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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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History of Mason County, Michigan
H. R. Page & Co., Chicago; 1882

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         RICHARD HATFIELD, one of the sturdy pioneers of Mason County,
     was born at Gailon, Wayne Co., N.Y., July 15, 1826.  His parents
     were natives of Massachusetts.  When about fourteen years of age
     Richard began driving on the Erie Canal, and continued that occu-
     pation for three seasons.  He was then employed as steerman, and
     in the Winter season followed hunting and trapping in Ohio.  He
     ran on a freight packet out of Buffalo for one season, and the
     following Winter spent at hunting.
        In the Fall of 1850 he hired out to come to Pere Marquette to
     work about the mill.  He landed at Pere Marquette the 19th of
     November, 1850, and worked through the Winter--driving team
     most of the time.  The following Summer he spent boating on the
     Erie Canal, but returned here in the Fall, and that Winter he
     hunted and trapped.  He also made several trips to Muskegon
     on foot, and brought back packs of goods to sell to the Indians.
     November 12, 1854, he was married to Miss MARY CASWELL, daughter
     of BURR CASWELL, who settled here in 1847.  Mr. HATFIELD had
     boarded at Mr. CASWELL'S, and worked some of his farm.  In 1855
     he bought eighty acres of land, at 75 cents an acre.  The land
     was covered with Indian "sugar bush," and the first time he saw
     the tract was when he went to see the Indians make sugar.  In
     October, 1855, he put up a log house, sixteen by eighteen feet,
     and began keeping house.  He continued hunting and trapping during
     the Winter season until 1878.  In 1870 he began a new frame house,
     which was finished in 1872.  He was a great worker, and rapidly
     improved his farm, setting out fruit-trees, and in a short time he
     became noted for the excellence and abundance of his fruit.  Four-
     teen children were born to them, five of whom are still living.
     Mrs. HATFIELD died in May, 1882.  She was a most excellent woman,
     and in their pioneer life had been a help-mate in the truest sense.
        Mr. HATFIELD still lives upon the farm he first purchased.  It
     is situated in Pere Marquette Township, and is one of the best farms
     in the county.  He is still a man of great vigor, and it authority
     upon all matters of early history relating to this region.  For
     many years he kept a diary of events, and possessing a clear and
     retentive memory, he is a comlete encyclopedia or record and
     reminiscence.
     
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