My great-grandfather, Franklin Hassard, was the offspring of a well-to-do, very WASP family whose ancestor, Michael Hassard, a Puritan, emigrated from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635.
Not surprisingly, Franklin's family was not thrilled with his marriage to an Irish woman who'd only recently come to America. I suspect her last name -- Furey -- may have given them pause, as well.
In about 1880, Franklin and Mary moved across the continent to a little town some 20 miles north of Seattle called Mukilteo, which overlooks Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound. Several years earlier, my great-great, grand uncle, Samuel Hassard, had moved to Mukilteo from Oahu where his ships chandlery had gone out of business with the collapse of the Pacific whale trade because of the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania.
In his new town, Sam was mayor, sheriff, judge and owner of the town's one store. Franklin and Mary took over some of his duties. While in Washington, they had four children, all boys, one of whom was my grandfather Harold. In 1892 or so, they "visited" Franklin's family in New York. I'm not quite sure exactly what happened, but apparently Mary flatly refused to return to the tiny, remote village of Mukilteo. With the great economic collapse of 1893 as an incentive, Franklin's parents, William and Cornelia Hassard, then went to Mukilteo and took over some of Sam Hassard's work.
They stayed there until their deaths and are buried in the town's pioneer cemetery. Even today, one of the town's central streets is named "Cornelia Avenue."
