Why Michigan?

I have always believed than my ancestor, LaFrancis Elmer Hackett (1839-1920) was the reason why I was born in Michigan. (Before I started Genealogy, I thought it was the auto industry as to why I was born in Michigan, when after 1910 the cars brought up my great grandfather, Orla Arthur Tellis, who was a pattern-maker and did things with Chrysler). I thought LaFrancis Hackett came to Michigan because of the Homestead Act of 1862, as Michigan was a heavily forrested State and had a very small population, and LaFrancis was poor after the Civil War and could make some money in rural Gratiot County, Michigan where he died in 1920.

LaFrancis Hackett came to Michigan following those family members who came before him! When you do genealogy you tend to find that families move together, very seldom moving away by themselves, no families moved somewhere else as they usually had family there before them, advising them what a great place it would be to move to and start over.

LaFrancis' grandparents Steven Sabin and Hannah Wood moved to Michigan in Hillsdale County between after late in the 1830s, they brought with them, Bethany Fuller Wood (1764-1848) Hannah's mother and wife of Revolutionary War soldier, Levi Wood. Steven Sabin and Hannah Wood have two burial grounds, one in Michigan at Churches Corner, in Hillsdale County (they died in the 1850s) and the second graveyard, now located in a golfcourse in Columbia Township, Lorain County, Ohio. Perhaps Stephen Sabin is buried in Churches Corner, Michigan and Hannah Wood Sabin is buried in Columbia Township, Lorain County, Ohio. Either way, there are duplicate headstones for each of them at each cemetery. Bethany Fuller Wood is buried in Churches Corner, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

So this could be one reason why LaFrancis moved here after the Civil War. I found him in the 1870 Michigan Census living in Van Buren County, Michigan. I couldn't find any family around him on the 1870 Michigan census, but his sister, Emily Hackett Osborn lived south of him in Berrien County in the 1870 Michigan Census. I've known this information for years, but recently I discovered that the family of LaFrancis' wife, Susannah Warner, were here in Michigan as early as 1870, living in Shiawassee County. Samuel Warner (1812-1905) and Amanda Reed (1818-1890) were left Ohio sometime between 1860 and then moved to Shiawassee County. Samuel Warner is supposed to be buried in the same cemetery where his brother, Lemuel Warner is buried in Elsie Village Cemetery. But I'm not certain where Amand Reed is buried. Is it somewhere in Shiawassee County. I have to find out. Shiawassee County is a mere 20 miles or less from where I live and I would like to find, very much so, where Samuel is buried and that of Amanda's grave. I can go to Gratiot County and see the graves of LaFrancis Hackett and Susannah Warner, but where are her parents? I must find out!