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Pleasant Thiele Rowland Biography – Part 1

The house at 9556 S. Winchester as it appears today. The house was built in 1900 at a cost of $4,000 for Edward A. and Isabel Kitchin. The architect was Arthur Foster and the builder was Thomas Clifford. The 4-bedroom house was originally frame, and stucco was added later. The stucco masks the original style of the house but architectural historian and past RHS Registrar Harold Wolff ventured an educated guess the house was originally Colonial Revival. Also, in 1944, there was a fire at the house that destroyed the garage and car so any current garage is not original.
Side view of 9556 S. Winchester Ave., where the grandparents and father of Pleasant Rowland lived.
Edward Morton and Pleasant "Petty" Thiele lived in the Marshall Field Garden Apartments when first married in the early 1940s. This was the largest moderate-income housing development in the U.S. at the time of construction in 1929, an urban renewal project of Marshall Field III, of the department store family, to provide housing at a reasonable cost and to revitalize the surrounding neighborhood. Their address was 1373 N. Hudson, Chicago.
The house at 2754 West 108th Street as it appears today. The house is right across the street from Mt. Greenwood Cemetery in West Beverly. Tax records show it was built ca. 1947 and it was put up for sale in 1951. One copy of Chicago white pages we checked for verification, 1951, lists Edward M. Thiele at this address. Mrs. Thiele appeared in the newspapers for society and charity events at this address. Daughter Pleasant was 6 to 10 years old when they lived on the Ridge.
Pleasant Rowland's father was Edward Morton Thiele. On June 2, 1940, while still living in the Winchester Avenue house, he married Pleasant Johnson Williams of Decatur, Illinois. The Decatur Herald newspaper reported that the groom was a graduate of Denison University (Ohio) and was with the H. W. Kastor and Sons advertising company in Chicago. Kastor and Sons were advertising agents for newspapers and magazines. E. M. Thiele rose high in the advertising field, and in 1971, he was elected as chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the first person from outside of New York to receive this distinction.
Pleasant's mother was Pleasant Johnson Williams of Decatur, Illinois. Known as “Petty,” she was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Williams, a socially prominent family in Decatur. She was a graduate of the University of Arizona.

The Ridge Historical Society has to start over with the post about Pleasant Thiele Rowland’s connection to the Ridge. Ms. Rowland, of course, is the founder/inventor of the American Girl line of dolls. RHS recently received a donation of five of the original historical-time-period dolls that we will be using in a new exhibit premiering for the public on March 1, “Real American Girls of the Ridge,” which will pair the dolls with real women connected to the Ridge from the same time periods.

We reported that Pleasant’s grandparents lived in Beverly and her father spent his teen-age and young adult years here, and that Pleasant spent a lot of time with her paternal grandmother. All this is true.

But we have now discovered that Pleasant herself, with her parents of course, lived in West Beverly, from around 1947 to 1951, at 2754 West 108th Street.

This is the story: Edward August and Maude Daugherty Thiele, and their children, Edward Morton, William Harrison and Barbara Claire, moved to 9556 South Winchester Avenue during the 1920s.

On June 2, 1940, son Edward Morton Thiele, 26, still living on Winchester Ave. with his folks, married Pleasant Johnson Williams of Decatur, Illinois. The new bride, known as “Petty,” was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Williams, a socially prominent family in Decatur. We’ll call Edward Morton “E. M.” and his wife “Petty” from now on because the duplicate family names get confusing. The newspaper reported that after a honeymoon in the East, the couple would live in the Marshall Field apartments in Chicago.

On March 8, 1941, E. M. and Petty welcomed their first child, daughter Pleasant Williams Thiele.

In 1942, on his World War II draft registration, E.M. listed his address as 1373 N. Hudson, Chicago, which is part of the Marshall Field Garden Apartments.

In the late 1940s, E.M., Petty and family are listed as living at 2754 West 108th Street. This house was built in 1947 and was put up for sale in 1951.

E.M. was a rising star in the advertising industry. He joined the Chicago-based advertising firm Leo Burnet Co., Inc. in 1951 and rose to president 10 years later. Some of the famous marketing campaigns from his era include the Marlborough Man, the Jolly Green Giant, and the slogan, “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.”

In 1951, when daughter Pleasant was 10 years old, E.M., Petty and family moved to the well-to-do far North Shore community of Bannockburn, Illinois. They maintained connections to Beverly through family and friends.

In 1969, Edward August and Maude Thiele sold the Winchester Ave. house and moved to Florida. Edward August, 87, died in 1976. His obituary said he had been vice president and sales manager of Tranter Manufacturing, Inc., which was formerly Kold-Hold Manufacturing Co., with whom he was associated for 25 years. Maude, 96, died in 1986 in Palm Beach.

In 1970, E. M. became vice chairman of Leo Burnet, the position he held until 1974 when he retired. In retirement, E. M. and Petty Thiele shared their time between North Palm Beach, Florida, and a lakeside cottage in Douglas, Michigan. He died in 1982 at the age of 68. Petty died in 2010 at the age of 94.

Please read the captions with the pictures for more of the story.

Next up: Pleasant’s life as a young girl in Beverly.