REUNION MEMORIES: Minutes of Our First Reunion, and Our First Constitution – 1919

July 19th, 2009

“1919 The first annual reunion of the descendants of Henry and Elizabeth Hewitt was held at the old home place on July 12, 1919.  Seventy- five members of the family were present, forty-seven of whom were lineal descendants.  The sons present were H.H., A.W., J.A., I.C., M.C., J.L. and L.L.*

Some of the Hewitt Brothers - 1919

Some of the Hewitt Brothers – 1919

After a morning spent in visiting, all gathered round the long table spread under the maples and partook of an elaborate banquet.

During the afternoon an organization was formed and the following constitution was adopted.

Name, : “Tribe of Hewitt”

Membership All persons who are lineal descendants of Henry and Elizabeth Hewitt, who came to Oregon in 1843, wives or husbands, shall be members.

Officers, The officers shall consist of president, secretary, and executive committee. The president shall be the senior living son, and after all the sons shall have been deceased the presidency shall then descend in order of the senior living lineal descendant.  The secretary shall be elected annually and shall serve until his or her successor shall have been selected and qualified.  The executive committee shall be appointed annually by the president and shall serve until their successors are appointed and qualify.

It shall be the duty of the executive committee, with the assistance of the secretary to arrange for and notify all members of the organization of the time and place of the annual meeting and to assist the secretary to make and keep all necessary records and to make and keep a family tree.  It shall further be the duty of the secretary, at the death of the president, to immediately notify the next entitled to the presidency under the constitution.

Henry Hewitt of Albany, the oldest living member of the family, was made president, and Inez Hewitt was elected secretary.  The president appointed as an executive committee to arrange for the next meeting, Jasper L., Early E. and Roy R. Hewitt. -Inez Hewitt, Secretary

*Henry Harrison, Adam Wesley, James Andrew, Isaiah Cooper, Mathew Cresswell, Jasper Lewis, and Lorin LeRoy.  The only daughter, Ann Eliza, had died in 1893.  Daniel Matheny Hewitt died in 1915.  Horry Wilbur Hewitt was not present.

Newsletter and Website Update, July 2009

July 19th, 2009

PRINT MAIL: Been noticing anything different in the newsletters lately?  To make better use of our volunteers’ time, we are trying out having our postal newsletter printed and mailed by Duncan Business Services in Loveland, Colorado.  Vicki Duncan is our registrar Sylvia Fiscus’s stepdaughter and she has been in business for ten years.  The cost of hiring Vicki’s business is greatly offset by the fact that she can meet the US Postal Service’s regulations, including the fee, for us to mail bulk mail and by her access to all forwarding addresses registered with the Post Office so we are not paying for undeliverable newsletters.  Plus, as more family members choose to receive the newsletter via the website, our print mailing list of over 500 addresses will decrease as will the costs.

It took us some time to make this transition, but now that we have, the process will go much faster and can be done by family members around the country.  Nancy Matheny Nasim, in California, is our print newsletter production editor and webmaster.  Barbara sends her the articles from Oregon, she puts them on the website and lays out the print newsletter and sends it off to Vicki in Colorado – all electronically.

Nancy has been working non-stop to set up the systems for both media.

If you are not getting your copy of the newsletter, contact registrar@hmcfamily.com with your name and address, to make sure that we are up to date.

WEBSITE We are now the first entry when you Google hmcfamily.org!

Remember, with a website you can email us links to sites of interest to the family and public notices and articles about family members.  We can also include a lot more pictures.  And information can be posted immediately.

Nancy is setting up the website pages so that they can have individual editors.  Royse Kerr, in Texas, who created our original Hewitt-Matheny-Cooper website, will be managing the Hewitt Page.  Nancy has started the Matheny Page, and a Cooper editor is needed.  Anyone interested?

With the many ways we will now be able to share and learn about family and our heritage between members across the country, comes the challenge of protecting personal information.  The council has developed a privacy policy that is posted on the website.  It will be a developing document.  If you have questions or concerns, please email Barbara at council@hmcfamily.org.

Finally, be sure to let us know if you want to receive the newsletter by postal mail, just email notices telling you when the website is updated, both, or neither (you can check the website without notices).

Minutes of the HMC Family Council Meeting, May 30, 2009

July 19th, 2009

Present: President Barbara Kerr, Treasurer Louis Rodge, Secretary Joanne Shipley, Christine Cranmore, and President Emeritus Elma Hewitt.

Absent: Shilah Bauer and Rae Ann Nelson.  Shilah reports that she is resigning from the Family Council at this time.

Meeting was called to order.  Letters from Ken and Helen Kirkwood, Olive Merry, Don Rivara and Mel Moss were received.

Minutes of the November Meeting were read and approved.

Treasurer reported a balance of $4,966.15 as of 3/24/2009.  The accountant has filed the annual form 990.

Discussion continued regarding receipts for future donations for the silent and oral auctions, and donation cans at the reunion.  We need confirmation from the State of Oregon regarding our tax-exempt status.  Louis is following up with phone calls to Dennis and Dan Matheny and to the State of Oregon to see if we can obtain the original paperwork.  Cost to file would be $30, if we can’t confirm previous paperwork.

Newsletter: Next edition will be available on the website.  Please send us your email address!  Printed copies will also be mailed, unless members indicate that having them on the website is good enough.

Elma will call Barbara with additional email addresses from the Reunion sign-in books, so everyone can be notified that the newsletter is available on-line.

New and changes of addresses need to go to our new Registrar, Sylvia Fiscus at registrar@hmcfamily.org.  She will keep all current contact information.

The possibility of bulk-mail is being investigated.  One member of the family will offer an estimate of costs if she does it through her agency.  If we can get a copy of the filing with the State of Oregon for tax-exempt status, we may reduce the cost substantially.  More information to come.

Historian: To maintain privacy, historian, Don Rivara, will keep all family records and lineages at historian@hmcfamily.org.

Communications: If you wish to contact one of the council, please use one of the following addresses:

council@hmcfamily.org (Barbara Kerr),
secretary@hmcfamily.org (Joanne Shipley),
treasurer@hmcfamily.org (Louis Rodge),
Elma@hmcfamily.org (Elma Hewitt),
registrar@hmcfamily.org (Sylvia Fiscus), and
historian@hmcfamily.org (Don Rivara).
Your email will automatically be forwarded to the correct person.

Website: Please let Barbara Kerr know if you have any trouble getting into the website.
An on-line tour of the area will soon be available – see upcoming information for ways to use it, and to add to it from your family’s archives.

Publications: Elma has some beautiful illustrations for Into the Eye of the Setting Sun.  They will be incorporated into the copies that will be available at the reunion.  There was discussion about how to recognize or reimburse the man who did them.  No decisions yet.

Discussion continues about publishing Into the Eye of the Setting Sun.  Christine will speak with her mother, and Elma will speak with Julie Jones, in order to collect more information about the history of the work.  Mel Moss has found newsletter references to Ruth Stout working on it extensively with Julia Jones.

2009 90-year Reunion Celebration:

Mike has reserved our regular site with the shelter.

Brian Hewitt will be auctioneer.  Louis will be cashier and clerk.

Readings, singing, food and photography are all on the schedule.

Please bring your little “I remember” booklets, or email a family story to secretary@hmcfamily.org so we can add current family stories to our memories.

Elma is requesting each family to bring old photos on poster board, with labels, to be displayed on the walls of the shelter.

The council adjourned, with great thanks to Barbara for all the planning and research she has done in preparation of our coming celebration.  Next meeting will be at the Reunion.

Respectfully submitted,   Joanne Shipley, Secretary

Treasurer’s Update

THE AUCTION This year at the reunion the oral auction will be monitored by the treasure to help insure the person who wins the item is identified and receives the correct item and the correct dollar amount is collected.
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RE: NONPROFIT STATUS The Hewitt-Matheny-Cooper Family Association is not a “non-profit” or a “not for profit” classified organization.  Therefore donations to the H-M-C Family Association are not tax deductible.  We are in the process of filing/declaring a “not for profit” status with the IRS.  However, we will not be a “charitable” organization and donations will still not be tax deductible