A short distance to the west was the large red
bank barn (a barn with a ramp of dirt up to the
upper level on one side). A driveway made
a loop around the garden just west of the house
and by the barn with a chicken coop and corncrib
near by. Just to the rear of the house was
a woodshed with a belfry; the bell was once used
to call the men in from the fields at dinnertime.
Behind the woodshed was the outdoor john, not
used much when I was growing up. Just south
of the barn and along the dirt road was a small
blacksmith and machine shop. West of the
barn surrounding the barnyard (an area used to
corral the livestock near the barn) was an ell-shaped
building containing old farm equipment and feed.
I remember seeing a couple old buggies in those
buildings when I was young. In the lower
level of the barn were the stanchions for the
cows and stables enough for two or three large
horses. For awhile when I was growing up
Grandpa had two large draft horses and a few milk
cows. Also, on the lower level were some
small pens for pigs or other small livestock.
On each end of the barn was a chute, the one on
the north for hay from the loft above and the
other on the south for fodder. The upper level
of the barn contained the tractors, wagons, plows,
combine and other equipment. The hayloft
was on the north end of the barn.
The lane from the barn to the back of the farm
ran a short ways along Hatch road before turning
north and was lined with black walnut trees.
Grandpa had about twenty-five or thirty acres
planted in corn, wheat, oats, hay and potatoes.
As kids we were very fond of running through the
cornfield when the corn was taller than we were.
I also remember Grandpa saying that the corn should
be knee high by the forth of July (or the crop
would be small). The rest of the land was
orchard, pasture and, for kids, the best little
woods in the country. Spruce Run, a small creek,
had its source in a spring just north of the farm
and trickled through the woods to the Bramley
farm next to Grandpa's. On the Bramley property
were ledges and a waterfalls we called Devil's
Hole and a small cave to explore. As kids
we had a small paradise to romp in and didn't
know it. But it wasn't all fun and games.
Grandpa believed in work. One of my earliest
memories was a time when Art and I were probably
about seven and eight years old. Grandpa
had us steering the tractor pulling a wagon while
he and my Uncle Herbert were digging potatoes.
The north end of the field had a long slope to
it and the tractor started to roll out of control.
We were too small to reach the brake pedal and
steer at the same time. Uncle Herbert ran
to the front of the tractor and pulled the brake
on by hand. That afternoon my grandmother
put her foot down and told my grandfather that
he was not to put us on a tractor again until
we were much bigger. We also had the job
of shoveling grain from the front of the grain
bins to the back when it was dumped from the wagons.
I didn't mind this with wheat but oats have tiny
hairs that make you itch like the devil.
I hated the oats. Other chores we had on
the farm were feeding the livestock, shucking
and grinding corn and gathering the eggs.
Grandpa showed us how to use the separator to
separate the milk from the cream. He tried
to teach me how to milk a cow, but I never learned the
art well enough to amount to anything.
Grandma was struck with a crippling illness in
the early 1950's that kept her confined to a wheelchair
and bed. She died in the farmhouse on June
4, 1958. Two years later Reason retired
from farming. After Herbert died in 1960
there was no one young and strong enough to take
over the work. He bought a small house in
Wadsworth and lived there for a few years.
He died in the Wadsworth hospital on April 14,
1965 at the age of 89. Reason and Winifred
are buried in the Wall plot in the Sharon Cemetery
just south of Sharon Center. Reason Deforest
Wall maintained membership in the Lutheran Church
in Sharon Center, the church of his parents and
grandparents, but was not a religious man and
rarely attended services. He was a man of
the earth and his philosophy of life reflected
that.
Children of Reason and Winifred Wall
LAURA LAVONE WALL was born on August 9, 1896
and was the eldest of the children of Reason and
Winnie. She married Howard Ebert of Sharon
about 1920. Laura died of cancer on April
23, 1928 and left no descendants.
HAROLD MELVILLE WALL was born on May 1, 1898.
He married Dorothy Seiford and they had one child
that was still born. Harold and Dorothy
were divorced and on December 24, 1936 he married
Eva Marie Kuder, in Vicksburg, Michigan.
Marie was the daughter of Hiram M. Kuder and Bessie
Lee Ward. Hiram was the son of Hiram and
Delina Mason Kuder. Hiram, Sr. was the brother
of Abigail Kuder wife of Reason Wall, Sr.
Marie was born on May 2, 1905 in Kalamazoo, Michigan
and was previously married to Clyde K. Leonard.
She had one son, Clyde K. "Bud" Leonard.
Harold and Marie had two daughters, Carol and
Margo. Harold and Marie lived in Kalamazoo
most of their lives. For a short time they lived
on the Wall family farm in Sharon but moved back
to Michigan in the 1940's. They were charter
members of the Lake Center Bible Church in Portage,
Michigan. In the 1960's they helped establish
the Berean Baptist Church in Portage. Harold
passed away on August 28, 1988 in Portage at the
age of 90. Marie died on May 4, 1999 in
Kalamazoo, Michigan shortly after reaching her
ninety-forth birthday. They are buried at the
Mount Ever-Rest Cemetery in Portage.
HASEL MAE WALL was born in Sharon Township on
October 5, 1900. She married Elbert Edgell
on May 23, 1932. Elbert was born on April
11, 1896 in West Virginia. Hasel and Elbert
lived for many years on a small farm in southern
Ohio near Longbottom in Meigs County. As
kids Arthur and I spent some summers on their
place there. Their house was a small one-story
frame house with no indoor plumbing. It
sat on the side of a hill and below it was a dirt
road that separated the house and the barn.
A short distance below the barn was a small stream
that was always nearly ice cold. There was
a small pond on the place and we used to take
a leaky rowboat out on it. The Ohio River
flowed not far from the farm and there was a large
forest between their place and the river.
Once, Art and I got lost in the forest and Art
climbed the tallest tree we could locate to find
our way out. Elbert was known as a teller
of tall tales. I always enjoyed my time
around them because they seemed always cheerful
and easy going. Elbert died on November
23, 1972 and Hasel returned to Wadsworth to live
for awhile with her sister Clara. Hasel
suffered from cerebral palsy. Near the end of her life she reached
a state where she needed constant care.
She was placed in a home for the aged in Medina County
and died there in about 1975. Hasel and
Elbert had no children.
HERBERT SPENCER WALL was born on July 11, 1903
in Sharon. He married RUTH NAOMI HACKETT on May 15, 1928.
Herbert and Ruth lived
in Sherman, Ohio near Barberton in Summit County
until about 1953 when they moved back to the family
farm to help my grandfather run it and care for
my grandmother. Herbert and Ruth had five
children: Leonard; Maynard; Charlotte; Winifred;
and Paulette. Herbert died of liver cancer
on January 20, 1960 at the age of 56 and Ruth
returned to their home in Sherman. Later in life
she lived with her daughter and son-in-law, Paulette
(Jean) and Rev. Clifford Smith. Ruth died in Columbus,
Ohio on July 27, 2005. I remember Uncle
Herbert as a hard-working, by appearances a serious
man but underneath lay a sense of humor.
Aunt Ruth was one of the kindest women I ever
knew.
CLARA MARIE WALL, my foster mother was born on April 20, 1905
in Sharon. When she was nineteen years old
she married Platt Coolman in Wadsworth on November
7, 1924. Platt was a carpenter and the couple
lived in Wadsworth at 187 Gordon Avenue until
his sudden death of a heart attack on October
11, 1949. Clara never had any children but
in 1947 she took to raise my brother and me, the young sons
of her youngest brother, Vivian who was killed
the year before in an auto and train accident.
She raised Art and I as if we were her own and
we always called her "Mom". After Platt's death
we moved to our grandfather's farm and lived there
for over a year. He had remodeled the upstairs
of the farmhouse into an apartment with its own
kitchen and bathrooms. Clara worked at the Ohio
Match Company to support us during this time and
met Delsworth Worthy Bridgman of Sharon there.
Clara and Del were married on January 5, 1951
and we moved to his house in Sharon Center.
Del died on November 12, 1967 in a hospital in
Akron, Ohio and for several years Clara maintained
the home in Sharon Center. In about 1973
she sold that house and moved to Wadsworth where
she lived for three years with her sister Hasel.
In 1976 she moved to Apache Junction, Arizona
to be near Arthur who had opened a business there.
She purchased a home in Apache Junction and lived
there until about 1984 when she sold her house
and moved into an apartment attached to Arthur's
house in Mesa, Arizona. In about 1990 she
was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer.
Even so, she maintained an active life style until
the last couple of years of her life. She
died on September 2, 1997 at the age of 92.
When she died there were six grandchildren and
eight great grandchildren who knew her as Grandma.
She died in her home with her family at her side.
She is buried next to Platt in the Acme Lutheran
Cemetery west of Wadsworth, Ohio. She was
a devout Christian and belonged to the Nazarene
Church for many years.
RALPH ALAN WALL was born on May 26, 1907 in
Sharon and married Esther Fitch. Ralph enlisted
in the Army Air Corps about a month after Pearl
harbor, serving from January 15, 1942 until September
15, 1945. He was stationed in Tucson, Arizona
for some of that time as an aircraft ground
crew working on B-17 bombers. After the
war Ralph and Esther settled in Topeka, Kansas
where he worked at various agricultural businesses.
He managed a poultry breeding farm and hatchery
from 1947 through 1955. From that time until
1969, when he retired, he worked as a feed and
seed salesman and assistant manager of a feed
business. Esther worked as an auditor for
the State of Kansas Income Tax Division for twenty-seven
years until she retired in 1973. After their
retirement Ralph and Esther kept busy with volunteer
work for their church. They traveled extensively
and visited forty states, Canada and Nova Scotia.
We visited them in Kansas at least twice while
Art and I were growing up. I learned what
chiggers were at his farm in Kansas. Esther
passed away in April 1999 in Topeka. Ralph
died on July 5, 2001 in Topeka. They had no children.
NECIA IRENE WALL was born on June 4, 1909 in
Sharon. She married George Faust Arnold
on December 18, 1930 in Medina or Summit County. George was born on
March 20, 1901 in Summit County, Ohio. George
and Necia moved to Washington State after World
War II where they lived Yakima in Selah, Washington.
They experienced the direct effects of the Mt.
Saint Helens eruption in 1980 when the noonday
sky turned dark as night and Yakima and surrounding
areas were covered with several inches of volcanic
dust. George and Necia had seven children:
George who died as an infant the day after his
birth; Victor Eldo; Donna Mae; Alletia Irene;
Marvin Lee; and Loretta Beele Arnold. George
died on March 13, 1988 in Selah, Washington.
Necia passed away on November 9, 1995 at the Edgewood
Nursing Home in Montesano, Washington at the age
of 86. When she died Necia had twenty grandchildren
and twenty-nine great grandchildren
JESSIE RHEA WALL was born on March 25, 1911 in Sharon Center
and died in Wadsworth on May 13, 2012 at 101 years of age.
She married twice, first to Kenneth Mullet and second
to Willie Powers. Kenneth was born on June
2, 1906 and is now deceased. Jessie and
Kenneth were married on November 9, 1928 and had
six children: Betty Lou, Elsie Mae, Alice Jean,
Lois Ann, Stephen Deforest and Clara Jane Mullet.
Jessie married Willie Powers on March 27, 1953
in Wadsworth. Willie died in Wadsworth on
November 11, 1989 and Jessie died on May 13, Wadsworth.
IRA DEFOREST WALL was born on August 16, 1914.
He graduated from Sharon Center High School in
June 1933. In December 1942 he enlisted
in the Army and served in World War II as a radio
operator with Army Engineer Combat Battalion 246,
Company C. He received combat stars for
campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland,
Ardennes and Central Europe. Among his decorations
are the WWII Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal,
Distinguished Unit Badge, European African Middle
Eastern Campaign, American Campaign Medal, and
five Bronze Stars. He was discharged on
November 30, 1945 and returned home to Ohio.
On July 7, 1948 he married Florence Matty Smedley
in Madisonburg, Ohio. Ira was an employee
of the Ohio Injector Company of Wadsworth for
forty-two years. After his retirement from
the Injector Company Ira and Florence opened an
antiques business in their home in Smithville
where they lived for many years. In later
years they moved to Wooster. Ira and Florence
are responsible for much of the documentation
of Christian Wall and family in Wayne and Medina
Counties. Their help in this research was
invaluable. Ira died at the age of 83 on
January 23, 1996 in Wooster after a long battle
with colon cancer. He is buried in the Sherwood
Memorial Gardens in Wooster. Ira and Florence
had three children, James D., Linda J. and Susan
D. Wall.
GRACE WINIFRED WALL was born in Sharon on August 30, 1918. She married Herman Francis "Bud"
Shanafelt on June 22, 1940 in Wadsworth.
Bud was born on March 2, 1914 and died in his
sleep at the age of 84 on June 29, 1998.
Grace and Bud lived on Fixler Road near River
Styx for many years. Aunt Grace still lives (2017)
there in the house that was their home for many
decades. Bud was an employee of Permold and retired
from there. He was also a woodcarver and
belonged to the Wadsworth Woodcarvers club.
Uncle Bud was also an avid collector of native
American artifacts found on his farm and the areas
surrounding his home. Grace retired from Dress
Brothers in Wadsworth and is a member of the Alcyone
Rebekah Lodge. Grace and Bud had five children:
Peggy, Vivian, Shirley, Dennis and Laurel.
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