As a young man, Ward failed the military induction physical due to high blood pressure and a high albumen level indicative of kidney trouble. He was not allowed to join any branch of the military (WWII). His older brother was in the Pacific Theater of Operations, U.S. Army and his father was a WWI era Army veteran. He was extremely disappointed and somewhat ashamed. A farm bordering his father’s farm was going to be sold by Mr. McCarthy. He believed his education was good enough for his choice of career, a dairy farmer. He chose to quit High School at the end of his junior year to buy this farm in Brown Township, Michigan. With his father’s assistance he began a dairy farm. He married and his first two children were born while living at the farm. Eventually his small but growing herd of Dairy cows took ill and died, story being a young ‘farm hand’ not knowing better fed the cows excessively molded hay from the loft. The molded hay was caused by rainwater dripping from a leak in the barn roof. About this same time, small farms nationwide failed to provide the necessary income to sustain the ‘new’ standard of living that included electrical power, telephone and an automobile in the driveway. Instead of trying to start again with a new dairy herd, with regrets, Ward sold the farm. He and the family moved to Muskegon Michigan where he secured a job as a union labor working at the Continental engine factory located on the fringe of the city (here he was once severely burned from the thigh down by over flowing hot caustic liquid used to clean fresh casted engine components). Four more children were born before his early death in 1959 at the age of 36, caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. Ward is buried at the family plot within a Catholic cemetery near Onekama, Michigan. Ward was of Scottish ancestry (Steele/MayBee). Like many men of his generation, Ward was an enthusiastic and skilled fisherman and hunter.
Ward is 30 degrees from Herbert Adair, 28 degrees from Richard Adams, 25 degrees from Mel Blanc, 29 degrees from Dick Bruna, 28 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 37 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 26 degrees from Sam Edwards, 24 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 26 degrees from Marty Krofft, 21 degrees from Junius Matthews, 22 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 25 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.