Throughout my life my grandparents have influenced me greatly. I could write about all of them but I have to pick one. I chose to write about my grandfather on my mom’s side of the family.
My grandpa started to make an impact on my life the day I was born. He has helped my parents raise me and has given me wisdom through our conversations, he really is an inspiration to me in so many ways. His life shows me what I can do, it helps me realize that if you work hard enough you can achieve much more than you think. My grandpa was born in Lacon IL. His family had moved over to the United States when his father was a boy.
After arriving in Boston, they made their way to Lacon, IL and opened up a wool mill that their family managed for some years. The mill employed over 250 people and was the largest employer in town. However, over time the business began to lose money and they had to close the shop. After it closed he moved to Philadelphia to study the textile business at Philadelphia Textile University with the intention of continuing in the textile business.
College was a struggle for him because it cost a good amount of money to pay for it. One summer after his spring semester he drove back to Lacon to see his family. In his time there he went on a double date with a girl he liked and another couple he knew of. They had planned on going ice skating but it turned out that his date couldn’t skate and his friend couldn’t skate so he and his friends date just skated together that night. The girl that he skated with that night turned out to be his wife. As they dated throughout college it was rather difficult for the two of them.
My grandma went to school at Souther Illinois University and my grandpa went to Philadelphia Textile University. On top of all of that he had to find ways to work and go to school at the same time, as well as give enough time for his studies. After graduating college, he was offered a job managing a textile business in New York. He and my grandma moved up there and had their first child not too long after, that child was my mom. They bought their first house and began the mundane routine of going to work and sleeping that every other middle class family did during that time period. Although it was a well paying job, my grandpa disliked it greatly. He would go into work at 4pm and come home around midnight. It came to a point where he could no longer work there, so he then decided to quit his job and move back to Lacon to look for a new occupation. He decided to open his own brokerage business. Opening your own brokerage business can be risky sometimes, if no one trusts you, no one will invest there money in you. He started the business by going around door to door asking farmers to invest in the stock market, this was unusual because farmers weren’t the risky type. Within 10 years he was noticed as the number one performing stock broker in the country for Dean Witter.
After a few years he was interested in other forms of income so he sought out investing in real estate, as well as purchasing the Mark Twain Hotel. He managed the Mark Twain himself for about 10 years, after that he handed the job down to his successor. A few years after he bought the Mark Twain, he decided to give his clients in the brokerage business to his son in law (my uncle). He also purchased a steam boat by with the name Spirit of Peoria, which he eventually gave to his son. Once that got going he set his eyes on another goal he wanted to achieve which was being the mayor of Peoria. That next year he started to campaign for mayor. My dad and my uncles all went door to door telling people to vote for him. It was hard in the beginning, some people would be kind and say they would vote for him, others would slam the door right in their face.
My father after marrying my mother got a job as manager at the Mark Twain. Throughout his time there my grandpa and my father frequently butted heads. They had their differences and they were both very stubborn. After a few years their my dad quit and went off on his own starting his own business. My grandpa then after his term being mayor ended decided to move out of the city and into the rural town of Canton, IL. He bought a fairly large plot of land and had the idea of creating a piece of land that his grandchildren could play and fish and do all other sorts of activities on.
As he began to work on that, it looked better with every year that went by. Now my grandparents do their best to be involved with all of their grandparents and they try to influence us in the best ways possible. I see my grandparents regularly and enjoy spending time with them. They always have something interesting to talk about and they always manage to sneak a few life lessons into the conversation. I’ll always look up to grandpa for the rest of my life. His accomplishments and everything else he’s earned throughout his life is just a motivation for me to achieve more.
My grandpa started to make an impact on my life the day I was born. He has helped my parents raise me and has given me wisdom through our conversations, he really is an inspiration to me in so many ways. His life shows me what I can do, it helps me realize that if you work hard enough you can achieve much more than you think. My grandpa was born in Lacon IL. His family had moved over to the United States when his father was a boy.
After arriving in Boston, they made their way to Lacon, IL and opened up a wool mill that their family managed for some years. The mill employed over 250 people and was the largest employer in town. However, over time the business began to lose money and they had to close the shop. After it closed he moved to Philadelphia to study the textile business at Philadelphia Textile University with the intention of continuing in the textile business.
College was a struggle for him because it cost a good amount of money to pay for it. One summer after his spring semester he drove back to Lacon to see his family. In his time there he went on a double date with a girl he liked and another couple he knew of. They had planned on going ice skating but it turned out that his date couldn’t skate and his friend couldn’t skate so he and his friends date just skated together that night. The girl that he skated with that night turned out to be his wife. As they dated throughout college it was rather difficult for the two of them.
My grandma went to school at Souther Illinois University and my grandpa went to Philadelphia Textile University. On top of all of that he had to find ways to work and go to school at the same time, as well as give enough time for his studies. After graduating college, he was offered a job managing a textile business in New York. He and my grandma moved up there and had their first child not too long after, that child was my mom. They bought their first house and began the mundane routine of going to work and sleeping that every other middle class family did during that time period. Although it was a well paying job, my grandpa disliked it greatly. He would go into work at 4pm and come home around midnight. It came to a point where he could no longer work there, so he then decided to quit his job and move back to Lacon to look for a new occupation. He decided to open his own brokerage business. Opening your own brokerage business can be risky sometimes, if no one trusts you, no one will invest there money in you. He started the business by going around door to door asking farmers to invest in the stock market, this was unusual because farmers weren’t the risky type. Within 10 years he was noticed as the number one performing stock broker in the country for Dean Witter.
After a few years he was interested in other forms of income so he sought out investing in real estate, as well as purchasing the Mark Twain Hotel. He managed the Mark Twain himself for about 10 years, after that he handed the job down to his successor. A few years after he bought the Mark Twain, he decided to give his clients in the brokerage business to his son in law (my uncle). He also purchased a steam boat by with the name Spirit of Peoria, which he eventually gave to his son. Once that got going he set his eyes on another goal he wanted to achieve which was being the mayor of Peoria. That next year he started to campaign for mayor. My dad and my uncles all went door to door telling people to vote for him. It was hard in the beginning, some people would be kind and say they would vote for him, others would slam the door right in their face.
My father after marrying my mother got a job as manager at the Mark Twain. Throughout his time there my grandpa and my father frequently butted heads. They had their differences and they were both very stubborn. After a few years their my dad quit and went off on his own starting his own business. My grandpa then after his term being mayor ended decided to move out of the city and into the rural town of Canton, IL. He bought a fairly large plot of land and had the idea of creating a piece of land that his grandchildren could play and fish and do all other sorts of activities on.
As he began to work on that, it looked better with every year that went by. Now my grandparents do their best to be involved with all of their grandparents and they try to influence us in the best ways possible. I see my grandparents regularly and enjoy spending time with them. They always have something interesting to talk about and they always manage to sneak a few life lessons into the conversation. I’ll always look up to grandpa for the rest of my life. His accomplishments and everything else he’s earned throughout his life is just a motivation for me to achieve more.
My Grandpa always told me that, If I wanted something I had to work twice as hard as everyone else to get it. He will always be my inspiration.