THE HAMMILL FAMILY

For the past sixty-seven years the Hammill Family has played an active le in the life of Lower Freetown School District. Mr. and Mrs. Patrick mmill arrived in 1904 from Summerside and purchased a farm of 130 es bordering on the Dunk River. They had eight children when they 'ved, four boys and four girls, and later three more girls were added. When ‘y'e family was growing up, Mr. Hammill took an active interest in the school to _ ere he served for many years as Trustee. He died in 1940 at the age of :r. ghty-six, and left three of his sons, Wilfred, Redverse and Austin established 1e , farmers in the district, and one daughter, Katie, married to Russel m cCarville, also a farmer of the district. The other son entered the 'esthood and became Father Thomas Hammill.

All the sons have now either passed away or retired, but the family nme is carried on by Austin’s son Leslie, who still owns 200 acres of land in le district and in addition operates sufficient land elsewhere to grow 400 . es of potatoes and 300 acres of barley each year. Following in the steps of his Uncle, Father Thomas, a son of Redverse Hammill is now parish priest at n racadie — the Reverend Father Preston Hammill.

THE MABON STAVERT FAMILY

In 1890 Mabon Stavert purchased a 140 acre farm in Lower Freetown I'm Isaac N. Schurman for $2699.00. Previously Henry Jardine had bought

3 863 this Stavert farm was owned by Charles C. Maxfield. Charles Maxfield married to Sybella Cairns, a sister of John Cairns, and they sold out in 1876 and departed for Western Canada.

When Mabon Stavert came to this farm in 1890, his possessions consisted of a team of horses, a single furrow plow and a set of spike knows, but by 1904, when the California Gold Fever was at its height, md he was lured to the sunny SOuth, his farm was well stocked with horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, as well as all the necessary implements of husbandry required for the successful operation of a farm, at that time. Ilr. Stavert rented his farm to Calvin Reeves, called an Auction Sale on September 30, 1904, with Artemas Farrow as Auctioneer, and disposed of , all his moveables. Then he and his family departed for California with , isions of riches on the horizon. As so often happens, the bubble burst and for a number of years, Mr. Stavert was foreman of a large cattle ranch in California. ’

‘ In 1914 he, accompanied by his son Jardine, now 21, returned to his farm in Lower Freetown. He brought with him his riding saddle, spurs and bridle. Walter P. Mabon’s grandson is now the proud possessor of these souvenirs. A story has it that Mabon feared that he had no room to bring his saddle, but found that by putting his clothes inside the saddle and cinching up the girth, he had more room than without the saddle, so it came too.

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