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Pictured above on far right & left are front and back book covers.

What is there to learn about the first American
to register patents in every country?

Answers from his wife may surprise you.

THE REMARKABLE JOURNALS OF MINNIE TRUMBLE has relevance for anyone interested in what life was like for forward-thinking, independent American women at the turn of the twentieth century. Minnie’s story tells it like it was.

This woman had her own brand of wit and cynicism from an early era that we rarely see documented. Women in her youth were typically more subdued than Minnie and the women in her family. As the youngest of three sisters, she learned from adventures, failures and successes of the women before her. No one, however, could prepare Minnie for the role she would one day assume.

Women who wanted to be regarded as acceptable ladies were supposed to act quite Victorian, even in America. Many found ways around the social mores of that time to get what they wanted and still BE acceptable ladies. Gaining ground for these women took unwavering courage and smarts.

This story shows both men and women a legacy from which American independent rights grew for both genders. Minnie and her sisters met early challenges for U.S. women in urban employment. They dove wholeheartedly into a booming U.S. work force. They attained what they earned through ingenuity and persistence.

No labor laws prevented them from working in their teens. No unions assured their rights. They bettered their skills and proved their aptitude on the job. They dealt with every sort of challenge, exchanging methods with other women for how to handle circumstances. They worked their way up in a time when quality women aligned themselves with credible bosses who would not abuse them. The pathetic lot who crossed the line with such women were swiftly left behind by these ladies.

From the first pages of this book, the women’s journey becomes clear. Pictures from Minnie’s collection, and notes she left behind, show just how she grew.

Not relinquishing their femininity was important to women like Minnie. Learning about strong women who came from this kind of background is enlightening. Minnie’s story ultimately shows that women’s hardest lessons didn’t come from acting strong, but from being outgunned in the legal arena again and again for decades. This is how they learned.

Two matching photos of MJ and Minnie Trumble from a 1908 Santa Monica beach excursion appear exclusively here. Minnie's photo is at the left. MJ’s picture appears between the book covers at the top of this page. Both husband and wife were artistically creative. As such, their collection features certain photos with pleasing cinematography. MJ Trumble built his wife a dark room so that Minnie could process some of her photos.

Minnie left behind a unique legacy with images and documents she and her daughter carefully chose to save. Seeing the material today is like viewing the romance of a movie. They both adored the cinema. Minnie leaves no doubt in her journals about how life was with MJ Trumble. Perhaps among any inventors' spouses, her collection could be determined as an illustrative work of its own.

MEET THE TRUMBLES

104 pictures inside THE REMARKABLE JOURNALS OF MINNIE TRUMBLE reveal the characters of Minnie, her husband and children. On this website are additional photos, such as those of her eldest son, Milon Jr., above. With the volume of material to fill the inventor’s own biography, Minnie and her children are introduced in this separate chronicle. Without their memories of MJ Trumble, his story could not be told as intimately.

This family is allowing a private collection to be viewed. Please respect the privilege of seeing their material without violating U.S. Copyright Law to post or reproduce this material elsewhere. Feel free to forward the link to this web page or cite its location. This is a story with a journey worth sharing.

As youngsters, Minnie and MJ’s children became keenly aware of their father’s work and what it meant to industries developing around the world. By the time they were adults, the Trumble children had learned much more.

Gwen was the middle child, a studious girl with as much spunk as Minnie but less gregarious. She was well read and musically gifted like Minnie. She carefully packed boxes of documents about her father’s life each time she and her mother moved throughout the Great Depression.

As quiet keepers of this story for decades, each of MJ Trumble’s children played an important role. They relayed to their descendents and others who knew their family the essence of this inventor. Without their firm insights about the character of this man, we would be left to assume different aspects from scattered historical chronicles.

Newspapers and other publications state different things that at times do not correlate. Milton and Trumbull are frequent misspells of Milon Trumble’s name. Facts and figures reported, including the inventor’s number of patents, come in at different totals to this day. His children heard MJ had 100 patents. 75 can be traced at present. The number has increased between 2003 and 2014.

Probate documents reveal a mess that infuriated banks and investors demanding their money. With MJ's income and assets at the time of his death, no one could imagine his debts would not be quickly resolved in court. We are left with a story to tell, therefore, in which many written ‘facts’ may be in question from beginning to end. Trumble grew to avoid most news reporters, as did many notables of his time. He granted fewer and fewer interviews throughout his life. Speculation about him was more often reported than not.

Where there is sureness about MJ Trumble is from his registered patents we can view today and accounts from those closest to him before and through his death. Bill was the youngest child. The sudden loss of their father in 1931 devastated each family member. They also lived through the fallout after MJ’s death during the confusing probate. Probate did not conclude until 1948. A second shock rocked the family of this millionaire with zero inheritance at the end of probate.

As events escalated toward World War II, paranoia over international relations heightened. This family saw no reason to discuss what MJ Trumble had achieved earlier in life designing fuel facilities in foreign countries. He and his family were aware of the likelihood that key oil and synthetic fuel refineries could be taken out. Allied bombing of European fuel plants began in 1940. This family quietly read news reports, knowing more than most American families about where highest production refineries were located. They did not wonder where enemies were headed next to capture fuel facilities. They wondered where and how this war would end.

Throughout World War II, the probate of MJ Trumble’s estate dragged on in a fog. When probate ended, all money had vanished, along with the men who handled probate. This family knew that something had gone terribly wrong. They felt their survival would depend on never mentioning MJ Trumble to anyone.

Although THE REMARKABLE JOURNALS OF MINNIE TRUMBLE concludes with Minnie’s account of MJ Trumble’s sudden death, the story does not end there. It actually ends with what happened to Minnie Trumble and her family afterward.

MJ Trumble’s story must include Minnie Trumble to convey its full scope. Knowing the kind of woman she was, and how tied she became to protecting her family, will help readers to know how diligently she tried after MJ’s death to figure out what was happening in probate. Her intent character and detailed documentation are a matter of record. Her efforts, her children said, literally killed her. Her descendants recalled, "Grandma was always in court."

Details of her struggle during probate fill many of her journals, but for now, that is significantly more detail to transcribe than her last 8 years with her husband. The probate saga of Minnie Trumble’s life will be added to published material in the future.

Minnie’s unfolding circumstances give an eerie picture of what lay ahead for other women who lived through events similar to hers. There are more of these untold accounts than people realize. One can imagine the shame these women experienced, unable to account for entire family fortunes taken from their control. Rendered helpless to get true legal representation, they simply could not wrangle the law to uphold their rights.

Although women brightly hailed their independence and newly won rights in 1920, they could not know what might be done to them as widows through the courts. Things are different today, but Minnie’s full story has value, even for women now who think they have all bases covered. Minnie would say to them, "Beware of trivial matters with which you occupy yourself while your husband is alive."

If you'd like to order copies and pay by personal or cashier's check or money order, call 951-240-2381 or e-mail ann@envirotechnicalimaging.com

SYNOPSIS
on back cover of book

A pictorial introduction to Minnie Trumble reveals a girl of the 1890's.

She became a turn-of-the-century teen, working for Los Angeles companies by age 13.

At 21, Minnie hooked up with a bright talent. She married MJ Trumble. He was a promising Eastern U.S. inventor new to the West. 

The Trumbles' net worth grew to millions, but Minnie became no socialite. She lived with secrecy regarding her husband's work.

This witty, down-to-earth gal kept trusted women close to her always.

In diaries spanning 1923 to 1930, Minnie shows the inner life of her family before her husband died.

Life in the 1920's was good but filled with caution if one was married to a famous American fuel inventor.

The photo above is not in the book. Do you see how Minnie has her feet planted wide on the beach? She stands firm, as if willing the ocean to her command.

Women in 1908 didn’t typically stand that way. The book features other photos showing Minnie and her sisters in more liberated poses than was customary for women of their time.

These girls also mastered subdued looks expected from early century women.

Photo booths were a great place to practice what they saw among women acting out new roles in the movies. This is what women of that time did by the thousands in America. Pictures are in the book.

Minnie was comfortable enough in her own skin, and with her beau, MJ Trumble, to be her real self. She teased the shy, young inventor until he laughed and opened up. She fed her tall, skinny husband so he rounded out handsomely.

Minnie's journals show how, after marriage, her husband held the customary upper hand, but she held charge of the household since he was often traveling on business.

MJ Trumble appointed Minnie executrix of his estate in 1920. He never changed his will through the day he died.

Minnie’s personality mellowed during her years as a mostly housebound mom, but in her journals, there remain glimpses of the fiery, young Minnie through delights and despair she clearly expressed.

Her notes and sketches included in some of her early years are precious accounts.

The tight-lipped wife she was forced to become through her husband’s diverse work became a simplistic character she took on and played to perfection.

She carried her role to completion before assuming another role in her widowed life more closely resembling her younger years.

Minnie’s entire account comprises 33 daily journals. This book provides excerpts from Minnie’s first 8 journals.

The introduction of this book provides an overview of who MJ Trumble once was. Since Minnie became less descriptive as years moved toward the stock market crash, a summary at the front of each year's chapter outlines what MJ Trumble was doing. There seems some evidence this millionaire and his family were preparing for events to come.

THE REMARKABLE JOURNALS OF MINNIE TRUMBLE provides some documentation that Minnie saved from the 19-teens. Her 1907-08 ephemera is included in this book to reveal with humor how she met and married the inventor.

Having dealt with men in the oil business, Minnie thought she was well equipped to handle her new life married to an inventor working at an oil refinery. She had no idea what she was getting into.

Minnie's style of writing excites the pages of this book. Her expressions take readers back to the 1920's in a definitive way. She does a 'swell' job providing 'dandy' notes. That was slang in her day for which she joked in her journals she should have been fined a nickel.

If MJ Trumble could have lived to see his children fully grown, and he was asked what he thought of his family, it's not unlikely he would have replied, "Affectionate and clever, every one of them." Then he might have winked and added, "Impetuous, too, most certainly starting with Minnie!"