Harold William Rarden lived in Gypsum, Ohio but was born in Port
Clinton, Ohio on September 9th, 1932. My twin brother, Gerald Wilson
Rarden was also born the same day. We were the youngest children of
Enos Price Rarden and Ellen Thompson Rarden. At this time we lived in
a home overlooking Sandusky Bay a few houses west of The U.S. Gypsum
Co. paper mill entrance. We lived here until 1938 when the family moved to
a company home on US Rt. 2 east of the Gypsum grade school about a
mile. We lived in this home until 1943 when we moved to a company
home south of the NYC R.R. Tracks in Gypsum. They purchased this home
from the company a few years later. I went to the Gypsum grade school
the first eight grades and finished my education at The Port Clinton High
School where I graduated in May of 1950. I worked for The U.S. GypsumCo.
where I had worked the summer after my Jr. year and then The Philco Corp.
in Sandusky until I enlisted in The U.S. Navy and left for The Great Lakes
Naval Training Center in February, 1951. After training at Gr. Lakes I was
assigned to Fleet Air Electronics Training Unit Atlantic, at Norfolk Naval
Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia where I was a Structural Mech. After a few
months I was made the night check leader of the shop where I stayed until
I left this squadron in December of 1953. I also served a couple of months
at Jacksonville NAS where I attended jet structural mechanic and hydraulic
school in Oct.-Nov. 1953. I put in for carrier duty in the Pacific before
leaving Norfolk but was transferred to VR 24 ( Military Air Transport
Command) at Port Lyautey French Morrocco, North Africa where I also
worked in night check structures. This squadron had detachments in
Naples, Paris, and London and delivered cargo to many other military units
in the Mediteranian and European area. I flew quite a lot as a plane
captain while at Norfolk and Pt. Lyautey both. While home on leave in
December, 1953 I was married to Margaret Mae Kelsey of Fremont, Ohio.
I mustered out of the Navy at Anacostia NAS near Washington,D.C. In
January, 1955. I went back to work at The Philco Corp. and my brother
Elton and I tried the factory thing at the Brook Park Ford Engine Plant
for three days. Being tied down in a factory was not my MO. Shortly after
we came back to Fremont, Ohio my brother in law, Don Sorg offered me
the job as company bookeeper at The Peoples Elevator Co. in Fremont,Ohio.
After doing this for two and half years I was offered the job as general
manager of The Collins Farmers Elevator Co. in Collins, Ohio which is east
of Norwalk, Ohio. I managed this until July,1967 when I bought the assets
of The New London Equity Co. in New London, Ohio along with my good
friend, Morris Chapin of Collins. He had been on the Board Of Directors at
The Collins Elevator and owned a farm on Rt. 20 between Collins and
Wakeman, Ohio. In 1976, I bought his part of the company along with the
stock of my brother James, who had invested money in 1970. In 1979, I
sold the elevator and part of the ground to Melvin Deppen Farms of New
London, the corner lot to Huron County Bank and kept the old NYC freight
house for a while where I ran a lawn and garden store. The old freight
house is now owned by Sewline Co. I moved the lawn and garden store out
to my farm on Crescent Rd. west of Fitchville in 1982.
As stated before I married Margaret Mae Kelsey at my brother's home
on Catawba Island December 13th 1953 while I was home on leave before
going to North Africa. Our oldest son Timothy Wayne Rarden was born in
Fremont, Ohio on December 16, 1955. Our twin daughters, Barbara Jean
and Beverly Jane were born in Sandusky, Ohio while we lived at Collins,
Ohio on April 2, 1957, Deborah Ellen was born in Norwalk, Ohio on April 14,
1961 and Randall Allen was born in Norwalk on August 23, 1964 both while
we lived in Collins. While in Fremont, Ohio, we lived across from
Margaret's father and mother on Western Ave. After moving to Collins we
lived on South Railroad St., then up to Chapin Rd. near Berlin Heights, Ohio
and in 1962 we built a new home on DeRussey Rd. south of Rt 20 about a
mile. In 1967, after purchasing the Elevator business in New London, we
bought a place on the north side of Fayette Rd. a short distance east of Rt
60. In 1978 we bought the farm on the north side of Crescent Rd. a mile
west of Rt. 13 bordering Fitchville. Margaret and I were divorced in 1980
and I moved to the west side of the farm and built a new house where I
also moved my lawn and garden store.
Shortly thereafter I went to work as a district salesman for The Allis
Chalmers Co. and then Krystowski Tractor Sales in Willard, Ohio. In 1986
I went with Mc Elvaine John Deere dealership in Ashland, Ohio and sold
farm machinery. About the same time I sublet myself as a corporation
to several gas and oil exploration companies, built a new gas purification
plant and took care of all of the wells for them in Huron County and also
had some in Ashland and Wayne Co. While in the Grain and Feed business
and owning the lawn and garden store I had a car wash business in New
London and rented a couple of other farms besides running my own. In
1990, I sold the farm on Crescent Rd. and bought an older farm house
northwest of Greenwich on Townline Rd. 12. After remodeling this home I
kept part of the property on the east side, built a new house and when
done sold the older home. In 1994, while working on one of our old family
cemeteries in Mason County, Kentucky I looked around and bought an acre
lot in the country on Rt 32 and Farris Branch Rd. southeast of
Flemingsburg, Kentucky towards Morehead. I started a new house and had
it nearly completed when I married Jeanne Anne Wiley Von Kamp on July
9, 1995. Jeanne had sold her farm south of New London and moved to East
St. in New London. Jeanne retired from The National City Bank in New
London in July 1998. I had sold my place on Townline Rd. northwest of
Greenwich and she sold her house in town shortly before we moved to
Kentucky in July of 1998. We bought another acre and also in 1999
bought 35 acres a mile and a half off Rt 32 on what was old Parkersburg
Rd. This is behind Mount Vernon Rd. and now renamed Hardwood Rd.
I started a house right away and had it ready when we sold the home on
Rt 32 and Farris Branch Rd. in 2000. I fenced the farm and we fed cattle
while we owned it. We sold this farm July, 2006 and had earlier purchased
about five acres in the middle of Flemingsburg, Ky. This included all of the
land left from a developement on Amanda Brooke Drive and also includes
two right of ways off of East Water Street. We built a new home on this
property and finished and moved into it in November of 2006. Flemingsburg
is only four hours away from New London and the Norwalk, Ohio area. Tim
and his family live near Franklin, Ohio, Beverly and Deborah and their
families live in Norwalk, Ohio. Barbara and her family all live in the Topeka,
Kansas area and Randy and his family live in Brunswick, Georgia. My wife,
Jeanne, has a daughter, Anne Parsons family(husband Mick) and one son
Erik Von Kamp family(wife, Shirley) in New London, Ohio and one son Kyle
VonKamp in Ashland, Ohio.
Jeanne stays busy with homemakers and extension work and I stay
busy with work here on the place and we both do a lot of genealogy. We
travel a lot and most of the time we have a camper and a boat. We try to
get to one of the Southern states for a while each winter and also
try to have a family get together with my sister and brothers at least once
a year and go north on labor day weekends and to good old Gypsum days at
the airport in Port Clinton and a class reunion on the third weekend of
September each year. We go to northern Ohio several weekends during
the year and also have been to New York and Virginia to do genealogy
several times. I have placed a dozen Veterans headstones and other
gravestones for my ancestors in several cemeteries across Kentucky and
one in Illinois. I have one ordered now and placed three in Shelbyville, Ky.
In 2009.
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