Hathaway-Hess Farm
The Hathaway-Hess Farm originated as the homestead of Jonathan Owen Hathaway, who migrated from New York to Oakland County with his parents in 1830. In 1861 Hathaway and his wife, Marcy C. Dewey, acquired an eighty-acre parcel of land in Waterford Township. In 1902 Hathaway’s granddaughter Myrtle Hathaway married William Hess, an early investor in the Fisher Body Company. Following William’s retirement in the 1930s, the Hesses devoted their lives to the family farm. Here they operated a successful dairy known as the Lone Cedar Farm, and raised champion sheep and Jersey and Hereford cattle. Myrtle Hess died in 1985. She bequeathed the family farm to Waterford Township and stipulated that the land be used as a park. In 1989 Waterford Township dedicated the Hess-Hathaway Park.
Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDigital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library
Marker data: Michigan History Center
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