Autobiography of Robert James Hardie (1996); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Vince Summers [vsummers@gmail.com]. Permission given by author for use in USGenWeb Archives. Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ Robert James Hardie, An Autobiography I, Robert James Hardie, eldest of four sons of Augustus Brunner Hardie and Gertrude Bell Johnson, was born Tuesday, February 13, 1917 at 5:15 AM in the Calumet & Arizona Hospital, Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona. Since both my father's and my mother's families were natives of Philadelphia, Pa, my birth so far away from my progenitor's base of birth and livelihood was a first insofar as the male side of our families were concerned. My father was born in Philadelphia, Pa., 16 January 1886 at 3:30 AM - son of Robert James Hardie and Mary Madeleine Burrows. My father was the 3rd child and second son of 5 children born to Robert & Mary Hardie. They were Sarah, Robert, Augustus, Madeleine, and Jessie. The Hardies - at least our branch - had originated [in] Scotland approximately in the 1740's when Captain Robert Hardie had apparently emigrated from Scotland to America, and had settled, first in Bristol above Philadelphia, and later in Philadelphia proper, in the Southwark District. Captain Hardie was the owner and captain of various merchant ships. Some of his various vessels are on record in the volumes of the "Pennsylvania Archives" series of Pennsylvania's Official Records. They are also listed in the Ship's Logs - sole remaining - privately owned by his family. Two of these volumes are available in his own handwriting, and cover a period [from] 1758-1798. In the beginning of the American Revolution, he volunteered his services to the fledgling Pennsylvania Navy and was appointed, first, Captain of the fire boat "Terror," and subsequently to the armed boat, "Burke." The latter is cited by his Citation as 'Captain of the Armed Boat "Burke"' and signed by the Chairman of the Pa. Local Authority, Thomas Wharton. This certificate has been in the family until recently, when it was placed on file at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa. for safe-keeping. These events are cited at length in the "Pennsylvania Archives." Robert Hardie left a Bible listing his 9 children by his second wife, Martha Cowgill, who he had married 26 April 1767, Gloria Dei Church, Philadelphia - born 1745, and died 1795. His son and sole survivor of his children, Captain David Hardie, followed in his footsteps and was also a sea captain. Records of his voyages - bringing some immigrants from Europe to the United States - are included in the series of books by Rupp, setting forth these immigrants. He also served in the War of 1812. His eldest son, Robert III, also served in the War of 1812 on a privateer. His service on this is commemorated by his desire to obtain a pension and his papers, which are on file at the Veteran's Office in Washington, cites his service. Unfortunately for him, his pension was denied because of his service on a privateer - not a federal vessel. He was a prisoner of war in the infamous jail in England, Dartmoor, until his release in 1815. His youngest brother, James Gustavus, is our progenitor. My mother was born 28 August 1892, in St. Paul, Minnesota - the second daugher and third child of Oscar Soffe Johnson and Jane Bell Kite. Oscar and Jane Johnson had five children: William, Mildred, Gertrude, Harold, and Charles. The two youngest died in early childhood. My mother's family through her mother, Jane Bell Kite, were among the earliest settlers in Philadelphia, through James Kite, the progenitor in America of this branch of the Kite family who married Mary Warner, daughter of William Warner, one of William Penn's first asssociated judges at the founding of the Colony in 1682, but who had preceded the Founder, and had settled in what was later to be a section of Philadelphia known as Blockley - today's West Philadelphia, as early as the 1650's-1660's, under a 'permit' from the Swedish and Indian predecessors of Penn. My mother's father, Oscar Soffe Johnson, was born in Philadelphia - his father's family apparently had moved from southern New Jersey - his mother from England. My siblings are Augustus Brunner, David John Stevenson, and Charles Hare, all married with progeny. Augustus and Charles [are] now deceased. From approximately May 1916 until June 1917, my parents lived in Arizona - site of my birth. My father was a mechanical engineer, installing a copper smelter for the "Diamond Copper Queen" division of the Phelps-Dodge Corp. in or near Bisbee, Arizona. At the termination of my father's project, he moved his family through San Francisco (as a side trip) back to Philadelphia. From approximately September 1917 through October 1918, we lived in Talladega, Alabama, where I have pictures of our home. From October 1918 to early 1919, we lived in Lebanon, Pa. In the fall of 1919, my father served his employment with the firm of contracting engineers, and accepted the position of sales manager for the Baldwin Locomotive Works, covering Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, and assistant manager for the west coast of South America, which included Argentina and Bolivia. In 1919 he moved his family to Lima, Peru, which he established as his headquarters. There, on 20 March 1920, Augustus Brunner Jr., my first brother, was born. In mid-1921 we moved from Lima, Peru, to Santiago, Chile, where we lived for approximately 9 months. We moved from there in early 1922 to Bogota, Columbia, [to] which my father had relocated his headquarters. Here we were joined by my 2nd brother, David John Stevenson, 20 August 1924, at home in the suburban town of Chapinero, now an integral part of Bogota. In Bogota, I started my formal schooling, attending the "Gimnasio Moderno," a private school for boys, where I spent my first [four] grades learning [while] speaking Spanish only, which was to be my downfall, since my parents felt that I should learn my native tongue. In 1927, my brother Brunner and I were consigned to the Haverford School, in Haverford, Pa., in suburban Philadelphia. Here we stayed until 1931, although the rest of the family were still in Colombia. That year, 1927, we were joined by our third brother, Charles Hare, born 11 August 1927 [at the] Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia - the only native son of a native son, and the only son to be born in Philadelphia proper. In early 1928, my family, except for Brunner and I, returned to Bogota, Colombia. My mother and two younger brothers stayed there until the following year, leaving my father to return, finally, in 1931. Due to many changes in the railroading industry, the Baldwin Works [fell] into bankruptcy, terminating my father's employment. Meanwhile, we had settled in Ardmore, Pa., where, after four years at the Haverford School, where I had mastered the English language, I entered the Lower Merion school system for [three] years. As happened to so many of us during the Great Depression, I had to leave my regular high school education to get a job; however, I completed my high school education at Temple University High School at night, while working at the Autocar Co., manufacturers of trucks, now a division of the White Motor Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, first as a mail boy and messenger, and then as a cost-accountant. In 1938, graduating from High School, with honors in science, I started my college education at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, School of Accounts and Finance. WOrking during the day, and going to classes at night made the time go fast. My major was in foreign trade and ocean shipping - minor in accounting - until I received my notice [of] induction into the armed services. This took precedence as it did to all our lives, and on 13 November 1942, I entered the military service at Grey's Armory, Philadelphia, Pa., after entry classification in New Cumberland, Pa. I was assigned to the Army Air Forces. After basic training at Atlantic City, NJ, and having chosen as my alternate assignment, aircraft armorer, my primary choice of meteorology being filled, I left the east coast in January of 1943, for the Aircraft Armore's Technical School, at Lowry Field II, outside of Denver, Colo. This was outstanding in my life, since, for the first time in my life, I was on my own, and had a feeling of life. Denver has always had a deep meaning to me in my memories for this reason. At this school, we had to make a decision - either to continue as ground force personnel, or to choose aircraft gunnery, as part of a bomber team, which was the next step. The choice, I guess, was the 'glamorous' one of aerial gunnery, but we were also given long lectures as to our country needing us in the New Air Force, just then beginning to expand. The challenge of this appeal was such that I accepted and was sent to Laredo, Texas, for basic gunnery training. This was in March of 1943. Here I remained until January of 1945. Meanwhile, I had been corresponding via Uncle Sam's mails with a very dear person from back in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. In October, 1943, I convinced her to become engaged, due to a short unfreezing of furloughs. I went home to Ardmore in January of 1944, so that we could publicly announce our intentions. We had hoped that I would be able to come home that summer of 1944, to be married before our families, but since that years was a momentous one in the U.S. war years, with D-Day intervening, all furloughs were frozen, indefinitely. We decided, then and there, that we would rather live together, if only for a short while, than apart for an indefinite period, so my beloved wife-to-be, Grace Lauretta Pettitt, joined me in Laredo, Texas. There were were married, November 4, 1944, at 4:30 PM in Christ Church, Episcopal, the Rev. Ben Smith officiating. With the phasing out of the aerial gunnery program at Laredo in January of 1945, I was transferred to an overseas training station in Walla Walla, Washington, where, with my wife, we lived until my discharge from the service in January of 1946. In February of 1946 [came] my final separation from the Service as Sergeant, at Sacramento, Callifornia - McClelland AFB. After a short trip to San Francisco, we returned home to Ardmore, Pa., and I resumed my civilian life, returning to my job with the E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. in Wilmington, Del., as Senior Export Correspondent. In September 1946, I was offered the opportunity to go to Mexico and Central America as technical representative for the Fabric & Finishes Division, which I accepted. Although I had to leave in October 1946 for my new post, I left Grace in Ardmore, since we were expecting the birth of our first child. On December 28, 1946 at 8:30 AM, our daughter, [living person] was born in the Bryn Mawr Hospital, Bryn Mawr, Pa. We lived in Mexico City until 1949, when my company changed my headquarters to Guatemala City, Guatemala, until August 1951. In Guatemala, we were joined by our son, Robert James IV, born in the American Hospital, Guatemala City, 2 August, 1949. In August of 1951, I decided that it was time to return to the United States, to raise my family under more settled conditions, so I resigned from the DuPont Co., and returned to Ardmore. In October, 1951, I accepted a bid to join the Sherwin Williams Co., in their Export Division. [I joined] the company as Manager of Associated Products (selling everything and anything that the company did not make, or was associated with thte use or application of paint). I moved my family to northern New Jersey, first to Metuchen, then to Edison Township, where we proudly owned our first home. In 1957, due to my "affliction" with asthma, we had to move to a higher elevation, so we bought a home in Berkeley Heights, not too far from our first home, in the Watching hills. This was our home until September 1967, when again I was transferred - to the Rubberset Co., a division in Crisfield, Maryland, on the eastern shore of the Delmarva peninsula. We found a home in Salisbury, Maryland, (on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake) which we enjoyed for seven years, after the hectic turmoil of the metropolitan area of northern New Jersey. We again moved into a new house which we saw being built. We moved from here to our new location in Cleveland as a result of a company transfer. Cleveland, Ohio was and is our company's headquarters (Sherwin Williams - the foremost paint manufacturer in the U.S.). Here, we again moved into a new home in North Ridgeville, Lorain County, the county adjacent to Cayuhoga, which includes Cleveland. I lived here until the untimely death of my beloved Grace, in 2 November 1980. On April 10, 1970, our beloved daughter, [living person], after graduating from [a university] with a MS in Interior Design, married [living person]. [Further information on these living ones is here delineated, but witheld by me.- VES.] Our son, Robert James Hardie IV, was single and lived with his parents. Robert died 9 March 1991, of complications resulting from his long [incidence of] schizophrenia. He was a brilliant, loving son, and will be missed. He is buried with his mother in the Pettitt plot in St Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, in Ardmore, Montgomery Co., Pa. Attached to his gravestone is a bronze plaque denoting his "perpetual membership" in the National Sons of the American Revolution, which memorial was accorded to him, and in his memory by the Society, in Cleveland, of which I am also a Life Member. Finally, in the worst blow to me was the death of my beloved Grace to cancer. She died at 12:00 PM in the Elyria Memorial Hospital, Elyria, Lorain, Ohio. Her burial is mentioned above. In October 1981, I sold my home in North Ridgeville, and moved a short way eastward to Westlake, Cuyahoga, Ohio. I lived at the Timber Ridge Apartments from 1 November until 3 March 1995, when at my daughter's suggestion I moved again to my present location at [withheld] Nebraska, a short 15 min. ride to my [daughter's] home. I was, and still remain, a member of the local Protestant Episcopal church [name withheld], having been baptized on the USS Pennsylvania by the Fleet Chaplain of the U.S. Navby (at that time in Callao - Peru's harbor - on 5 February, 1921. My certificate and a picture of my 'church' hangs here in [my] den, with a story published in a local paper about the rites. This brings me up to the present (1996). [Note: A fair amount of data about living persons appears next, which is, of course, withheld. Robert James Hardie, the author of this article, eventually was received into a Nebraska home for the elderly, due to afflictions that were beyond the means of his family to attend to. He suffered arthritis, diabetes, Parkinson's Disease, acute anemia, and minor contentions with skin cancer, in addition to what he lists above. He died December 3, 1999. I had been in communication with him via the postal service for about two years. I had contact with him primarily in connection with the surname Kite. He had asked me to put his genealogical connections online. His family had given him permission to include them, but out of concern for their welfare, I have withheld that information.- VES]