Hughesville, Walking from Mt. Morris to Detroit, My CUZ Daniel O'Connell and the Abolition of Slavery
St. Patrick's Day passed as March whistled through the Midwest with mere hints of Spring flowers and temperatures. I often think about my Irish Heritage at this time of the year. I found myself looking over records and photos of relatives and remembering stories I heard growing up. The Hughes' showed up in Michigan in the 1830's and settled in Mt. Morris which became known as Hughesville . I didn't discover the cemetery behind Mt. Morris' St. Mary's Church until I was in middle age---it was full of Hughes graves. The Church itself contains stained glass windows donated by various Hughes ancestors. When I visited Ireland in 2008 with six of my first cousins, we found our cousin Kathleen Hughes Doherty east of Dublin; she toured Mt. Morris with us a couple of years later. She was floored by seeing all the graves and windows in St. Mary's Mt. Morris and marveled that: "Here's where all the relatives came when they left Ireland before The Great