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A potpourri of stories about various family members or events, written by others and edited by me.
Hibbard History - 1971
[This is an item that my grandfather Jesse Hibbard wrote (and typed) in 1971 (age 77). My (Al) role was to first transcribe it, next to add corrections or clarifications [within brackets], and then to add links to people connected to me (that gives more information), links to give more information about places, and for those mentioned but not connected, I sometimes added links to FamilySearch.org.]
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Hibbard History -- 1971
Transcription
J.E.H. 8/8/71
Most of the information on the Hibbard family was given me by Claud [Claude] Hibbard, of the Paleontology Dep't at Ann Arbor.
The family were in the salt business in N.E. England. A son, Robert, was given a tract of land near Salem, Mass. and settled there in 1635. His first wife raised 9 children, the second raised 6, and according to Claud we are all descended from the sons among Robert's 15 children.
My grandfather, Hiram Horatio, was born N.H. in 1817. He married Drusilla Grimes (whose mother was a Bixby) of Sharon, Vt. She was born in 1815. They lived in Northern New York where Hiram worked in a saw mill and the family had a small farm.
They came to Minn. in the spring a 1871 and bought the land and built a house on the present day farm of Mike Hartmann.
Howard H. Hibbard (1854 - 1932) was the youngest of 5 children, 3 girls and 2 boys.
Your great great grandfather [Hiram Horatio], born 1817 in N.H. must have been like some of the present ones. One spring about 1835 he took a rifle and a blanket and started out to see a big city, Montreal. To find it he went N.W. to find Lake Champlain and followed it north eventually getting to Montreal. He worked now and then to eat and got home in October.
His oldest son Herman when the Civil War ended came west to see the country for a couple years, then went home and talked the family into moving out here. They came here in March 1871, and bought the land where Mike Hartmann now lives and built a nice house, they had $2000 in savings, which was a lot of money in those days. The old man had worked in a sawmill at Moira and saved all his money, The family had lived from and on their little farm. They had some sheep and used the wool, homespun and home woven, to make their clothes.
One little tale handed down about Drusilla Grimes, born 1815 -----one summer day they put her on an old horse (she was 7) with a 1/2 sack of shelled corn to go to the mill to get ground. There was a little creek to ford which normally was very shallow, but while she was at the mill a very heavy rain fell and the miller knew it would [be] a roaring torrent for a few hours,--this was in the mountains of Vermont--so he wouldn't let the little girl go home until morning, and it seems the parents understood how it situation was, and were not perturbed.
My mother, Rose Ann Doran, was one of 5 little girls, and when she was about 88, one day she told me that when she was real young her mother had 2 black girls to help take care of the kids. Her mother died when she was about 10, and shortly after an aunt and husband took her along to California by way of ship to somewhere in Central America or possibly the Canal Zone, then across to the Pacific by mule train that hauled tourists and then by ship to San Francisco. They stayed in California about 2 years, then a year in Oregon, then came to the Middle West on the third trans-continental east-bound train. This must have been in 1869. This uncle of hers is something of a mystery to me - how did he get the money to travel so much - was he a professional gambler...... The aunt and uncle must have been 35 - 40 at that time, or less.
Published 2025-06-25. Revised 2025-07-06.
If you find any error(s) in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]
Hibbard History -- 1969listing of family stories by Jesse Hibbard Incident #1