The Three Guerin Houses of Hemlock NY

A Historical review by Joy Lewis, the Richmond NY Historian.

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Click image to enlarge.

The three-acre piece of meadow on the west side of Route 15A changed hands several times before 1870 when Silas Thurston sold it to Charles Guerin. The Guerin family came to Livonia early in the 1850s from Seneca County, settling east of Livonia Center before relocating to Main Street in Hemlock around 1867. Jared Guerin, his two brothers William and Oscar, and his sons Charles and George, were blacksmiths and wagon makers.

The rectangular piece of land was divided into four equal lots of ¾ acre each. The northernmost portion (4485) was the site of the forge. This parcel did not have a dwelling until about 1928. On the other three lots owned by the Guerins were built in 1872 three modest houses. These houses are quite similar to one another: each features a gable-front on the north side, with a wing on the south. Over the course of many decades cosmetic changes have been made to the exterior of each house, but the basic structure may still be discerned.

The Guerin House at 4478 N. Main Street Hemlock NY

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The Guerin Homestead

at 4478 N. Main St. in Hemlock NY.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Morgan 2007.

The southern-most of these three houses was built at the same time as its “sisters.” In the 1870s it was the home of Jared and Mary Guerin. Jared had been born in New Jersey but came with his parents to Seneca County, New York, before he was five years old. He came from a long line of blacksmiths and wagon makers and he continued in that tradition. He married and fathered four children: two sons and two daughters. Both his boys and a son-in-law, Alanson Moffit, joined him at the forge. In 1867 Jared’s whole family moved to Livonia and three years later to Hemlock. They set up a blacksmith shop on one quarter of their property and built homes on the other three lots.

When, in the late seventies, Jared’s son George sold his house and moved to another house in Hemlock, Jared and Mary also sold their place and moved in with George and Eunice. Margaret Crae paid nine hundred dollars for the house. She did not live here but was an absentee landlord. In 1890, following her death, the house was sold for a mere fraction of its worth, simply to pay off her debts. At auction William Waldron paid $550 for the house. He continued to rent it out, as he lived in a house near the corner of Adams Road. He kept it for six years before selling the house in 1896 to Abigail Becker.

Abigail (Cochran) Becker was a thirty-seven-year-old widow, the mother of a four-year-old daughter, Vera, when she bought the house in the spring of 1896. Her late husband, Willard Becker (1832-1894), was a cousin of John Becker, Harrison Becker’s grandfather. After the death of his wife Lucretia (the mother of his three grown sons) Willard and Abigail were married in 1889; they lived in Richmond. When Willard died Abigail and Vera moved to Hemlock, where they lived for seven years. About 1902 Abigail married Silas Hann and they moved to Eaton County, Michigan, where her father and many of her siblings already lived. In April 1903 she sold the house to her cousin, Ellen Childs.

Ellen and her husband Orville owned a home in Hemlock, so they quickly sold this one to Jacob Milliman (of Richmond), who promptly resold it to Lillie Reed. She kept it only a year or so before selling it to Lucy (Briggs) Purcell. Lucy owned several houses in Hemlock which she rented out. She kept this one for fifteen years, renting it to various tenants, including Thomas Fogerty in 1910 and Floyd Colgrove in 1920.

When Lucy died in 1919 her son George inherited the house. He sold it in 1926 to Floyd and Lena (Purcell) Coykendall. For a number of years they rented the house to Floyd’s cousin Frank Coykendall. Frank and his wife Estella were in their early thirties and lived here for about eight or ten years.

Between 1947 and 1950 the house was sold twice — both times as investment property — before Tony and Sally Muscato bought it in the summer of 1952. Mrs. Muscato and two of her children live there still.

On A Personal Note

I went to Hemlock School from first grade through sixth grade. Every year we had two classes in each classroom, with one teacher. In the even numbered grades - two, four, and six — Patty Muscato was in my classroom, as she was a year behind me. Her sister Sally was the same age as my sister Wendy; they were both in the class behind Patty (two years behind me). The Muscato family were members of St. Michael’s Church in Livonia Center, as were we. Patty, Sally, Wendy, and I were sometimes part of the Christmas season choir.

When I was in Junior High the class had an assignment to interview a public official. I interviewed Mr. Muscato, who was the local Justice of the Peace. Such a kindly man he was, glossing over my ignorance and filling me in on just what a JP does.