Minutes of the 2014 reunion of the Hewitt-Matheny-Cooper Families
The meeting was called to order by president Barbara Kerr. She introduced the board members:
Merrilee Johnson, co-president with Barbara Kerr
Barbara Kerr is serving as secretary until position is filled
Louis Rodge is treasurer
William McKinney (Isaiah Cooper, Jr) from Seattle
Coral Hewitt Nolan (Jasper Hewitt) not able to come from Pennsylvania
Shilah Bauer not able to attend due to having a National Guard drill
Elma Hewitt, President Emeritus
Don Rivara, Historian emeritus not able to come from California
Barbara thanked everyone that helped set up, especially Mike Layman, our park coordinator who reserves the park and pays the fee. Mike also sets up the tables and brings all the sports equipment and kid games. He has a broken ankle this year so we need even more help in cleaning up and packing equipment into his trailer.
A thank you to the Arne Young family for bringing a pinata for the 6th year!
A special thank you was given to Elma Hewitt who has done so many tasks including the photo display, the family book sales and picking up the albums every year. She has retired from her role and traded in her many hats for more time golfing.
Melissa Jones Clark Gomez is now in charge of the family albums, picking them up and returning them to the Yamhill County Museum in Lafayette and entering the new information you provide on the Family Group forms as well as any that Don Rivara or the Yamhill County Museum collects.
A thank you to Mark Fery who is not only the photographer but also the new Webmaster for the HMCFamily.org website.
A thank you to Brad Kerr for running the Daniel Matheny Hewitt Two Hops and a Jump Challenge. There are age categories: Under 5, 5-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 50+
A thank you to Brent Kerr for being the auctioneer. Brent is working on improving our auction process this year and asks that when you win a bid, you stand up and say your name and family branch. Louis, our treasurer, will then be better able to keep track of who won what.
A census was taken by family branch, Hannah Shipman helped take the count:
Hewitts: Ann Eliza, Daniel, Adam, James Andrew, Isaiah, Mathew, Jasper, Lorin. Henry had
descendants past his one grandchild. Horry had no children. 27 attending.
Mathenys: Daniel Boone, Adam, Isaiah, Mary, Jasper, Charlotte. Elizabeth married Henry Hewitt so all of the Hewitt members are her descendants. 9 attending
Coopers: Mary, Rachel, Enoch, William S., Isaiah Jr., John 7 attending
The people lost this year were Bonny Bauer Payne, in November. She was the oldest of Sylva Hewitt and Henry Kerr’s 23 grandchildren.
Olive Merry Johnson (James Andrew Hewitt)
Winnie Davies, wife of Walt Davies (James Andrew Hewitt). She was born in a log cabin in Arkansas.
Obituaries should be sent to newsletter@hmcfamily.org
Attending for the first time are Jenny Shipman and Bentley Brazil, 9 months old (Isaiah Hewitt). Also attending for the first time are Gary and Donna Halvorson, son in law of Walt Davies and John Miller, friend of Walt Davies. The oldest descendant at the reunion was Kay Kerr at the age of 89 (2-2-1925). Also acknowledged was the 100th birthday of Jack Green in Austin, Texas in June. A card was sent around to sign to send to him. To our knowledge, he is the first in the family, other than spouses, to live to be 100. The farthest traveled were the Halvorsons from Rapid City, South Dakota and Kerwin and Linda Kerr from Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Roger Shipman asked that a new category be added; the number of generations removed from the original family. His grandson, Thomas Snyder is a member of the 7th generation.
The treasurer’s report, given by Louis Rodge, shows that there is a balance of $6,288.31.
It was moved by Hannah Shipman and seconded by Joanne Shipley to approve the minutes of the 2013 reunion be accepted. Passed by majority.
FAMILY COMMUNICATION
Newsletter Don Rivara has discontinued his email family history newsletter. We hope that is temporary and that he will bring it back as a complement to the website. Please be sure to write your email address on the list at the registration table if you did not receive his email newsletter. The more email addresses we have the more chance he will start it up again. Mark will be putting all of Don’s emailed stories that do not include personal information about living persons on the website. We are hoping that Don will still be adding new ones. There are some hard copies of Don’s newsletters on the Books table.
We are still looking for digital copies of the first two. Did anyone save them electronically?
Don estimated that the number of emails we have is 25% of what we have on the postal mail list. If you did not receive a newsletter via email, be sure to put your email address on the list at the registration table even if you think we already have it. We may have an address that is out of date for you. Include email addresses for any of your family members who would like to receive the newsletter. If we have enough email addresses we may be able to save enough money to send out a smaller, less frequent newsletter for those who do not have computers or family with computers.
Hannah Shipman volunteered to be the children’s page editor.
POSTAL ADDRESSES Also, check the list of postal addresses that the post office said were unforwardable to see if there is someone on it that you may know.
Mark Fery is the webmaster for the hmcfamily.org website. Bryan Kerr has been helping him. When he gets it all figured out he will be looking for volunteers to help with the postings. Send your notices, articles, family information and pictures, etc. to newsletter@hmcfamily.org or Don at donrivara@att.net.
FACEBOOK [Melissa will give report] John Carlisle created and is hosting our family Facebook page. It is at HMC Family. There are several with similar names. Look for the one that includes John. It is a closed group so you have to be accepted as a member to participate. Make your request with your family connection and John will get back to you with the permission quickly. Then you can start communicating with family members. 38 names so far. John was not able to come today, but reported via Facebook: Anyone can add information if I authorize them. Anyone that is currently on list can be authorized to add new group members. Any group member can post information i.e., stories, family announcements, etc. But I do need more people that are willing to allow others. I am trying to work out a cloud access where we can maintain a living family tree so to speak and could use some input from others on this also. Thanks, John
ANCESTRY.COM Reminder that Don has put much of the our genealogy inc. pictures on Ancestry.com.
ELECTIONS
It is the Cooper’s turn for elections this year. Both Louis and Bill have said they would like to be
reelected. We do still need Mathenys. The other four of us on the board are Hewitts. As you remember, we filled vacant spots with Hewitts because no Mathenys were coming forward and we all are descendants of Coopers and Mathenys. Merrilee and I were sharing one spot (one vote). So if there is anyone who is a Matheny but not a Hewitt who would like to be on the board, you can be elected this year and Merrilee and I could go back to sharing one vote.
Roger Shipman(Matheny descendant) volunteered for the board and was elected by majority vote.
| Election Year | Hewitt | Matheny | Cooper |
| 2010 Hewitt year | Barbara/Merrilee, Bonny | Joanne Shipley, Dan Matheny | Louis, Christine Cranmore |
| 2011 Cooper year | Barbara/Merrilee, Bonny | Louis | |
| 2012 Matheny year | Merrilee/Barbara, Bonny, Coral, Shilah | ||
| 2013 Hewitt year | Merrilee/Barbara, Bonny, Coral, Shilah | Louis, William | |
| 2014 Cooper year | Merrilee/Barbara, Coral, Shilah | Louis, William | |
| Results of the Two Hops and a Jump contest
0-5 |
No entries |
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| 6-10 | Carson and Hallie Kerr both jumped 12 feet
Sean Young and Emma Walls jumped 11 feet |
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| 11-15 | Hannah Shipman 15-½ feet
Luke VonHeeder 16 feet |
||
| 15-20 | Scott Davidson 20 feet
Kent 15 feet Bella 11 feet Luke Shipman 28-½ feet |
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| 21-30 | Mark Fery 16 feet | ||
| 31-40 | Scott Fery 11 feet | ||
| 40+ | Brad Kerr, Roger Shipman 17 feet |
OTHER WAYS TO PARTICIPATE We are looking for someone to manage the book sales. It involves taking requests for sales via snail or email and mailing them out, delivering them to Champoeg or any other organization that requests large orders, and having them copied at a copy store as necessary, and manning the book sales table (or finding someone who can) at the Reunion. We have set up an email address for orders familybooks@hmcfamily.org.
There was a re-enactment by some volunteers from Champoeg of a few stories from the book “In the Eye of the Setting Sun”. They were entertaining and interesting.