Parents History
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY April 2, 2015 DONALD R. SONDERGELD FAMILY BACKGROUND AND EARLY YEARS I was born around 5:15 am on Thursday, November 13, 1930 in Flower Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. I weighed only 5 pounds, as I was a month premature. My father was Walter Herman Sondergeld(1901-1982), the second oldest son in a farming family of four children. His father, Jacob Sondergeld(1867-1943), farmed one of the 40 acre plots his father Martin(1823- 1884) left to each of his five sons in Graytown, Ohio. His mother was Magdalena Louis(1875-1951). My father’s siblings all married, and all but Martin had children: Martin(1898-1976), who was a cook on a freighter out of Lake Erie Lester(1904-2000), who bought and farmed his father’s farm Estella Gieske(1906-1987), who was a nurse My mother was Marie Elizabeth Kinsel Sondergeld(1901-1982), the youngest daughter in a family of eight children. Her father Henry Kinsel(1866-1933) was the custodian of a school in Oak Harbor, Ohio and her mother Amelia Sutter Kinsel(1866-1961) was a wonderful tiny woman. My mother’s siblings all married and had children: Albert(1891-1983), who was a telegraph operator and organist in Huron, OH Agnes Burton(1893-1980), who was deaf and lived in Port Clinton, OH Martha Coligan(1895-1984), who was a teacher, and lived in Cicero, IL Anna Hetrick(1898- ), Special Education teacher, lives in Port Clinton, OH Carl(1906-1996), owed the Oak Harbor Lumber and Kinsel Electric Companies Otto(1909- ), a telephone company supervisor, and inventor and manufacturer of spacers used on telephone lines, lives in Bellevue, OH 1930 TO 1939 My parents were married on May 30, 1928. My father had worked for Davey Tree Company before he was married, but for most of his working life was employed by Spicer Mfg, subsequently Dana Corp in Toledo, OH. The Depression years were rough. Dad was laid off and worked for a time as a gas station attendant and bought a revolver for protection on that job. He subsequently kept it (unloaded) in a dresser in his bedroom. During that time we lived in Elmore, OH, but times were tough so we moved in with my mother's parents (Amelia and Henry Kinsel) on Walnut Street in Oak Harbor, OH. My brother Ralph was born at my grandparent's home in Oak Harbor on June 26, 1934. I do remember that my Great Grandmother Mary Reiff Sutter(1846-1943) and my Great Uncle Henry Sutter(1874-1951) lived close by on the same street. One day I was watching my great uncle, who made fancy cement blocks, at work. Some cement blew into one of my eyes and I ran home crying. I have little if any recollection of my grandfather Henry Kinsel, who died in my third year. My grandmother Amelia Kinsel was a wonderful woman, about 4 feet 10 or 11 inches tall. In the morning she would brush out her long hair that almost reached to the floor, then coil it on her head and stick pins in it. My father went back to work at Spicer and we then moved to Yates Street in Toledo, and from there to 532 Prouty Avenue in the south end of town. I do recall going to Jones Junior High School (which was not yet a high school) to complete my year of Kindergarten. Westfield Elementary (on the corner of Western and Field Avenues) opened and Jones became a Junior High. I continued there until the third grade. 1939 TO 1948: PRE COLLEGE My parents bought a home and an extra lot in a rural area east of Toledo around 1939. It was on Goodrich Avenue in Ross Township in Wood County, and is now called Northwood, OH. About a half mile away on the corner of Wales Road and a main three lane highway Woodville Road, was my school, Olney, that had grades 1-12 in it. After a few years my mother became the third grade teacher. Years after I was graduated, another building was constructed on the school grounds and my school became a high school only. 1 March 26, 2015 Sundays We went to St Paul’s Lutheran Church on Court House Square in Toledo, Ohio every Sunday. It was about five miles away. There were two services: one at 9:15 and one a 10:45. We went to the early one. We often drove to Oak Harbor (20 miles from home) to visit Grandmother Amelia Kinsel, and sometimes stopped in Genoa, half way back, where my Sondergeld grandparents had retired to, and occasionally at my Uncle Lester Sondergeld’s farm in Graytown. We often saw others in my mother’s family when in Oak Harbor. I do recall our occasionally visiting the Harold? and Virgie Schwartz family on Sunday afternoons in Toledo. They had a number of boys and my brother and I always had a good time. My mother, however, would often cry on the way home as she felt so sorry for Virgie, a high school buddy, who played the organ in a Lutheran church, while her Catholic husband took the boys to Mass. Church Each Christmas Eve we had one big midnight service at the Paramount Theater a couple of blocks away to handle both our large congregation and others. During my seventh and eighth grades I attended catechism every Saturday morning from 9 am until noon. We had one hour of catechism, one hour of choir practice, and one hour of gym. I liked the last hour best as I loved to play basketball. We sang each Sunday and we each had to turn in a paper on what the sermon meant. I took a bus from Woodville Road to the Toledo bus station, a few blocks from church. After catechism I went with some other boys to Kreske’s or Woolworth’s for lunch. I always had a hamburger and a cherry sundae. We then went to a movie before I took the bus home. Early Work When I was between sixth and seventh grade I tried working on a nearby farm topping beets at $1/day. I started work at 8 am instead of 7:30 am and worked hard all day pulling beets, taking off the tops, putting them in a bushel basket, and carrying them to a truck. At the end of the day we were to be paid in cash. The farmer gave me fifty cents as I had not worked a full day. I didn’t go back. I did go to Lakewood Greenhouse, a wholesaler a mile and a half away, where I got a job at 25 cents/hour and was rapidly raised to 35 cents/hour. I worked summers, often from 3:30 until 6 pm and Saturdays during the school year. I prepared raised beds for plantings by steaming the soil, bringing in new soil, loading trucks with flats for Detroit, weeding, white washing the glass for additional shade, etc. One day when I was 16, I was helping someone build a cement block wall there and had a terrible stomach ache. My parents took me to a doctor who said I should rest. While resting at home I read my mother’s medical journal and came to the conclusion I had appendicitis. I asked to go to another doctor the next day and a blood count confirmed an immediate appendectomy. My appendix had ruptured and lodged in a ball of fat so I was alive. Lucky. Academics I did well academically, graduating first in both my junior high and high school classes. My valedictory address was titled: "The Responsibilities of Graduates in a Troubled World". I discussed three items: The spread of communism, the threat of a third world war, and universal military training. My simple solution was to “get more education”. High School Friends My best friends were those I worked with at the greenhouse (Don Kettinger* Nick Chase, and to some extent Jim Dillie) and those I played basketball with (Danny Sieving* and a neighbor Ken Moulton along with his older brother Bill). My brother Ralph was three years younger, so we were not as close in high school as when I was in college. Although I seldom dated in high school, I took Joan Poffenbaugh to the Junior-Senior Prom my junior year and Lois Paben my senior year. Two other buddies were Nick Chase and Bruce Reimers**. *a year younger **a year older. Relatives We were a close family and often saw our relatives. My Uncle Martin was a cook on a Great Lakes steamer, and Aunt Estella Gieseke lived up in Michigan with Uncle John, a fireman. I liked to play chess with my Uncle John Gieseke, a good player, when I could. My Uncle Lester farmed his father's 40 acres in Graytown, OH. For many years there was an annual Sondergeld Reunion, subsequently called the Sondergeld/Hageman Reunion, usually in Graytown. My great grandfather Martin Sondergeld's third wife was Anna Barbara Hageman whose brother Jacob Hageman had 40 acres also on Sondergeld Road in Graytown. These two large families were very close. We visited my Grandmother Kinsel often in Oak Harbor, OH, and saw my mothers four brothers and three sisters often…although Aunt Martha Coligan lived in Cicero, IL so we didn't see her as much. 2 March 26, 2015 Whenever we had a family gathering we played cards: either pinochle or euchre. If at our house, mother would open all the windows after the guests left to air out the cigar smoke from Uncle Lester.