Kenneth Nathaniel Martin

Kenneth Nathaniel Martin, son of Nathaniel Martin (the younger) and Kittie B. Bolender, was born 8 January 1909. His place of birth was probably in Kerrick, McLean County, IL. Multiple sources say the family arrived in Kerrick in 1907. They would remain there until the mid-1910s. However, in the 1910 census, Kenneth is shown with a birthplace of Wisconsin. Perhaps the accounts pinning down the family's arrival in Kerrick are not quite correct, and they actually arrived in 1909 after his birth. In any case, Kenneth spent the majority of his early childhood in Kerrick, where his father worked at the Illinois Central Railroad depot. Eventually they came north. After two or three brief interim postings, his father became the stationmaster in McConnell, Stephenson County, IL. This was close to the area that both both Nate and Kittie were from. Kenneth would complete his schooling and reach adulthood as a resident of McConnell. He went to Winslow High School, the same high school his father would have attended if the institution had been founded in time for him to do so. Kenneth graduated in 1926. (By the time of his graduation, his father had joined the school board and continued to be a director while Kenneth’s younger siblings attended.)

Kenneth probably lived with his parents right up into the early 1930s. He appears as part of their household in McConnell in the 1930 census -- it is possible he had been off on his own in the late 1920s, only to return as the Great Depression took hold of the nation. Keeping a job may have been a challenge. In that 1930 census, he is described as a truck driver, but as one doing general hauling. This probably means he only worked when there was something to haul, and in turn meant he could not count on regular hours. He prudently decided he would follow his father’s example and become an employee of Illinois Central Railroad. The rail industry was still one of the most reliable employers in the United States. This would not be true as the Twentieth Century progressed, but fortunately Kenneth got in at the right time and enjoyed a forty-year career with I.C.R.R. He began working for them in 1932. During one stretch he was a union official, serving as secretary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Railroad Way, Local 1121.

Kenneth’s first work base was McConnell, which was convenient. He managed to avoid the awkwardness of having his own father be his direct overseer, though. Nate Martin was a station agent, meaning he remained at the depot throughout his workday. Kenneth by contrast was a track inspector, so depending on the situation, might find himself quite some distance from home in the midst of his shift.

(At right, Kenneth with his father.) In the mid-1930s, Kenneth’s parents and siblings moved to Orangeville, four miles to the northwest of McConnell. Kenneth did not go with them. He was now a married man and had a home of his own in McConnell. On 15 August 1934 he had married Lavetta M. Davidson, daughter of John Wesley Davidson and Ida M. Heise. Lavetta, born 14 December 1912, was a local girl, her father having farmed in the vicinity prior to his death in 1926. The couple soon became parents of a son, Robert Allen Martin, born in the spring of 1935. They went on to have just one more child, a daughter born in 1940.

In 1939, Kenneth’s family and Lavetta’s family became a bit more entwined. Kenneth’s paternal grandmother Laura ended her third widowhood by marrying Samuel E. Heise, a first cousin of Lavetta’s mother. It stands to reason that Laura and Samuel probably met as a result of the connection between Kenneth and Lavetta.

Although Kenneth’s job never required him to move outside the region served by Illinois Central, there was at least one small-scale relocation during the early years of the marriage. In about 1940, the household was reestablished in the tiny unincorporated community of Evarts in Ridott Township in the southeastern corner of Stephenson County, some fifteen miles to the southeast of McConnell. This was a highly rural area -- which among other things meant that if Kenneth didn’t inspect the tracks, no one else was around to notice problems, either. It was isolated enough that Robert Allen Martin attended high school ten miles to the southeast in Leaf River in Ogle County.

In the autumn of 1953, after her son had reached eighteen but her daughter was only thirteen, Lavetta packed her bags and left. She did not return, and after waiting out sixteen months of separation, Kenneth filed for divorce in January, 1955 on grounds of desertion. He moved to Freeport and established himself at 515 Pine Avenue. This would be his residence for the rest of his life, meaning he lived there a total of almost thirty years. Lavetta meanwhile spent her remaining years as a resident of Ridott Township. She eventually married Robert B. Holcomb, son of Robert Earl Holcomb and Lydia Mary Blunt. She passed away 07 September 1975.

For the first time since his infancy, Kenneth was based in a substantial town, Freeport being the county seat and the one place in Stephenson County where there were large factories, a full array of retailers, and county-level government offices. He was starting a new chapter. Soon he chose to share that chapter with a new partner. His second and final wife was Dorothy M. Bremer, whom he wed 27 August 1956 in Nashua, Chickasaw County, IA.

Dorothy, daughter of Edwin Herman Bremer and Marie Bonn, had been born 15 August 1911 in Stephenson County. She was probably a native of Ridott Township, but she and her parents and siblings had come to Freeport for good when she was very young. She had married George Henry Truckey some time in the first half of the 1930s and produced a son and a daughter with him. The union had ended in divorce about 1950. George Truckey was a welder for Illinois Central -- it is likely he and Kenneth were acquainted with one another. The youngest of the Truckey kids turned eighteen just after Dorothy became the new Mrs. Martin, and so Kenneth was not put in the position of having to raise a second family. However, Dorothy was briefly a mother figure to Kenneth’s daughter.

Kenneth passed away 21 December 1983 in Freeport of an apparent heart attack. His remains were interred at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens near Freeport, the same cemetery where the resting places of his parents and both sisters can be found. (Lavetta M. Davidson Holcomb’s grave is also at Chapel Hill.) Dorothy survived him. Her sister Lucille Conley kept her company in the Freeport home during the 1980s, then both sisters moved to Winnebago County, IL (the county immediately east of Stephenson County). Dorothy perished 8 March 1997 in the town of Winnebago.

The Nathaniel Martin/Kittie Bolender family. From left to right, Katherine Eunice “Katy” Martin, Kenneth Nathaniel Martin, Kittie B. Bolender Martin, Nathaniel Martin, Alice Zada Martin, and Roscoe Maxwell “Max” Martin. This photograph appears to have been taken in the late 1930s or early 1940s.

Descendants of Kenneth Nathaniel Martin

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