1951. Started hauling for George and Milt out of their truck stop at 900 W 14th place, market area. Two blocks from the main section of the South Water market. Produce market on average get a hundred truck loads of stuff from all over the US. G and Truckstop everyone admired the Kenworth, no one had seen anything that big. Grandpa did not tell people all the trouble he had with the engine. George and Milt would always get Grandpa loads out and back from other areas of the country.

1951: Grandpa never felt comfortable while another driver was driving. One time he did sleep and woke up after a short time when he heard the wind whistling. Harry was speeding in the fob. He had the driver (Harry Toast) pull over and stop. He told Harry to get out and fired him on the spot. Then Grandpa drove on. Harry's excuse was: "There is nobody else out here that late." Started working for Milt and George.. Hauling cheese for New Yorker Cheese company made in Philadelphia. Office was right underneath the deleware river bridge going into Jersey. Hauled for them several months, then the guy who hooked him up with them, talked him into hauling the empty cheese boxes back to Wisc, and then he got into hauling cheese for Wisc. Cheddar and white cheese. Grandpa got samples. Cheddar blocks were 110 pounds, stacked seven high to the roof. They did not get moldy, came out of cooler, into grandpa's well insulated trailer, couple days and then delivered in Newark, NJ. Max Bopkins owned the company. Max was a worker. His brother always tried to finagle Grandpa out of money. Grandpa had been learning how to figure money fast so he would not get gyped. Late 1953 going through Laramie, On Route 30, out of town and he saw one of his trailors sitting with a guy named Shorty Tolson's truck. Aboutt three in the morning, Grandpa lowered the wheels on the trailor. and then went in the bar and fired the trucker for being drunk. He called Milt to send another truck out from Chicago to take the load. |
 * 1952 ||
 * 1952 ||

Los Angelas looking for a load (!953), they had a load of turkies for NY on a 72 hour schedule.| 7 th and alameda Truck Stop. They had a load in Modesto, two or three hundred miles north of LA. He took it. Roads were frozen. Got in a sleet storm. Going through a town-went too fast-someone called the state cop.He went down the hill going into Cedar Rapids. Grandpa had made it in less than an hour on the ice. Cops ahead. They had grandpa wait for awhile til the cop arrived. Cop took him back to town and grandpa was fined a hundred dollars. Judge told cop to take grandpa back to his truck. Grandpa made it to NY in a little over 72 hours so he got paid. He had to show him his ticket. It was cold weather so the turkies were in good shape. They did not have all the refrigerated trailors then.

1953 Jerry Holbrook was driving grandpa's truck after his broke down. Head to California. Had to get truck overhauled, rebult engine.. Going into Las Cruces and Cecils Diesel. Grandpa wired him three thousand to fix the truck again. He did not even get into Arizona before the truck broke down again. In New Mexico, broken down again. Grandpa stopped the check. Had to hire another turck to go on to California. It was a little while before they came back. Cecil was mad and would not fix the truck. Jerry picked up Kenworth on the way back and when he was coming back through Las Cruces. Cecil and three guys stopped him and took the Kenworth away from him with their guns. Holbrook brought the flatbed back home. He did not have grandpa's truck. Grandpa left his Kenworth at Cecils for awhile. They took the engine out and they sent it in to El Paso Diesel to get fixed. They had it bored out for bigger pistons and stuff. Grandpa had trucks going through there every few weeks. Had Grandpas license still on it. One trip Holbrook told Grandpa that they were going to sell his truck. Grandpa was getting pretty mad, went to El Paso, had Bob Hamblim, Bob Castile, Charlie Oliver with him. Grandpa had car and truck with them. No one knew who they were. Shopping around. Found where they put the Kenworth. Out of town about a mile and a half. Black guy with shotgun living in a house tralier watching it. Started raining. They had a hundred foot of chain and were going to pull the Kenworth out without bothering anyone. The guard woke up and came out of the housetrailer with a shotgun. And grandpa met him there with his pistol. Threw the guys shotgun into the creek. Grandpa told him he was taking his truck. Bob C had hooked on with the chain and towed it to ElPaso to their motel. (40 or 50 miles) Went by Rio Grande river way instead of regular road so as not to be seen by a lot of people. They had been up all day and all night. The next day they loaded it up on one of Grandpa's trailers. Took it all day to get it loaded and take off the exhaust pipe down so it was not up too high. They slept them. Bob H was stopped as he went out of El Paso. They took him into the police station. Grandpa went down there, his license plate registered in Ala. to John Howell was still on the truck. Grandpa sent it on home. Grandpa bought Hamblins truck but it messed up on him soon after.



1954 || Went in with Milt and George/ H and D Distributing. Grandpa's job was to go all over keeping an eye on the truckers who did not know he was the boss. Their old truck drivers, most of them were crooks. They would give them a load and they would keep on going with it. They were truck brokers. While we still lived in Mundelein, Kenworth was hard to park, neighbors hollared and complained a lot. Bought the three lots next to the house in Mundelein so he had room to part his trucks. Lawyer told him all you have to do is pay taxes on the land and you own it, lawyer lied. He had no power to sell it. || Aunt Lawle kept Judy for awhile while Grandpa was moving the family to the farm in Chatsworth that Grandpa had bought. Pete had found it for him. Plenty of space to park his trucks.
 * 1954 ||

Hired Charlie Oliver who lost his job from Milt and George because Carol Broussard had come back from the Army. Carol was from LA. Grandpa put Charlie on-he felt sorry for him. . He had burned out as a driver, taking pills, used him as a mechanic. John trusted him at that time. Took everywhere with him. 1956 or 58- He went into NY with him. He wanted a gun. Grandpa loaned him a gun. Woke up one night and found him playing with a gun (38) slapped him and took it away from him. He took him with him for an extra truck. ||Main route from out east to west was 24, took them right by the farm. Grandpa had them stop in and pick up a check from Joyce. She had access to write checks on the company for years.

Around 1955, Grandpa hired John Conrad who had just come home from the Korean War. He was a good driver. Wanted to be home though, so eventually went to work for Rudolf's in Kankakee.

Charlie drove produce for awhile, then cuidit for Nichol tool. After awhile H and D distributing was called to haul parts for the Early warning system for civil defense system. Used bulldozers to built road so take him to top of mountain in Utah and Nevada. Radar system. Loads turned down by other trucking companies. Military command sent perspectus to grandpa with prices they would pay on them. Pretty good prices. |||| || ||
 * 1956 ||

1958/59 Got horses to keep kids from thinking of the family troubles. Traded old trucks for horses ||

1960- Bought 17 half cab Kenworths from White Motor company on Pershing Road in Chicago. White Motor Company he had bought a lot of Nationals from them. Dave bought their property in 1970 for Willette. In 1960 Grandpa Bought five new highway trailors and 17 Andrews used trailers to haul cookies in. Used to load two or three loads of cookies per day. Reub an used to help. Also hauled for WJ Hartell Acoustical Tile and Nikel Tube and Allied Tube. Started running all over the country regularly. . Drove 22 hours to get to Texas to buy horse, bought four horse trailor, bought three horses. Tico, Taboo, Keep kids busy and teach them how to work. Driving trailor was easy compared to driving a regular truck. Liked Feathers, not Chief. Chief bit feathers one time and feathers ran over grandpa and put his foot lightly on his chest. Chief was an orney horse. All the kids fell off at one time or another. At first rode with no saddles because Kay ceal Forney was dragged with her foot caught in a stirrup in the pasture at her farm. || Forney was over his head selling trucks, lost a lot of money at it. Sold trucks to guys with no money down and talked grandpa into using his wrecker to help repossess trucks out of the buyers barns. || Used local welder-ended up stealing his tractor and selling it. Used him on a lot of welding on trucks and trailers when they broke. You had to be good at that to make it stick. When they moved up North, Wilbur 78 now. Son asst chief of police in Hoffman Estates. Welds too when they need them. || Really enjoyed it when Tico won a lot of trophies. 1963 John drove all night back from New Jersey and stayed up all night with Ginny in the hospital the night after she had her appendix out. After Ginny got out of the hospital, Grandpa bribed her with chocolate ice cream to stand up straight. || Trophy Grand Champion Appaloosa Horse Ever from Am Appaloosa Assoc. || Tico would watch grandpa when he worked on the trailers in our yard. || Supportive to help kids have something to take their mind off Joyce. Edwards brothers-they were in the house every time he came home. || Learned responsibility by taking care of cats, dogs, and horses. || Hauling beer out of Lacrosses, Went in restaurant by brewery to eat lunch, squished mouse that ran across the floor. || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || Dec 15 Susan Grace Howell born at Evanston Hospital-lived in Highland Park. || || || September 28 Virginia Lee Howell born in Evanston Hospital-lived in Highland Park. || Moved to Mundelein. Winter of 50/51 - Went in with Milton Marks and George Dombeck. They owned a truck stop and a truck hauling produce. G & M Truckstop. 900 W 14 th Place. They called John to get them trucks to haul stuff. Met Reuban there-he cleaned trailors, transferred meat, watched blacks to make sure they did not steal from them. Hauled meat, acoustical tile, Nichoh Tube, conduit, LA tube. WJ Hartell kept the trucks pretty busy with the acoustical tile he invented. || Kenworth, frozen turkies going to NY 72 hour schedule. Went through Tama Iowa. Guy woke up a cop. Slick ice all the way to Cedar Rapids. Grandpa, saw big crowd of police cars when he topped the hill. Cop took him back to Tama Iowa to see judge who fined him 100$. Judge dismissed it later. When grandpa got to NY an hour late so lost his 100$ bonus. || February 4 Steven John Howell born at Evanston Hospital-lived in Mundelein. 49 Mercury. || Howell Distributing One night saw his trailer parked in front of a tavern in Laramie. He sat there about an hour. Shorty and another guy came staggering out, Grandpa had unhooked the kingpin and wound down the dolly so the trailer would support itself when the guy started up his truck. Grandpa firedhim on the spot. || Jan 19 Judith Ann Howell born -lived in Mundelein. Moved to Chatsworth. Bought Truck stop from Milt and George. These guys were leaving. George did not like Grandpa bossing him. Hard living far from work, but in the truck all the time driving all over the country. Had big payments truck and trailer payments. || Got real busy trucking. Hauling heavy. Going around scales. || Lois went to Catholic Girls Home to live and go to school. Father sent her there after divorce. When the girls were good, the nuns would give them a cigarette at the end of the week. || || 57 Chevy Drove family to Newark, NJ. Once grandpa hauled meat everyone called him. Milt and George handled it. A guy called him who hard he was hauling meat out of NY- truckloads of meat in Iowa and Grandpa would take two loads from Iowa and put it on one of his trucks to NJ. || || || Milt and George let Charlie go. Charlie hired. Lois expecting. || Debbie born Aug 20. Shooting at farm started. Grandpa found bullet holes in house on side. Late summer, Grandpa helped Nickoh Tube factory breaking strike and moving it down to Fairbury while strike was going on. Union charging too much money. Got all new people when they moved down to Fairbury. Moved the machinery that made the parts. Unbolted machinery and put it on trucks. Used Cranes to put machinery into vans. Strikers shot up Bob Castile’s truck, tire shot out. He ended up in hospital. Next trip Grandpa and couple of guys stopped union guys said they would teach union guys how to shoot if they did not get out of there. Union guys never did find the plant. Used fairgrounds to make tubes til factory was ready. Took them six months to build new factory Floyd and Russ Williams poured all the concrete. Grandpa told workers how to set most of the machines in place. After they got going awhile, Nussbaum and Jeff Lee trucking wanted to get in on stuff and kept offering to do it cheaper. Charlie messed things up. Charlie did not deliver load right. Tubes went as far as California. Chatsworth Coop. Farm coop could haul freight. Jack and John went to all the big companies and made them an agent for Chatsworth Coop. San Francisco, Sioux City, Omaha, Okla City, Jersey City NJ, Law said any coop can haul freight. Hauled stuff from Frisco to Alaska. Grandpa was driving all the time so very few people knew he was the boss. Uncle Dave got a million bucks for Howell Tractor and went to Willette Construction, Willette Truck Rental, Willette School busses. He bought into the company and turned it around. Owner was dying. He got to be the brains for the whole company. Lois having trouble with husband. Grandma L asked John to bring Lois down to visit so she and Debbie (few months old) came to visit for an afternoon. They had to met in the office. Lois worked in the office for Milt and George. Later Lois went back to J.O. until Debbie was 2. || Late May. Ginny got her appendix out, John drove all the way home from Newark, New Jersey. He stayed up all night with her at Fairbury Hospital after He had the top floor of the Newark hotel for his drivers. || Took the president Ed Ray of Nickel Tube and his attorney Cal Rowen and Ed's stepson Bill Allison to Fairbury because they were looking for a place to build a plant and get away from the union trouble in chicago. Took them to the banker down there, National Bank of Fairbury, John Gerber President,a nd Bob Mauer Vice President. They worked it out to help the company get the land and financing. Immediately, Grandpa started hauling out of the factory. Put machines in the stables at Fairbury Fairgrounds when they started making conduit in the stables until the factory was ready. Ed Ray moved to Fairbury. He did very good down there. Grandpa hauled their stuff and meat and boats. Nussbaum wanted to get in on it-offered a cheaper price. Ed's step son and Cal rowan to go to dinner in Fairbury and wanted Grandpa to steal loads and take them where he wanted. Grandpa refused. A few weeks later Ed died on the way to church in an accident. Russ and Floyd Williams poured all the concrete for the factory. Took all the used machines from the fairgrounds and put them in the factory. Grandpa left Charlie there to run the trucks while he was busy hauling stuff around the country. Used Green Garage for a shop. Grandpa had big payments.
 * 1962 ||
 * 1984 ||
 * 1950 ||
 * 1946 ||
 * 1947 ||
 * 1948 ||
 * 1949 ||
 * 1950 ||
 * 1951 ||
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 * 1953 ||
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 * 1956 ||
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 * 1964 ||

In 64 Grandpa had a salesman lining up loads. He was a freight soliciter. He came several times while grandpa was hauling machinery. He came up one day and said he had a boat that he needed hauled to California for ten thousand. He had a Grandpa look at the boat. He had the owner Don Von Jenef come to talk to John.. 62 foot about 18 foot wide. At that time no one had ever hauled more than a 42 footer. One mast was over 80 feet. The owner talked to Dave who told him not to worry about anything. Good friend of Dave's. Took a week to load the boat and get it secure. Had to load it in the rain. Got to California with the load, two boats were waiting that wanted Grandpa to haul them back. Hauled first boat 62 ft boat masts 80 and 60 feet long to California. Lois gotten divorced and wanted to go back to work so he hired her to escort because he did not have much going on at the office. Paid ten thousand for this first load – jad a parade for them getting into town. They inspected the boat while Grandpa was waiting at dinner and gave him the check. guy had to pay before it was unloaded. They had two boats who wanted to go back to Chicago. Cleared he had just taken over Muske Machinery-he had rights for ten states. At dinner guy told John about guy who had just bought a sailboat in Newport and was going to have to sail it through the Panama Canal and then up Mississippi to get it back to Chicago. Spent a few days setting up. Had to work on system for jacks, took a few days to load. Old Kenworth, 1951, got into Utah. Utah had a law you could not run after noon Saturday until Monday morning. Remembered the name of a guy in Salt Lake City who had worked for Milt and George. He said you go here along the mountain. Went up mountain road ended, no way down. Stayed the night at top. Had to turn around and come back down. In the morning, things froze over a little bit and he got ambitious and they headed down as dirt was falling into the canyon off the road. Went back and waited and went through the scale on Monday. Guy at scale said he had seen him going up but knew he would be back. Busted some parts and had to send to Chicago for parts. Rebuilt rear end. She drove escort in Neb and Iowa going back. Lois unhappy he had broken down. Called her father and he smoothed things over. Back in Chicago with Flame. Everyone in the yacht club called John to haul his boards. They called their friends all over the country to have him call him haul their boats. Haggerity at Palmer Johnson called him from Sturgeon Bay – grandpa cut center out of flatbed and dropped base down to fit so keel could sit on it. He started getting so much to do he hired more drivers. Hauled a couple boats for Johnson and they had a guy from SAmerica who was running their sailboats. He got an idea to build their own sailboat trailor. They bought a new trailor, cut out the section and made a solid section to hold the keel. They tried to hire one of his drivers, Gary Whalie, who was a jerk.. He wrecked a couple of them. Then they started back. In the meantime everyone, was calling him for loads. He ordered five Fruehauf Trailers, who hired Callahan Engineering to build them. Grandpa stacked them and brought them to Illinois in two loads. Callahan showed him about a big dollie job he did. He had 70 sets of dollies he had built, he built trailers as a sideline. Spent a day showing Grandpa how they could be used. Matthews Boat company keep calling from Port Clinton, Ohio. Hutchinson asked him to come haul boats for them. He had a forty foot boat. And then he started making 46 ft and then 50, then 56 ft boats. John had to haul 50 ft boat on his 50 ft trailer and it feel apart. Grandpa had to fix it all the time. || Sue graduated Chatsworth High School. Kennedy closed Chatsworth Coop. He represented a bunch of big trucking companies who did not want him to haul anything. || Sue married Mike Fox. 65 diamond T is what he slept in. Spring of 66 is  He had the idea before he hauled anymore boats he would build a big trailer. Hutchinson, wanted him to build a trailer to haul 50-56 footers. John had a guy who said build it in my father in laws shop, I can weld it. John got a friend of Dave’s who was a steel salesman, Rod Karr, brought his book out and John figured out what he needed to build a real heavy solid trailer. Dick Yearton said he could weld it. Father in law wanted to sell John a welding machine so he bought it. Had steel sent up to Dick. 12 inch H beams weighed a hundred pounds a foot. Made deck 60 feet long and 2 beams on each side of the trailer. At first he paid Yearton to put it together. For a month he is paying Dick $300.00 a week. Found out he was welding for father in law, not doing the trailer. He was there five weeks. John asked when could he get the trailer, Dick said another week or two every time. Grandpa went up there one day and found nothing had been done. Father in law said why don’t you stay and I will put Dick and another guy on it to help you. Grandpa cut steel and put it where he wanted. Stayed in truck for three weeks. Cut 8 foot axles in half and put them out so they were 14 ft wide. Welding held up well. Dick came back to work for him, they went to Ft Clinton Ohio to get boat. Welding machines on each side of gooseneck. Put 8 jackpads on each side of boat to cradle it. Set boat as low as he could. Hauled three to California and four to Florida on that trailer. Michelin tires. Solid suspension, no air. Lots of tire troubles. Used little wheels because the wheels were so far apart when he turned the corner they would be sliding. Broke a lot of them, the disk would break right out. Started using Dayton rims and had much better luck. Bridgestone early tires no good, went back to Michelins. Started getting busy with that trailer. || Ginny Graduates High School-Goes to Illinois Wesleyan University for freshman year. Meets Nancy Rowland, Elizabeth Koo, Corinne, and Jan Rauhut. Mercer Marine rights used to haul boats-trying to buy Boat Transit. Lawyer for Boat Transit wanted John to run it for him. John called Mercer said come down and see the boss. Went down and told him what he had been doing and they made a deal. Grandpa had to paint his trucks green. He was hauling boats, he got rights while Kennedy was fighting with John. FBI used to bug Mercer all the time. John paid him ten percent. That was more money than his own trucks were making him. . Uniflight called from Bellingham, had five fifty ft utility boats for the Navy, they could not figure out how to get them to Norfolk Va. They had been sitting on their dock for months. Had Glenn Milsap in California, Sent him up to Uniflight. He said this is a joke. Any boat trailer you have will haul them. He hauled the first one. John went out with other drivers and hauled other four with Freuhauf trailers.Then he started getting a lot of calls from Uniflight to haul their 41 ft. yachts. No one else would haul them. Claude Hull bought old 46ft CrissCraft bought to resell in Seattle and had John haul them to Seattle. Claude wanted John and Steve to haul just for him whenever he could buy a boat. Hauled Uniflight east. They had 41 footers. Hauled Then he decide to build a lighter trailer – Botts Welding Yearton’s father in law. Same size beams, one on each side of trailer. First two axles of tires were one size the last two were bigger sizes. || May 21 Mary Louise Howell born. August Ginny and Steve go on truck trip to California with John. Disneyland. August Ginny starts dating Richard Diller. Ginny goes to Winston Churchill first semester. (Money tight. Commutes from farm.) Hauled 60 ft Chris Craft into Washington. Charlie Bonnicci hired him to haul it for $50,000. Paid cash for boat and for hauling. Idaho police wanted to go through boat and John made them take off their shoes so they would not scratch their boat. He told them the boat was for Kessinger. Guy who unloaded boat charged five thousand. This was the first time Peterson loaded him with a boat. Next boat went to Alaska. || January Second Semester-Ginny goes to ISU. Lives in Hewitt on the 12th floor. June 15 June Grace Howell born, Steve graduates Chatsworth High School and goes to Parkland Community college in Champagne. Ginny married to Richard Allan Diller and they live on Prairie in Bloomington next to IWU. One bedroom apt. no shower, no living room, just kitchen and bedroom and bathroom. Gas Stove-blew up in Ginny’s face one day singing her eyebrows. They continue at ISU. Ginny frequently takes bus back and forth to school. Dick had the car. || Took Steve to buy a V 8 bout it for Fred Warner, but his wife did not want him to travel so Steve ended up with it. Bought diesel GMC car. Steve traveled with John a lot that first year so he could teach him what to do. John coached him over the CB radio. When he went to buy the V 8 he saw a different huge truck V 12. Had been special ordered for a guy who had died. Biggest engine they had made up until that time. Nothing to compare to it. Salesman take truck and test it for awhile. It was like driving an airplane. Big engine. Everything was heavy duty. GMC. Drove it 23 years. Sold it in 93. A lot faster than Steve’s truck. Hauled some Uniflights to Houston Texas, made second morning deliveries with them. More fun after Steve came on board. When he used to haul for Claude, Claude would try to race him to Seattle. He could not stay awake and drive as long as John could. || Steve had learned to be a real good driver. First Steve went with Grandpa in the truck, when Steve was 20 he got into his own truck. When he had a load, Grandpa put him in front of him and then coached him over the CB about when to move over, how to miss things, how to measure everything (viaducts you measure three or four places across the wideth of the road.) We hauled two boats into Washington, Claude Hull would buy used Chris Craft in Wisc or Mich. and have them shipped to Wash. He would buy two every time he would come in, and let Steve and Grandpa haul them. He wanted them to haul steady for him. 50 to 57 footers. In Wash, he has an island called Friday's Island. When he was younger he used to haul whiskey into there every Friday, during prohibition. He would have the checks in the mail before a driver would get back to Chicago if Steve or Grandpa was not there. Grandpa and Steve were careful and never lost any checks. When drivers delivered, people had to pay by putting the money in the Bank of Fairbury before they could unload. Wire transfer. Cashiers checks were taken by Steve and Grandpa. Grandpa mailed them to Fairbury. Grandpa kept records of everything they took in and everything that went out. Kessler is his Accountant since 1951. They came in every 30 days and spend a day or two going through every check they wrote.
 * 1965 ||
 * 1966 ||
 * 1967 ||
 * 1968 ||
 * 1969 ||
 * 1970 ||
 * 1971 ||

Hauling a lot of boats. He started going everywhere on his own. Talked to John every day or two. Called answering service and got the number. Driving and permitting trucks and calling drivers from the pay phone. Peterson’s superintendent used to go over to Palmer Johnsons all the time and watch John load big salesboats. At that time they were scouting out whether or not he was capable of hauling boats for the Navy. One day, someone from Peterson’s (Ellsworth Peterson) called Chicago Assoc of Commerce and Industsry for someone who could haul Navy boats for them. Called Caroon and Black, Dave’s lawyer, who told them to call John. 65-70 footers 18 wide and 18 high. They ended up hauling lots of boats for them. Getting ready to ship gun boats to San Diego. When John sat down with Ellsworth quote $32000 each gave him the first few prices, response, add five thousand to each load so you are here when we need you. This is when Grandpa bought the motor home. First gunboat 65 ft, 6-8 high ranking naval officers flew out from Wash, DC to make sure boat was all right-Navy yard San Diego. Hauled it through Mexico up through City streets of San Diego into Navy yard. First gunboat took six weeks to get there. Go through Colorado. Sixth one took six days. While John was moving these, Peterson started shipping 50 gun boats to Iran. The first one there hard to get into Brooklyn NY. Steve had Brent with him. Finally found a way through the streets to get to the port for the Hamburg American Line. Steve hauled them for pretty close to a year. One time, Ohio tied up Steve and John both at the Ohio line. The head permit guy told his superiors they everyone asked him not to let them go. Parked at first town on rt 30. Steve and John took escort cars and made up a form, that they have checked all their routes and were aware of everything they wanted to do. No one had any complaints so every police district signed off on it. John took forms into politicians in charge and they fired head permit guy who had been taking bribes from other companies. Since then, no other troubles getting permits in Ohio. Other guys helped Steve with some of the loads, Grandpa went on last two with Steve, had longshoreman tie up loads. Wanted fifty thousand in his bank before boats were unloaded. Peterson lost over two million dollars on this deal because he did not let grandpa get his money for him. (total of 50 50 ft gunboats). Ginny did student teaching. Fall 71. || Jan Ginny Graduates ISU. Substitute teaches a little. Works at Waltons Dept Store in Fairbury as a salesperson. Fall Dick wants a separation Ginny works as store detective at Sears in Woodfield - until Christmas, stayed in Steve’s room at John and Lois’s house in Roselle. Dick wanted to get back together. || Ginny drove escort on truck trip from Ohio and to California with John, Lois, and girls. Ginny drove her green ford and earned 25 cents a mile. Judy and Jan came along. Jan did not want to follow directions. Sent home from El Paso, Texas. Judy flew home from Arizona. Ginny continued and enjoyed time in San Diego, LA, Sacramento (with Nancy and Reynold), Salt Lake City and then home. Drove straight through from Laramie to Chatsworth in 17 hours. || Jan. Dick wants separation. Ginny finds out she is pregnant. August 18 Patience Elizabeth Diller born. Ginny and Dick divorced Dec 19. Mr. Sharp called her that night and asked her out for Christmas with his family. || Jan 31 Ginny married Gene Earl Sharp moved into his house in Pontiac. Mold in crawl space. Patience hospitalized three times this year with breathing problems. Ginny Grad School for summer. In June finds out she is PG and has Mono. Still finished summer classes. || March 25 Elizabeth Suzanne Sharp born in Fairbury, lived in Pontiac, Patience adopted by Gene. Liz hospitalized with Croup. || July 28 Suzanne Katherine Sharp born in Fairbury, lived in Pontiac. || May Suzy hospitalized with breathing problems. || Sue and Ginny see Grandma, night before she died. Grace Blanche Williams Howell died. Buried in Aunt Lawle lot. Ginny moved to Bloomington to get away from house ( mold in crawl space) she thought was making the children ill and to have been church opportunities for her children. || || Oct 7 Katherine Judith Sharp born in Bloomington, lived in Bloomington. || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || ||
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 * 1977 ||
 * 1978 ||
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 * 1980 ||
 * 1981 ||