Henry Younger Matheny (1800-1849) was the son of Isaiah Matheny and Rachel Younger. [His brother, Daniel Matheny, married Henry’s wife, Rachel’s, sister, Mary Cooper.] Henry and Rachel Matheny(1803 – ) married in 1822 and had a DLC in Hopewell.
“In the spring of 1844, Rachel and Henry settled at what is now Hopewell, Yamhill County, Oregon, against the Eola Hills. When the first death occurred in the area, because their claim lay on high ground, Rachel and Henry donated a portion of their land as the local cemetery,…” It is the Hopewell Cemetery.
Henry died of camp fever in the California gold fields, along with some other members of the family.
“The 1865 personal property tax list shows that Rachel owned or produced that year 2 tons of hay, 40 bushels of apples, 2 hogs, 7 horses, 16 cattle, 10 bushels of potatoes, 100 pounds of butter, 70 bushels of wheat, and 100 bushels of oats. She had twenty acres under cultivation.”
“In 1876 Rachel sold her farm for $5000 to her three Layson grandchildren.”
“Rachel had been the last of her generation of the family left in the Willamette Valley. Her brothers Enoch and Bill had moved to eastern Washington and her brother Isaiah to the Midwest; the rest were dead. She was buried in the cemetery on her own land, next to Mary and Daniel Matheny. In 1932 a monument honoring Rachel as the donor of the cemetery at Hopewell was erected at the cemetery. Her grandnephew, Dr. Jasper Hewitt, read her biography at the dedication.”
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