Pioneer family: Reardon family arrived in western Boyle County by wagon

William Harrison Reardon and his wife, Kizzie Drugan Roach Reardon, traveled by horse and wagon in February 1900 from Franklin County to Boyle County. They decided to follow his brother, John who arrived in 1899, according to a grandson, William H. Pelley of Mitchellsburg.

The Reardons packed their belongings in two or three wagons and made their way from the Bald Knob area near Frankfort to their new surroundings in western Boyle County. They spent one night in Shakertown where they slept under the wagons, Pelley said.

Pelley said his grandfather moved to Boyle County because he liked to fox hunt, but never actually killed a fox. He said most of the Reardons were fox hunters.

Shortly after the family arrived in Boyle County, William Reardon cut timber from the property and built a house on Chestnut Grove Road near Parksville. The family later moved in 1919 to Brumfield-Mitchellsburg Road where they farmed.

In 1903, William H. and John Reardon helped build a Chestnut Grove Church of Christ on top of a nearby knob.

Pelley said his aunt Minnie Reardon attended one-room schools at Chestnut Grove and Locust Grove at Brumfield. The Chestnut Grove one-room school opened in the 1920s and closed in 1942.

Reardons had 10 children

Pelley remembers that his grandfather, William H., came from a big family, many of whom he never met.
William H. and John Hiram Reardon are among the 10 children of Hugh Reardon (1844-1927) and Mary Ann (Polly) Harlow Reardon, born in 1846. All the children were born in Franklin County.

Other children are: Margaret (1866-1927), who died in Boyle County; Luann, born 1870; Edmond T., born 1875; and Mary F. born in 1877. No other information is known about them.

Dennis (1873-1894) was married to Lucinda Jane Wendthworth. They lived in Bagdad in Shelby County.
Jemima was born in 1880 and was married to John Shannon Jr.

George W. (1882-1948) was married to Elizabeth Lynn.

Minnie Allis (1887-1946) married Campbell Alexander Hutcherson.

After his wife Mary Ann died, Hugh Reardon married a second time. His second wife was Ann E. Lynn, born about 1875. They had a daughter, Cora B. Reardon, born in 1903.

William H. “Harry” Reardon was born June 6, 1872, in Franklin County, Ky., and died April 4, 1945, in Mitchellsburg. He married Kizzie Drugan Roach on July 24, 1893, in Franklin County.

Kizzie (1877-1958) was the daughter of Mary Catherine Drugan Roach (1934-1912) of Franklin County, who is buried in Aliceton Cemetery. Mary Catherine was the daughter of John Calvin, who was born in 1793, and Elizabeth (Betsy) Drugan Roach, who was born in 1803.

 William H. and  Kizzie are buried at Old Union Cemetery near the intersection of U.S. 68 and Ky. 34 west of Mitchellsburg. 

Their children are:
Pearl (1895-1994) married Leroy Pelley of Mercer County.

Minnie Frances 1905-1978) married Garnett Lamb of Boyle County.

Lillie (1899-1914) and Cora (1903-1918) died of typhoid fever and Emma who was born in 1909 died at birth.

John H. Reardon was born in June 1868 in Franklin County, and died Feb. 5, 1941, in Garrard County. He is buried in Parksville Cemetery. He and Mary Frances Wendtworth were married about 1890. She was born June 1872 in Franklin County, and died Aug. 20, 1930.

John and Mary Frances' children with birth and death dates, and spouses, if known, include:
Mary Belle Reardon (1892-1956), who was married to William Lee and John Wesley Crowe.
Alonzo (1895-1960), who married Mattie Belle Roach.

John M., born in 1897, who married Cora Elizabeth Jones.

Elza Sr., (1898-1959) was the first of the children born in Boyle County, and was married to Mary Frances Lamb.
Lemuel  (1901-1970), was married to Martha E. Dorsey.

Ethel (1911-1993), was married to Woodrow Lamb.

Leslie (1893-1918), Hugh (1908-1917), and  Mamie, born in 1905. No other information is known about them.

Research by J.B. Lamb, great-grandson of William H. Reardon, shows the Raredon (Reardon and Rearden) family descends from Thomas Raredon, born about 1650 in Ireland. He came to the United States and lived in the Maryland-Delaware-Virginia region. No information has been found on his spouse.
The early Reardons also lived in North Carolina before coming to Kentucky.

The first Reardon to appear on Kentucky records is Thomas Reardon's son, Henry, and his wife, Mary Hardgrave Searcy, whom he married in 1757 in Granville City, N.C. They came in the late 1700s from North Carolina to Clifton in Woodford County, Ky. He is listed on the 1800 Kentucky tax list.
 Many of the Reardon descendants continue to live in the Boyle County area.