Correspondent photo / Melissa Channell
Ronald Thompson, who lives in a house in Southington that straddles Trumbull and Portage counties, has always been interested in history and geology. Here, he shows a cannonball partially encased in rock. Thompson said it was formed when the British were shooting at Gen. George Washington crossing the Delaware back in 1776.
SOUTHINGTON — Ronald Thompson, a native of Niles, has a variety of interests, including geology, history and nature in general.
“I was always interested in history,” said Thompson, a self-proclaimed naturalist who enjoys sharing his wealth of knowledge about the area. “But my personal specialty is in geology.”
He refers to a series of outbuildings on his property as a “tool museum and art museum,” filled with items that others have cast away.
“That’s a strong box there, if someone robbed a stagecoach of that they wouldn’t get far on horseback. Stirrups, a a cast iron baby doll, and from the Ravenna Arsenal, that’s a funnel they filled artillery shells with from World War II,” he said.
Many of Thompson’s treasures come from places that had been demolished, such as a merry-go- round horse from Nelson Ledges.
He also has different mining equipment, such as a carbide lamp they used to use in the mines, as well as a telephone that used to be on Navy ships.
“I was always into nature. That’s why I bought this property, it’s kind of unique, not only because it’s in two counties (Portage and Trumbull), it’s kind of flat coming in and then there’s the woods, and a little bit of hills,” Thompson said.
He said he used to make money as a kid trapping animals such as muskrats.
“I used to trap a lot. Muskrat in them days was worth $2 to $3 apiece,” Thompson, 83, said. “And there was no shortage of muskrat.”
From animal traps, to a will, to part of a cannonball, his collection would interest almost anyone.
On his basement wall hangs an indenture (will) hand written on parchment dated 1768.
“In 2008, they were cleaning out Delaware Bay, they were bringing up these huge rocks and they broke them open, and they had cannonballs in them,” he said.
These were formed when the British were shooting at General George Washington crossing the Delaware in 1776, he explained.
In his basement, Thompson has several shelving units with various types of rocks, minerals and geodes.
“I built this house. I took a lot of stuff from Warren when they were demolishing stuff … all around the house are bricks from things they tore down in Warren and Niles. I used everything,” Thompson said.
He pointed at a photo of wild turkeys in his yard.
“This is what comes in every morning. The most I ever counted was like, 35 in a flock. Now, like, yesterday I counted and there was 10, one gobbler and nine hens. They turn the woods over all the time, they’re looking for something to eat. I feed ’em, too. They’re not tame though. Once they see you, they’re gone,” he said.
There’s also bluebirds that nest in a tree in his yard, and a pond with fish and frogs, as well as several varieties of trees. He will find an occasional turtle trying to cross the road that he will put into the pond.
“I ran around with an archaeologist for quite a few years, Charles Sosky, and he showed me all the Indian mounds that used to be around here that they excavated. I have a collection of arrowheads. Some of them I bought. My wife’s from North Carolina and I’d pay the kids a quarter for ones they found. These here from Ohio, I found. We had probably half a dozen Indian tribes here in Ohio. That’s how Ohio was formed, it was a migration route. You had caribou and elk. When the pioneers came in, they followed the game trail. They built canals, and later railroads took over,” Thompson said, sounding like a history professor.
Thompson met his wife, Mary, at Moxie’s on Route 422 when she was a car hop.
“She was up here with her sisters,” he said.
They have been married for 60 years. They have two sons, Ronald Jr., who died in service, and Mark, who is a computer specialist in Ravenna, where he takes care of the computers in the courthouse and sheriff’s office.
Thompson worked at Van Huffle Tube for 25 years.
“I traveled a lot across the United States in my younger years …Washington, Oregon, Idaho, North Carolina, where my wife’s from, and all down the east coast …wherever mines could be found, and some state parks. I have a list of fossils and minerals and crystals from Ohio all the way out to the West Coast. They are free for any educator to take to school,” he said. “Or I’ll take volunteers and put ’em to work out here.”
To suggest a Saturday profile, contact Features Editor Burton Cole at [email protected] or Metro Editor Marly Reichert at [email protected].
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