In 1959, my mother packed up her four children, and we drove from Erie County, Ohio, to the farm of Clifford and Leona Lindsley in Sandusky County, Ohio. We played with the kittens, made tunnels in the hay loft, jumped off the sides of the spring house, and enjoyed our visit to the farm. On the way to the farm, outside of Bellevue, Ohio, we would enjoy the hills on Route 269, and could hardly wait to see what adventures would await us during our visit.Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Lindsley were neighbors of my Parker ancestors, all of whom had prosperous farms in Perkins Township, Ohio for many years. In 1941, after the U.S. Army bought out a large section of land in Perkins Township for a munitions factory for the war effort, the Parker and Lindsley families had to re-locate. My great grandparents, Leroy and Ada Parker, moved to Sandusky, Ohio into an apartment, and continued to work at Cedar Point during the summers. Cliff and Leona Lindsley moved to a farm in Sandusky, County. The families whose farms were bought out stayed in touch, and had annual "Old Neighbors" picnics every summer.
While I never lived on a farm, so many of my ancestors before me did. Going to see "Uncle Cliff" and "Aunt Leona" at their lovely farm helped me to get a sense of what being a child on a farm would have been like. Those memories are so precious to me! Most all of my Parker ancestors are buried at Perkins Cemetery in Erie County, Ohio; and Mr. and Mrs. Lindsley were buried at the York Free Chapel Cemetery in Sandusky County, Ohio. Thanks for those wonderful "down on the farm" experiences! Below is a snapshot of an earlier generation of youngsters enjoying farm life in Perkins Township in the 1940's.
