About us

Jennie and Charley Garcia fell in love and eloped in Horton, Kansas on October 1, 1941. The two of them traveled back and forth from Silvis to Horton while Grandpa Charley looked for work. In May of 1942, Charley got a job with the Rock Island Lines in Silvis. They were given a boxcar to live in, which was shared with Charley's brother and his wife. They lived in the boxcar for over a year until they had their first child. The Railroad told them they had to move because more men were coming from Mexico to work. They moved to apartments for a few years and continued to 5 beautiful girls: Irene, Josie, Tommie, Margaret, and Bonnie(Crystal and Marguerite's mom). At some point during this time, Charley started building a house for his family. On December 16, 1948, they moved into their house in East Moline.

Charley retired from the Rock Island Lines after working as a laborer in the shops. At this point, he pestered Bonnie(the owners' mother) to go and work on railroad lines cleaning for boxcars. In 1977, Bonnie went to apply for the railroad lines(reluctantly) and got called back to interview for a secretary position, but they had already hired someone else. The person in the office liked her, and after talking to her offered her a job being a switch-women. If she could throw a switch and pass a physical. Bonnie was nervous because she was pregnant with the owner's sister, Nikki. The doctors didn't see any reason that she couldn't work. So, our Grandpa Charley gave her his old work overalls, and off to work she went.

The information came from scribbles of Grandma Jennie found in the back of an old notebook found after she had passed.