Monday, March 7, 2011

Arthur R. Gardner: son, soldier, newlywed

His gravestone is small and simple: Arthur R. Gardner (b. 1900, d. 1929).


Online records reveal that Arthur, born April 23, 1900, was the son of Elmer and Mary Gardner. When he was 18, he left the family farm to fight in the Great War. (His draft card shows his middle name: Raymond.) On April 27, 1929, Arthur married Nora Eberhard.

Just months after the wedding, Arthur died. He was buried at Flint Cemetery in Franklin County, Ohio on October 19, 1929.


Draft card, Ancestry.com
Indexes of marriage and death records, FamilySearch.org

What about Nora, Arthur’s young widow? With some help from Ancestry.com, I found an image of her obituary. She remarried and lived to be 96. Nora and her husband, Lloyd Ballenger, owned and operated Reeb’s Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio for more than 50 years.

Flint Cemetery, Franklin County, Ohio

4 comments:

  1. Agree with Dorene, very sad.

    Great documents for this post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pugbug, thank you for this post! Nora Eberhard was my grandmother. I knew she married a man with the surname Gardner before she married my grandfather, Lloyd Ballenger. But she never spoke about her first husband to us, and I didn't know where he was buried. Nor had I looked for a draft card. So your post is a huge help to me! By the way, although Nora said she was 22 when she married Arthur, actually she was only 19 (born in 1910, not 1907). Thanks for helping me get to know Arthur a little better.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shelley, you have made my day! It is a thrilling to know that I've added even this small piece to your family history puzzle.

    And I just read your post on Nora. Loved it! And so pleased to see photos of her.

    What a small world!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...