By FINN HARTNETT

Staff writer

Marion Ogden couldn’t say exactly why his parents named him after his hometown. It sometimes certainly leads to confusion among those meeting him— a Marion from Marion?

Ogden’s father had “Marion” as a middle name, so the name was perhaps picked for genealogical reasons.

Ogden’s four siblings, Mina, Marvin, Max, and Mickey, all have “M” names, too, so “Marion” had consistency on its side.

But thankfully for administrative workers everywhere, the name didn’t stick.

In fifth grade, Ogden picked up a nickname he has gone by for most of his life, “Oggy.”

“I was getting in fights all the time because everybody would call me Mary Ann and I’d punch them and go to the principal’s office,” Ogden said.

His music teacher pulled him aside one day and told him he needed another name. All the fights he was getting in were causing him to miss too much class.

The music teacher dubbed him “Oggy,” and the name immediately stuck.

The teacher had some experience with nicknames, Ogden recalled; he went by “Bobby,” because his given name was Robert E. Lee.

Ogden taught as a career, too, working in Marion and Florence’s school system for 31 years.

He is remembered mainly as a phys ed teacher and coach, though he noted was he also a health teacher, driving instructor, and athletic director.

After retiring, Ogden and Dennis Maggard opened one of the county’s most unique businesses, Bearly Makin’ It Antiques, in 1994.

The business’s Main St. storefront closed in 2022, but its iconic outdoor property continues to draw dozens of out-of-towners to Walnut St. each week.

“This was an alfalfa mill that was established in 1942 and processed alfalfa pellets until 1978,” Ogden said. “It’s also been a welding shop, a scrap yard, an auction house, a storage unit for implements. It’s been a multitude of things.”

The land was owned by Ralph Popp, who sold it to Ogden and Maggard.

The two had enjoyed buying and selling at local auctions for some time before deciding to go into the antique business.

They took their ursine name and logo from an older Marion business with a sign for Bear Alignment.

Bearly Makin’ It is defined by its large front yard, where hundreds of different antiques, the majority of them metal, lie on thin sheets weighed down with bricks.

Hit with years of sun and rain, they are beautifully rusted and weathered.

“That’s what sells,” Ogden said.

Rusted farm equipment, chairs, spokes, statuettes, and strange wiry objects look as if they are from another planet. Sometimes, deer and turkeys wander around the space, adding to the storybook vibe.

The store is open only one day a week, Saturday, though customers can call ahead to make appointments during the rest of the week.

Ogden and Maggard spend three days a week out of town at garage sales and auctions looking for more antiques.

They also have developed a small network of “pickers” in different parts of Kansas.

“They pick for us, and then they give us a call, and we go buy a trailer-load from them,” Ogden said.

Three buildings on the property put a roof over more delicate antiques.

The buildings are laid out like warehouses; Bearly Makin’ It tends to sell larger items than other county antique stores.

There are ladders, tables, doors, lanterns, old tools. A man bought five old fishing rods off Ogden for $2 a pop.

“We had the store downtown for 25 years, and just got to the point that glassware wasn’t selling,” Ogden said. “It was also a struggle down there, and here with just the two of us. … We had to get rid of something.”

The three-acre Walnut St. property has more than enough space to store the “rust and primitives,” as Ogden affectionately calls his antiques.

“We used to sell a lot of furniture, but it slowed down,” he said. “Chipped painted furniture sells, and primitives sell, and big wardrobes sell, and we sell a lot of doors and lots of windows and lots of galvanized merchandise and lots of rust.”

Maggard worked for the county’s sign department back in the day, and Bearly Makin’ It also has a dusty corner stocked with vintage advertising signs.

The signs are pricey compared to most things in the store but are popular.

“They usually sell right away,” Ogden said.

Asked whether there was anything in the store he wouldn’t sell, Ogden said there were two things: a 600-pound anvil which he uses as a workbench and his wife.

Most of Ogden’s customers are out-of-towners, but his space still retains a local, historic feel. As with any good antique store, plenty of secrets are buried deep in the shelves.

Marion resident Frank Werner walked into the store Saturday.

“Oggy was my gym teacher back in 1975 in Florence,” he said.

As he poked around a shelf of metal rods, Werner spoke about what he liked about the business.

“Finding something that really reminds you of the past, or something you know you want to hang in your garage,” he said. “Coming across things that you’d have to travel a long way to find.”