The Journals of Robert Hall Tinker, 1902-1922

This final volume in a three volume series of journals describes Robert H. Tinker's life from 1902-1922. This volume includes the death of Robert's niece Marcia Dorr, Robert's marriage to his second wife, Jessie Dorr Hurd, Robert's bouts with sickness, and the arrival of his son Theodore Tinker. His last twenty-five years are spent between gardening, volunteering, traveling, family life, and work. This volume consists of many entries related to Jessie Dorr, Marcia Dorr, other family members and friends. Throughout the book, Robert details his continued trips to Colorado, the east coast, Chicago, and Wisconsin. Many entries focus on his stays at the hospital and Turkish baths as he tries to recover from one bout of illness after the next. Beginning in 1908, Robert's entries begin to mention his son Theodore Tinker. Towards the end of the volume, the entries become shorter and eventually stop on October 25, 1922, two years before his death. Mr. Robert Hall Tinker (1836-1924) was born in the Sandwich Islands (modern Hawai'i) on the last day of 1836. His parents, Reuben and Mary Tinker, were missionaries in Hawaii throughout the 1830s and returned to the United States in 1840. Robert spent most of his childhood in Westfield, New York. In 1856 he moved to Rockford, Illinois to work at the Manny Reaper Company where he became a successful businessman and the future mayor of Rockford. Inspired by the architecture of Switzerland during a trip to Europe, Mr. Tinker designed a Swiss-style chalet on a bluff overlooking Kent Creek in Rockford. While working at the Manny Reaper Company, Mr. Tinker eventually fell in love with and married the widow Manny (Mary Dorr-Manny) in 1870. The Tinker family was prominent in the community and they lived a happy life until the death of Mary in 1901. Mr. Tinker eventually married his wife's niece Jessie Dorr and they lived in "Tinker's Cottage" with their adopted son Theodore until Robert's death in 1924. Mr. Tinker's Cottage still stands today as a museum and as a monument to the history of Rockford.