Elizabeth was the oldest daughter of the eight children of Mary Cooper and Daniel Matheny. She was born 26 March 1823 in Owen County, Indiana, and moved with her family to Illinois in 1827 and then, in 1837, to Platte County, Missouri. There the very pious “Lizabeth” met young Henry Hewitt, whose family had arrived in the area two years after the Mathenys. The young couple married 25 February 1841. Henry had a brother, Adam Hewitt, who crossed the plains to Oregon in 1842 and was one of the fabled men at Champoeg who voted for the Provisional Government. (His name is on the monument at Champoeg.) Henry had wanted to accompany his brother in 1842, but he wanted his in-laws, Daniel and Mary Matheny, to accompany him and Adam. Daniel could not ready his family to leave so quickly, saying “Henry, if you will wait till next year, I will sell out and we will all go.” [Fred Lockley column “In Earlier Days,” 6 March 1918, Oregon Journal, based on an interview of Charlotte Matheny Kirkwood.]
The winter of 1843-44 was spent in a one-room cabin on the Tualatin plains near present-day Hillsboro near Elizabeth’s parents’ family. The Hewitts’ cabin had been built for them by Henry’s brother, Adam Hewitt, who had come to Oregon the previous year. — From Genealogytrails.com, submitted by Don Rivara
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