Oregon Pioneers

My g-g-g-grandfather Daniel MATHENY and my g-g-grandfather Henry HEWITT were on the 1843 wagon train. Daniel MATHENY was one of the leaders of that train. Henry HEWITT wrote in his grandaughters book that he drove the first wagon that ever came down the western slopes of the Blue Mountains.
I was in Brownsville OR and ran into this book: Portrait and Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley pub 1903: Judge Henry Harrison HEWITT The father of Judge H H HEWITT (Henry HEWITT) was born in Huntingdon, Huntingdon Co PA 19 Nov 1822, and when he was 16 he moved to Platte Co MO with his family. A mountaineer chancing to pass by the lonely and isolated farm of the Hewitts discoursed glowingly upon the advantages in the far northwest, and young Henry lent an ear to his accounts, and eventually inspired others with faith in the remote western country. At a public meeting he securred the signatures of a number of the prominent settlers of the locality, the majority of whom withdrew after promising to make ready for the proposed journey. At best the project was a hazardous one for no wagon train had as yet penetrated the limitless tracts of the plains, and the chances of reaching the desired goal. Nothing daunted, the young man persevered in agitating the plan which accentuated his limitations and made his days and nights restless with uncertainty. He finally succeeded in getting together a party which included Messrs APPLEGATE, BURNETT, MARTYN, LENNOX, WALDO and many others, as well as Captain MATHENEY one of the central figures in the first great emigrations towards the western sea. Captain MATHENEY was one of the settlers of Platte county with whom the HEWITTS became acquainted soon after removing there, and his daughter Elizabeth finally became the wife of young Henry HEWITT.
The book also had a section on Jesse APPLEGATE. It said that he was on the 1843 wagon train and spent the first year at the Methodist Mission near where the Wheatland ferry is located.
submitted by Walt Davies, in Monmouth, OR

"There are numerous references to the HEWITT family in the Oregon Historical Society Quarterlies as well as the following publications [all are available in the genealogical room at the Oregon State Library]:

• Henry HEWETT (b 1847), in History of Oregon by Carey Vol III p 152-153.
• Henry HEWITT(b 1822) in History of the Pacific Northwest Vol II p 371-372, portrait in Vol I; and History of the Willamette Valley by Lang p 895.
• Henry H HEWITT (1846) in History of the Willamette Valley by Clark, Vol III p 643-644; in History of the Bench and Bar p 153; and in Portrait and Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley p 400-402.
• John D HEWITT, in History of Southern Oregon by Walling p 513.
• Louis P HEWITT (1883) in History of the Columbia River Valley by Lockley Vol II p 529-530.
• Theodore P HEWITT in Portland Oregon, Its History and Builders by Gaston Vol II p 9-10; and in History of the Bench and Bar p 153 portrait.

7/18/97 from Stephenie Flora

back to 1843 Pioneers home page visitor #

updated: 1 January 1999