It all started with a Prince

In 1942, a 19-year-old woman left her small rural hometown of less than 400 people and boarded a train bound for Detroit, one of the busiest urban centers in America. The city was alive around the clock, its streets glowing with factory lights and the constant hum of war production. Her name was Lorraine Sheridan, and she was the youngest of six children of John and Pauline (Prince) Sheridan. And my mom.  A recent graduate of Fulton schools in Perrinton, Michigan she decided to head to the big city. She found work at the Lyon Manufacturing Company located at 151 South Waterman St along the waterfront. It had turned from making farm equipment to producing 40 mm cartridge cases. It was her first time in a big city — and her first time working the midnight shift. Inside the vast plant, the air smelled of oil and hot metal, and the noise of machines filled every corner. Mom worked six days a week in a relief position and would take over for other workers that were going on breaks. She ...

Isaac Graham was around 19 years old when he immigrated from Canada into Marion township, Michigan to join his older brother John in 1862. The two brothers had purchased land using funds that their father had supplied. Land was becoming too expensive in Canada, so he had sent them to Michigan to settle. Isaac's twin brother Charles had come with them, but after a bad winter and getting sickly from working in the woods, he decided to go back to Canada. Isaac purchased 80 acres in what became the town of Deckerville in Sanilac County, located in the thumb of Michigan. He cleared some acres, planted an orchard and built a small wood frame home. In 1871 Isaac returned home to Taylor's Corner in Victoria county, Ontario, Canada and there he married Charlotte Harmon on July 17th.  During the year of 1871, there was a severe drought that ran from the Dakotas, across Minnesota and into Wisconsin and also included the state of Michigan. Following lightning strikes in the Dakotas, fires ...

When Allison Wilcox started a well-drilling business in 1948, he never dreamed that three of his sons would become involved in the business.  Allison and his wife Margaret had seven children: James, Richard, Charles, Lyle, Ralph, Freddy and daughter Lucille.  Richard, my husband's uncle showed a marked interest is helping his dad in the family business. When Richard was a child, he was helping his dad with an injured horse, and his dad told him 'Go get me some rope Doc' and it stuck. From then on, he was always called Doc Wilcox. Many knew him for a lifetime and never knew his real name. When my husband Dan was in his early teens, he would spend his summers working with his Uncle Doc while staying with his grandmother (Margaret (Smith) Daly at Barnes Lake in Columbiaville, Michigan. Doc was married to Patricia Daly, and they had three children. Doc and his brothers Charlie and Jim each had their own individual well drilling businesses. Doc would pay him $14.00 a day. And if...