Introduction

How does your family recall and pass down the stories of its past? How do you preserve the legacy of your ancestors, or even your own, or future generations? Do you keep a memento box full of bits of ephemera, or perhaps an album full of candid snapshots? How do you wish to leave behind evidence of yourself, your existence and impact, for individuals down the line to look fondly upon in remembrance of you? The ways in which we leave behind these little reminders can be both influenced by the decisions of past family archivists, or can be uniquely our own, which is how we see evolution in the practices of the field of genealogy. From the age-old traditions of scrapbooking and the assembly of albums and family papers, to modern day advancements in digital repositories and online preservation, record keeping in the study of family histories is ever-fluid and constantly adapting in our increasingly modern age. Examples of family archives such as the one presented here provide valuable insight into the ways in which these practices have, and continue, to evolve.

The documents and photographs included as a part of this source chronicle the lives and personal stories of members of the Hilton family of Scott County, Virginia who at the dawn of the 20th century made the move, and subsequent transition in lifestyle, from the bucolic and pastoral farming communities of Appalachia to two of the greatest bustling industrial powerhouses of the north; first Detroit and then finally Chicago. Almer and Effie Hilton, along with their daughter, Alma, made this move to Chicago shortly before the woes of the Great Depression took away from Almer the employment that motivated that move in the first place. This edition presents materials which highlight their unique story; from the Depression to postwar, from the birth of their second child, Richard (who also contributed significantly to this collection with his vividly written recollections from his childhood and young adulthood growing up in Chicago during some of its most formative years), to the premature death of Almer in 1952, and paints a picture not only of the intimate moments which defined this family’s impact on and relation to the unique patchwork which is the historical makeup of Chicago as an ever-growing and ever-changing metropolis saturated such great diversity of life and lived experiences, but also the methodology through which each and every one of us uses memory to both form and develop the specific perspectives and outlooks which guide us through daily life, as well as help to lay the groundwork for the establishment of our legacies for future generations.

The way in which one compiles tangible components of their past is very telling of not only their personal intentions and ambitions, but also the time and place in which they are working, and the assemblage of this particular archive is certainly very reflective of the individuals who created it and their time. The use of digital templates and formatting at the dawn of the computer age for biographical information by Alma Hilton Marsells, who in nearly all regards could be considered as the key family historian and assembled the externally unassuming binder of various pieces of her family’s journey and subsequent life in the city which she was so incredibly proud to call home, can be viewed as an interesting transitional example of compiling the family tree; not so “archaic” as recording births and deaths by hand in a family bible, but yet not so technologically advanced as using the many online genealogical resources, databases, and templates made available by advancements in digital capabilities which have made the hobby of genealogy easily accessible to a much greater audience.

The contributions to this archive, a very small component of which is actually included in this edition for the sake of clarity and organization, are incredibly valuable in keeping the memories of those mentioned in its many pages and depicted in its many photographs alive. The retention of loose fragments of our pasts and personal histories is important for both preserving the memory of those who came before us, our forebears who toiled and sacrificed to help get us where we are today, and to give our descendants and those who come after us the same opportunity, to help bridge the generational gap; between past, present, and future for posterity and into perpetuity. A quote especially favored by Alma which is especially telling of her sentimental, kindhearted motivations and intentions behind her work and holds true even after her passing goes as follows:

“In one sense there is no death.

The life of a soul on earth lasts beyond his departure.

You will always feel that life touching yours,

that voice speaking to you, talking to you in the familiar things he touched,

worked with, loved as familiar friends.

He lives on in your life and in the lives of all others that knew him.”

—Angelo Patri

How to Cite:

Miller, Caden J., Martinez, Lesly. “From Tennnessee to Chicago.” Published December 10, 2025. https://martinez2125.github.io/TennesseeChicago/

The Source

Typed Original Statements from the Hiltons

Original Images from the Hilton Family Binder

About this Source

The act of creating a homemade family archive is by no means a new process. Historically, many families have taken their own approaches to preserving and documenting their family history. Although no two family archives are exactly the same, certain patterns do exist across the history of their creation. Most family archives are based heavily on “home sources”, or documents that have originally been created and kept by the family¹. The most common home sources that are included in family archives are photographs and both written and typed statements². The statement becomes a particularly interesting part of the family archive to observe, as in an attempt to create a more extensive documentation of family lineage, many family archivists utilize the “family group record”, or another form of a similar content and structure. This specific record takes note of major genealogical information–parents and their children, births, and deaths³. The presence of this form (although varied) across multiple family archives illustrates what seems to be considered the core of a family’s history. Other common trends in family archives include the presence of public records, such as death certificates, marriage certificates, gravestones, and newspapers⁴. These specific records are some of the more readily accessible records to the public, and the important genealogical information they contain seem to be the main reason for their presence across family archives.

Aside from the value family archives hold as means of preserving a family’s history, they hold value in the historic information they contain through simply the act of recording a family’s story. With the use of family archives, historians are able to glean into the lives of ordinary people during major historic periods, and gain a richer understanding of historic life⁵. Family archives can also illuminate human patterns in history, such as migration and demographics⁶, with the human nature of family archives ensuring historians consider the human nature of history itself.

This edition aims to provide deeper insight into the family archive of one specific family, the Hiltons. The structure of this specific family archive seems to follow in the footsteps and trends of other American family archives created between the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of the pages within a family binder this archive includes are made up entirely of photographs, and much of the more detailed parts of this family’s history are recorded in typed statements created by the family archivist. When viewing this source through the lens of what historians can understand from it, a few key histories the Hilton family archive contains includes the urban development (demographic, neighborhood, industry) in the 20th century, life during the Great Depression, and the life of migrant families in the US.

The members of the Hilton and subsequently Marsells families have in many ways refined the methods and practices which help to enable this bridging of inter-generational gaps. Through series of carefully assembled and thoughtfully arranged biographical documents, photographs, and recorded stories of everyday life, one feels like these individuals included within these pages can be accessed directly, as real people who lead real and complex lives, rather than them be relegated to almost a “data marker”; a name with a set of dates.

The Hilton family can conclusively trace back their American origins to the latter half of the 17th century, when they settled in lands located in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, before eventually making their way to North Carolina, where they congregated until making a move westward in the years following the American Revolution to the mountainous region along the North Fork of the Holston River in the area which would become the unincorporated community of Hiltons in Scott County, Virginia. The parents of both Alma and Richard Hilton, Almer Eric Hilton (1901-1952) and Effie Malinda Hilton, née Sims (1902-1979), both grew up on the farms and rolling hills of Scott County, but both had the desire shared by so many of their fellow “bright young things” of the period to go make names for themselves and to earn wages which could support better lives for themselves and their family. This is why in the early 1920s they both set off for the “big city”, which for them was Detroit. Effie, who was a bookkeeper, stayed with her brothers in Detroit, and soon met up with and started going with her distant cousin, Almer, whom she saw as a familiar face from home amongst the hustle and bustle of the unfamiliar “Motor City”. The two were married in June of 1926 and moved back home to Virginia, eventually settling in Kingsport, Tennessee, which is where their daughter Alma (1927-2013) was born.

Almer soon took up a job as a salesman with Sterchi Bros. furniture store in Kingsport, where his strong knowledge of electronics became apparent through his efforts selling radios in the showroom, and soon he was offered a temporary job with the Grigsby-Grunow Company out of Chicago, owners and manufacturers of the prestigious Majestic line of radio equipment. That is until the stock market crashed. He naturally lost his position, and soon thereafter lost the house in Kingsport.. Luckily, after a short while, he was able to get a position with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, perhaps due to connections that he had made in assisting with the installation of radio equipment on C&NW parlor cars during his time with Majestic, and was tasked with working in the Homan Avenue Yards on the Near West Side, where he notably helped in the outfitting and maintenance of President Roosevelt’s private railcar which had custom handrails fitted throughout to act as an aid to the advanced effect that Polio had on his mobility. He also was tasked with controlling all automatic train stops on all C&NW streamliners up until the time of his death, including the prestigious “400” which ran complete service from Chicago to the Twin Cities up in Minnesota.

Upon his sudden and tragic death in 1952, Effie was now the sole breadwinner, and took up a job with Blue Cross Insurance, a position she held until retirement, at which she began volunteering at Shriner’s Hospital in Chicago. Alma would go on to attend Steinmetz High School and be employed by Mars, the massive candy manufacturers located at Oak Park & Armitage Avenues, which is where she met the man who would eventually become her husband, William Bernard Marsells (1927-1991). The couple would end up having seven daughters together and Bill would find a career in shipping and traffic management for Brach Candy, Helene Curtis, American Motors, Allied Shipping, and others. Almer & Effie’s son, Richard Allen Hilton (b. 1936), attended Lane Technical High School and Elmhurst College, before going back to school later in his career to get his master’s degree in elementary curriculum from Northern Illinois University. He would marry Miss Nancy Holtz (b. 1939) and three daughters would be born as a result of this union. Both Richard and Nancy are alive and well, retired, and spending their time on pastimes of lake management and wildlife rehabilitation respectively in Wonder Lake, Illinois⁷.

About this Edition

The authors of this edition have formatted, organized, and edited the materials included within in a manner which is both intended to convey and represent the original style, nature, and physical characteristics of said materials as they are presented in their original form, while also making efforts to increase the usability and accessibility of the works through the implementation of a streamlined and comprehensive format throughout. Special attention has been given to both preserving unique qualities of the primary sources—such as photographic arrangements, irregular templating, and original sequencing—as well as the cleaning up of certain spelling, punctuational, and formatting errors if deemed as potentially inhibiting the legibility or clarity/flow of the texts while not detracting from the integrity or “personality” of said original works. It should be noted by the reader that the contents of this multimedia edition (photographs, letters, genealogical ID pages, scrapbook/album components, & digitally typed and scanned transcriptions) are included together here as a grouping both due to the fact that they are contained in one singular assembled binder, as well as their similar and related subject matter. Typed transcriptions were edited and formatted with the help of both Google Docs and Adobe Acrobat. Careful review was conducted to ensure that digital transcriptions created for this edition did not stray from or alter the original characteristics and integrity of the typed documents.

Furthermore, it should be made clear that the collection of documents and sources included and presented here as part of this edition make up just a limited portion of extant components of this genealogical archive amassed by the Hilton and Marsells families and their subsequent branches, and have been selected both due to their value in representing a wide scope of the greater collection, as well as the nature in which this small assemblage of articles has been compiled, allowing it to be used as a tool to help indicate both the methods utilized in this particular period of family recordkeeping and the individuals who took part in it. With this in mind, make note that additional information from said greater archive may be conveyed through the use of supplementary footnotes to aid in context. Finally, it should be made clear that judgements of the parameters and extent of this edition were ultimately left to be decided upon by its authors, and are derived from said authors’ most neutral and objective considerations on the basis of preservation, clarity, and consistency.

Bibliography

Aaron, L. 1992. “Using Genealogy to Teach History.” OAH Magazine of History 6 (3): 5–7.

https://doi.org/10.1093/maghis/6.3.5.

Family Papers of Alma Hilton Marsells, Collection of the Author (Caden J. Miller), Champaign, IL.

Evans, Tanya. 2011. “Secrets and Lies: The Radical Potential of Family History.” History Workshop Journal 71 (71): 49

–73. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41306811.

Hilton, James L. 1998. Hiltons of Scott County, Virginia.

Hilton. “Our Families” (Binder)

Lichtman, Allan J. 1978. Your Family History. Vintage.

Linder, Billy Royce. 1978. How to Trace Your Family History. New York : Everest House.

Mamie Mackie (New York Mills, MN) Family History. 1940-1981. Available through: Adam Matthew, Marlborough,

Migration to New Worlds, http://www.migration.amdigital.co.uk.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/Documents/Details/IHRCA_1560_04_mackie.

Mattinen, Bernice Juntunen. 1982-1983. Juntunen-Mattinen Family History [Folder 1]. Available through: Adam

Matthew, Marlborough, Migration to New Worlds, http://www.migration.amdigital.co.uk.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/Documents/Details/IHRCA_1560_02_juntunen-mattinen_01.

Rhoads, James B. 1979. “The Importance of Family History to Our Society.” The Public Historian 1 (3): 6–16.

https://doi.org/10.2307/3377529.

Credits and Acknowledgments

We can largely thank the work of Alma Elizabeth Hilton Marsells and her brother, Richard Allen Hilton, for enabling this ability in the set of documents presented as a part of this edition, as for without the methods of storytelling and preservation, both physically and otherwise, that they have laid out within these sources, a seamless and thorough study of the history of the Hilton family in Chicago and in modern memory more broadly would not be possible/exist. This edition is dedicated to them both, their forebears, their descendants, and anyone who is fortunate enough to consider them as “kin”.

About MinDoc 1.0

This site was built using MinDoc 1.0, a prototype digital documentary edition template developed for classroom use by members of SourceLab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The original project team included Liza Senatrova, John Randolph, Caroline Kness, and Richard Young.

References