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Family Stories
A potpourri of stories about various family members or events, written by others and edited by me.
Aunt Margaret Visits
[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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Aunt Margaret Visits
Transcription
My aunt came to visit us yesterday, Sept. 27, 1911, from N. Dakota (Sheldon). Mrs. Ed Pierce, wife of Senator Pierce. Very wealthy. Has "interstate" auto. Apprised me of fact that the son of one of my female cousins, I believe, is a West Point Cadet. Third Year. Ralph Sacy [Sasse] is his name.
Comments
The following are comments on what Jesse wrote. Usually, comments should be much shorter than the piece that is being commented on, but this has a lot of explanations that are needed.
The "aunt" in the opening sentence is one of Jesse's mother's younger sisters, Margaret Doran; click on the link above to see more details about her. Her husband, Edmund Pierce, was a lawyer in Fargo and also a North Dakota State Senator for a number of years. [Click on his link above, for him.] They were married in 1903 because she became the postmistress of the town of Sheldon, N.D., where he lived at the time. They started wintering in Florida and established a fruit company there. Soon, they had two lives and homes and went back and forth. Edmund died while taking the train between the two places, having had a heart attack (or a similar issue) in Chicago.
I am guessing that the "interstate" car that the aunt mentioned was that it was capable of being driven long distances. Note that it was about another 5 decades before the federal interstate system was initiated. She drove it from ND to FL, a long distance for cars in those days. However, as clarified in another writing of Jesse, her chauffeur drove them.
The "female cousin" that Jesse mentions is Nellie L. (Ella) Comegys, who married George W. Sasse. Her mother was Mary Ellen Doran, the oldest sibling of Rose Doran, and Mary married Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Comegys.
In the description of this writing of Jesse, I mentioned that I wished that I had read this writing before Sylvia told me that West Point student, athlete, professor and football coach Ralph Sasse was a relative of ours. She had thought that her father, Jesse, had told her this.
When I researched Ralph Sasse, I found that his mother's maiden name was Comegys, and I also found her parents (i.e., Mary Doran, but Doran was not used). However, I could not connect this Comegys family to the Doran family, which was the only candidate I had, since I knew that they had lived there in Wilmington as well. Part of the problem was that I only had one record for this oldest child, Mary E. Doran, and that was in the 1860 census.
For Mary E Comegys, the grandmother of Ralph Sasse, I could not find any records online. No marriage record for her, no 1870 census, no 1880 census, and of course no 1890 census since they were mostly burned. She died in 1894, before the 1900 census, but the death record did not include her maiden name, or her father's name. So, starting with Ralph and going up, I could not make a connection to the Doran family.
Likewise, starting with Mary E Doran and trying to go down, I could not find any records on the internet, not even the 1870 census when she would have been 18. So, I gave her up as having died between 1860 and 1870 (even though I could not find a death record). Also, I knew that Jesse had made some mistakes with his mother's parents' names. Thus, after doing the searching I did, I told Sylvia that I couldn't find any evidence for how Ralph Sasse was connected to our family. I told her that he could be connected, but I could not find any evidence.
However, in December 2011, I met Marcia in Florida after she had been there since her step-mother Gladys had died. We drove to visit Karen, and on the way back to the airport, we stopped in Winter Haven, FL. That is where the "aunt" at the beginning of this short note had lived her last days and died there in 1948. I obtained the relevant pages of her will at the courthouse there and was shocked to have learned that Rose Ann Doran had a half-sister and a half-brother. I soon did research on those members and found that this half-brother, William Doran (later changed to William Mullin), was born after his father (with the same name) died, but also that he had a daughter (Virginia Mullin) who was born in 1923.
Upon further research, I found contact information for Ginny and then made arrangements for a visit in 2015 when I had a meeting in Washington, DC. While there, I did some local research, including going to the courthouse and finding the will for William Doran from 1887. Among his daughters was Mary E. Comegys. After more visits to the local libraries and genealogical centers, I put all the pieces together and kicked myself for telling Sylvia my conclusion. I immediately called Karen and humbly apologized for disappointing Sylvia.
Published 2025-08-26.
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