A history of Pickford Area Pioneer Families Daniel Morrison

HASSETT

Thomas J. Hassett was born near the city of Limerick in the County of Limerick, Ireland, in 1939. Bridget McMann was born in Milltown Molbay, County of Clare, Ireland, in 1842. They left Ireland and went to England. They sailed from Yorkshire, England, in the spring of 1879 on the steamer The City Of Chester with their six children: James, Mary, Thomas, Roger, Winnifred, and Bridget Ann. Three children died and are buried in the Batley Cemetery, England: Michael, Margaret, and John.

They landed at Goderich, Ontario, and were met there by Mr. Hassett's brother, Michael, who had been in Canada for several years. The family was left at Goderich and the two brothers came to the United States. They went to what is now known as Tone, four miles north of Pickford. They each took up homestead rights to 160 acres with the two farms joined. Thomas returned to Goderich for his family. They came to the States on the boat The Manitoba. They landed at Sault Ste. Marie in May of 1879 and hired a team of horses to take them to the land that was to become their home. They went out the Old Mackinac Trail and stayed the first night at King's. They went out the next day to the homestead. Mike had built a cabin, but the roof was only half on when they arrived. The cabin was entirely built of poplar logs. The only lumber was in the door. There were no roads, nothing but trails through the woods. There was no village of Pickford - it was solid woods. The Pickford Grange Community Park is now located on part of the old Hassett Homestead.

Michael and Julia were born in Pickford Township. It was a common thing for Mr. Hassett to walk to the Soo and carry a 100 pound sack of flour home on his shoulder, making the return trip in one day. Through Mr. Hassett's efforts, a post office was established, of which he was postmaster for many years. He also succeeded in having the post office given the name, "TONE" after Theobold Wolfe Tone, a leader of the United Irishmen of Ireland.

Mrs. Hassett died at their home on Jan. 7, 1907. Mr. Hassett died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Winnifred Dorgan, in Sault Ste. Marie in April, 1918. They are both buried in the Donaldson Cemetery. Michael Hassett remained a bachelor. Born in 1834, he died at his brother's home and is also buried at Donaldson.

JAMES HASSETT married Margaret McKinnon. He served as Lockmaster at the Soo Locks, retiring in 1929. He died in 1933 from injuries received in an automobile accident. His wife died in 1938 and they are both buried at Donaldson. Their four children were Margaret, John, James, and Eileen. Margaret lives in Ann Arbor. John lives in Sault Ste. Marie and is retired from the Pittsburgh Supply Co. James lives in Buffalo, New York and works for the U. S. Army Engineers. Eileen lives in St. Ignace and is married to Capt. Mike Bishop.

MARY married Thomas Casey. They are both buried at Donaldson. They had 10 children, 4 of whom died as children and are also buried at Donaldson. Mamie (Mrs. Ed MacLaren) died in 1945. Frank, John, Gertrude (Mrs. Joseph Toland), and William all live in Detroit. Morris lives in Cincinnati.

THOMAS married Annie Murphy. He died in 1941 and she in 1943. They are both buried at Donaldson. Their three children are Mae (Mrs. Art Palm), Irene (Mrs. Roy Johnson), and Russell all of Detroit.

ROGER married Annie O'Day and lives in Detroit. His wife died in 1958.

WINNIFRED married John Dorgan and lived in Sault Ste. Marie. Her husband died in 1923. She has 7 children living and 1 dead. Emmett (named after Robert Emmett, the Irish patriot) lives in Sault Ste. Marie as do Thomas, Leonard, Julia, and Leo. Clara (Mrs. Wayland Russell) lives in Pontiac. Julia is married to Joseph Fowler.

BRIDGET ANN married William Donnelly. They live in Flint with their son, Thomas and his family.

MICHAEL married Hattie Sparks. He died in 1934 and is buried at Kinross. They had one daughter, Eva, who is postmaster at Kinross. The Grandfather Hassett Clock, which hung in the post office at Tone for many years, now hangs in the Kinross post office and it still keeps very good time.

JULlA married John McCarthy. She died in 1953, he in 1959 end are both buried at Donaldson. They had four children, two of whom died in infancy. Geraldine (Mrs. Donald McDonald) and John T. both live in the Sault.

HEWER

Richard Hewer came from Gloucester, England, in 1875. With him came.his wife, the former Mary Victoria Benfield, and two small sons, William, 7, and Robert, 5.

They settled in Beevin near Manitbulin, Ontario. Here he was employed by a railroad construction company. Three more children were born here Mary, Nellie, and Richard.

In 1880 they came to Raber, Michigan, by sailboat and from there to Stalwart where they settled on what is known as the Sand Ridge, clearing the land to make a home. It was while living there that the story was told of how Mr. Hewer had a habit of going away without leaving any firewood for his wife to cook with. She threatened many times what she would do to break him of this habit. One day he came home for dinner to find no fire and no signs of a meal being prepared. He inquired as to the reason. She pointed to a stump in the dooryard with a pan of biscuits on top of it and said, "As soon as the sun gets hot enough to cook the biscuits we will have our dinner".

In 1908 they moved again, this time to a farm three and a half miles east and south of Pickford. Here Mrs. Hewer passed away. He then moved into the village of Pickford and remained there until his death.

The oldest son, WILLIAM, married Bertha McInnis and they took up a homestead at Stalwart on what is now the William Waybrant and John Crisp farms. The land grant or title to this homestead is still in the Hewer family and bears the signature of President Benjamin Harrison, dated March, 1893. In 1908 they moved to a farm one mile south of Pickford where he farmed until his death in 1926. Their family included Roy, Voyle (deceased), William, Catherine (deceased), Austin (deceased), Frank (deceased), and Doris.

Frank married Thelma Hughes, a nurse. They had three children. David is a major in the U. S. Air Force and stationed at Biloxi, Mississippi. He and the former Geraldine Shobbrook have two sons, Thomas and Joel*. Mary Sue (Mrs. Ronald Rapson) is a registered nurse and does industrial nursing at Lear Siegler in Grand Rapids. They have one son, James*. Roger married Terry Keeney and is a mathematics teacher in Oakridge High School in Muskegon.

ROBERT married Louise Cochrane and they owned a farm east of Pickford. They had two children, Janis (deceased) and Margaret, now Mrs. Russell McCabe, who lives west of Pickford.

MARY married George Leach and they made their home in Cedarville. NELLIE (deceased) was married twice. Her first husband was John Tripp. They had four children. After his death, she married John Maxwell and they had one son.

WILLIAM married Sue Crawford and they had four children. William married Cleo Smale and they have two sons, Richard and Steve. Nona married Gerald McCord and has three children. Lois is Mrs. Everett Tassic and has two children. Vern married Elsie May Beardsley and lives in Traverse City. They have two children. An adopted son, Vernon Bryce (Pete) sails in the summer and is at home in the winter.

RICHARD, the youngest, now deceased, lived on his farm five miles east of Pickford and married Lucy Campbell. They had seven children: Mary, Anna (Mrs. Oliver Huyck), Grace, Beatrice, Elton, and Albert and Richard, both deceased.