Danielson Lineage
 Some Family History

In 1946 my mom Renee Elizabeth Bell, married my dad, Marvin Richard Danielson and formed the Danielson branch of the Bell Family. Here are some stories as told by my dad, Marv, over the years. - Karen

Marv's Early years and Marriage

When I was a young, preteen boy, a neighbor moving away gave me a pure bred German Shepard dog named Rex. Rex was always "my dog". I fed, groomed and walked him. Rex was fourteen years old when I went into the Army and he died shortly after that. (The family said from a broken heart.) When I got the letter with that news, I cried all night.
During my early teens, I had many close "buddies". Back then we rode bikes and we would ride 45 miles north to Round Lake, IL where one of my friends folks had a cottage. We enjoyed swimming and just having good fun. No mischief except occasionally swiping apples from a farmer's tree and a watermelon from his patch. We thought we were getting away with it, but as it turned out the farmer didn't care. He chased us away but never caught us and it became a fun challenge. There was a nearby roller rink and we spent many evenings there. I was a floor guard for some time. We all had our girlfriend skating partners. In those times we rode our bicycles or walked to high school. There were no school buses then. In bad winter weather a parent would drive us there, but we still walked home. Even though we were living through the Depression, we didn't realize it. But when WWII broke out, our gym classes became physical workout times and we got serious about life.

This is my father's car sitting in front of our home in Maywood (on 10th Street).

When I was sixteen years old, my parents owned a lot in Round Lake Beach, a town on the east bank of Round Lake. That summer 2 of my friends and I got jobs in Waukegan, IL at the Johns Mannville Factory. As I was the eldest (by less than 1 year), the J.M. Personnel Manager loaned me $60 to buy a car. I bought my first car, a 1933 Ford Tudor, and paid him back $20 a week for 3 weeks. We lived in tents, worked nights at Johns Mannville and back to our tents. A quick swim was our bath. We had great times eating burgers in the Grayslake "slop shop" and watching movies on the wall of the restaurant facing the outdoor theatre screen. Life was good that summer!

I graduated from Proviso Twp High School at age 17. My parents would not let me enlist then. My Aunt Ruth Wort's son did enlist in the Navy and he had been killed. I had been a Cub Scout and Boy Scout and all the Scout leaders were in the Maywood National Guard - the 33rd Tank Battalion. The Battalion shipped out to the Philippine Islands and every one in that battalion was killed. Maywood, IL had the largest percentage of gold star mothers and wives.

This is a postcard of my father and the Danielson Bros. business cart, then pulled by a horse.

I got a job working at a war plant in neighboring Bellwood on the swing shift. I ran a bank of seven automatic machines that made 50-caliber machine gun links at the Borg Warner Company. The beautiful Miss Nancy Borg, the owner's daughter, had been my skating partner in Round Lake and Villa Park.

When I was old enough, I enlisted on my own. My Army experiences got me into drinking beer and raising "Hell". I never got into any serious trouble, but it kept my promotions down to a buck sergeant. I spent approximately 4 months in Vaughn General Army Hospital due to a ruptured appendix leading to serious pneumonia and also to repair my right eye (musculature to correct cross-eyed). (I had blurry sight in that eye since birth.) Vaughn Hospital was built for WWII next to Hines Veterans Hospital in my hometown of Maywood.
A girl that I dated in high school, Renee Bell, heard that I was in Vaughn Hospital and she was a regular visitor. After my release from the hospital, I was returned to my M.P. battalion in Glenview, IL. I spent weekend passes with Renee and we eventually married. We happened to be the one millionth couple to receive our license from the Chicago clerk so the fee was waived and our picture made the newspapers. We were married on Feb 16, 1946.
Son John was born Dec 19, 1946. He was a screaming, fussy baby the first 6 months. My friend's wife was a nurse and she demonstrated handling him with confidence rather than with "kid gloves", as though we were afraid of him. This helped immensely and he became a wonderful, loving son, husband, and father himself.

This is baby John with myself (Marvin), my Grandma Edith Drake Rickart, and my mother, Edith.

Grandma Edith Drake Rickert was my (Marvin's) mother's mother.

My Grandmother, Edith Drake, was a very dignified, proud "English" lady. She married Clarence Rickert, a carpenter who was killed in a work accident. Grandma had documents that verified that she was a descendant of "Sir Francis Drake" the explorer. Unfortunately, these documents were lost. They were in a box in the attic of our family home at 2030 South 10th Avenue in Maywood, IL While I was in the Army, my father died, and my mother sold our home and moved, leaving many things that were stored in the attic and the basement.

Grandma Rickert was a very remarkable and adventuresome lady. She was born on the east coast and traveled by covered wagon to the midwest where she settled and married and had 3 daughters, my mother, Edith, and my aunts Ruth and Jean, in that order. Grandma got a Model A Ford and a tent. She would load the car with her camping gear and daughters and set out to explore the country. Eventually she bought a bungelow in Maywood and settled in.

Grandma had an older sister, my Great Aunt Grace. She married "Uncle" George Pendleton. He was a commodity broker in the Chicago market and was rich one week and broke the next, etc. He had a 4-door convertible LaSalle with 2 spare tires in the front fenders, which was very classy at the time. He died when I was very young, but Aunt Grace remained close with us throughout my childhood. Aunt Grace worked in the office of the Keee Brothers Men's Clothing Store until she was in her 80's. She died sometime between 1947 and 1951.

Edith Danielson Moemke was my (Marvin's) mother.

After my father died in the early 1940's, my mother bought a large 2-story house that was old but in excellent condition. Grandma Edith also sold her bungalow and moved in with my mother and they rented out rooms for awhile. It proved unprofitable so they sold that house and bought a building on Eddy Street in Chicago's north central area. It was a neighborhood delicatessen with living quarters in the rear. After I was discharged from the Army and married to Renee, we lived in the one room enclosed porch for awhile when she was expecting our first baby.

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