Family Heirloom

The story starts with Ed Quillin, a successful farmer from Jasper, Missouri. Born in 1879, Quillin and his wife pulled up stakes in 1915 to move to Phoenix, Arizona. A doctor had diagnosed Mrs. Quillin with tuberculosis, and in those days, it was a popular prescription to simply move to a drier climate, in the hopes that the arid desert air would have some effect. So the Quillins, along with their two school-age daughters, pulled up stakes and headed out to the desert. But it did no good: Mrs. Quillin soon succumbed to her illness.

Ed Quillin initially worked at a dairy farm on 40th Street and McDowell, near what is now the Loop 202, mere minutes north of where Sky Harbor Airport stands today. In 1916, he became conductor of the Kenilworth trolley, which was a privately owned service until the city took it over in 1927. Quillin and his trolley car retired simultaneously in April of 1947,. He had run the line for 31 years. Somewhere in between, Quillin remarried, and Melva Snyder became his bride.