1938 high school class ring found, returned to area family

Or a totally different scenario may have happened.

How the ring got from the farm house that sits on 80 acres in Stanleyville, just outside Marietta, and eventually buried in dirt may never be known.

But one fact is certain, the ring has been found and given to the owner’s daughter, Laura Nell Ferrell, as a surprise 82nd birthday present by her brother, Frederick “Rick” Nuzum, 77.

“It was really an overwhelming thing my brother did for me,” said Ferrell, who lives in Middletown.

When she opened the jewelry box and looked inside, she “knew it was mom’s high school ring,” though she had never seen it before. “The more I looked at it, I did have some memory she had one.”

Ferrell said she never knew her mother’s class ring went missing.

“We didn’t have a clue,” she said.

Enclosed with the box was a hand-written note from her brother. In part, it read: “As you well know, there are times God wants us to know that He is very, very much in the details. And this is one of those times.”

Ferrell’s parents Claude and Virginia Nuzum purchased the farm in 1952 and lived there until 1962. They sold the farm to a couple and eventually it was purchased by that couple’s granddaughter Geneva Perry.

One day while walking near the barn, Perry looked down and saw a shiny object that was partially buried in the ground. At first, she thought it was a nut or bolt off a piece of farm machinery.

Then she realized it was a ring with a date. It looked like 1988. But more cleaning revealed the 8 was a 3 and it was from 1938.

When she looked inside the ring, she saw the engraved initials, V.L.M. Those letters meant nothing to her, so she checked with longtime residents around Stanleyville.

Eventually, someone said it may belong to a woman named Virginia Louise Merrill, who once lived on the farm.

Perry contacted Rick Nuzum, they met and she gave him the 10K ring.

“It’s like mother is still speaking to me,” Ferrell said when asked about the ring’s sentimental worth. “It’s just beautiful.”

Ferrell said her sister, Nancy “Eileen” Foster, died in 2011, so one day the ring will be passed down to one of her brother’s three granddaughters.

Until then, Ferrell said she will cherish the ring.

“The Lord wanted me to have it,” she said. “It’s a reminder how much He loves me and our family. What a God. Being able to make sure that it didn’t get lost. And He’s in the details.”

The ring, she said, represents “a sweet story about the grace of Jesus.”

Her brother called it “a miraculous story.”

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