LaFreniere’s Store changes hands and becomes Rafferty’s General Store, 1977

Locator map: Beaver Island highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago — Took place at Beaver IslandLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.

Event

Date: circa 1977-10
Kind: Business
Where: Beaver Island
Eras: Modern era
Concepts: economycommerceheritagecommunitycommunication
Within: Beaver Island

Summary

The October–November 1977 Beaver Beacon reports that Dick’s or LaFreniere’s Store would become Rafferty’s General Store under Harriet Rafferty, Kathleen Rafferty, and Rick Speck. It also sketches the store’s history from James McCann through the LaFreniere family.

Evidence and limits

This is a newspaper business transition and retrospective history, not a deed, license, ledger, or complete ownership chain.

Sources

Beaver Beacon, October–November 1977, “General Store Changes Hands.”
Reports that Dick’s or LaFreniere’s Store would become Rafferty’s General Store under Harriet Rafferty, her daughter Kathleen, and son-in-law Rick Speck. It gives a newspaper history of the store from James McCann through Mike and Annie McCann, Nels LaFreniere, and Dick and Patrick LaFreniere, but does not provide deeds, licenses, ledgers, or a complete ownership chain. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1977-10_Beaver-Beacon
Beaver Beacon, October–November 1977, held issue PDF, source scan.
The held eleven-page combined issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the store transition and retrospective history.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1977-10_Beaver-Beacon

Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “LaFreniere’s Store changes hands and becomes Rafferty’s General Store, 1977”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-raffertys-general-store-1977/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, October–November 1977, “General Store Changes Hands.” (and 1 further source listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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