HMC Family Association

Turn right from Hopewell toward Wheatland.  Immediately after returning to the Lafayette Highway is the church (now Seventh Day Adventist) built by William S. Cooper’s son Enoch, who was a carpenter.  Charlotte Kirkwood attended this church in her later years. 

To the left immediately after the church, are two oak trees that are set back from the road. Here was where Charlotte and John Kirkwood’s home sat.   

Behind them lived Daniel B. Matheny.   

For more FAMILY HISTORIC SITES, click on the link below..

After his parents, Henry and Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt, died in1899, Adam Wesley Hewitt settled in the northern portion of their Donation Land Claim.  His home was set in a grove of oak trees, which came to be called Adam’s Grove. His brother  James Andrew Hewitt, farmed the southern portion. Adam married Cynthia Jane Pittman (1855-1932), one of the nine Pittman girls who attended the Hewitt School on his parents’ donation land claim with the nine Hewitt boys, on July 21, 1872. He bought out James Andrew’s portion of the Hewitt Donation Land Claim.

“Adam built two different houses on his share of the old family Donation Land Claim.  The “old house” was still there as late as 1914. Marie Solberg thinks Adam built the new house about 1918;”  “For a couple of years Adam lived in Portland, where he worked for the Albina Fuel Company, probably hauling fuel,– information from genealogytrails.com, Family Records – Hewitt Family submitted by Don Rivara.

“Adam raised dairy cows and skunks. He sold the skunks hides and knew how to neutralize their odor.”
Uncle Adam- saw him a few times. Small man, good-natured, hardworking. His son Otis made a living training and racing racehorses. Uncle Adam learned how to deodorize skunks, raise them to market size and skin them and sell the hides. Raised a few cows, selling some cream.
Saw him just once, only a few minutes, probably when I was five years old. –Jean Kerr [Henry and Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt>James Andrew Hewitt>Sylva Hewitt Kerr> Jean Kerr]

Excerpt from “The Reunion” by Elma Hewitt, President Emeritus

“The Children of Henry Hewitt and Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt decided twenty years after the deaths of their parents in 1899 they should keep in touch.  They decided to meet each year. ”

Reunion in the Oak Grove at Adam Hewitt’s home on the Henry and Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt DLC.

“When the reunion started, it was held at the old family home of Henry and Elizabeth, and then at Adam Hewitt’s home which was part of the Henry Hewitt donation land claim and a little north of Henry and Elizabeth’s home.  (There is a monument on Wallace Road where the house was located.)  Now there are a few oak trees left around Adam’s house and a couple of other houses have been built in the area.”

Past Reunion minutes show the Reunion was held in the oak grove at Adam Hewitt’s home in 1925, 1926, 1927, and 1930.

To see more FAMILY HISTORIC SITES, click on the link below.

The park’s monument entry in Oregon’s historic inventory

provided by Merrilee Johnson

Aerial view of the park. It is the wooded area in the center between farm fields. The road across the highway leads down to the Matheny Ferry (Wheatland Ferry).

Maud Williamson State Recreation Site is a family historic site, not just because it is partially on the Adam Matheny Donation Land Claim, but also because our Reunions have been held there since the mid 1940s.

Excerpt from “The Reunion” by Elma Hewitt, President Emeritus

“Jasper Hewitt (a dentist in Portland) was the first president I remember and he was it for a long time.  The next president that I remember was Roy Hewitt, a son of James Andrew and Mary Jane (Rose) Hewitt.  In his tenure the reunion had to find a different site.  From 1939 to 1941, they tried the city park in Dayton and later Champoeg State Park but neither of them were suitable.  When Maud Williamson State Park opened, the reunion moved there and has been meeting there ever since. It is on the Adam Matheny donation land claim so it is part of the family roots.”

Reunions were not held for a couple years during World War II.

The park also has its own history, not related to our family, although the Williamsons were presumably neighbors to the various members of our family who lived in the area.

Description of the park