General Notes :

1844 Jan 7:" Richard Hyde Hewitt born in Illinois Jan 7, 1844. His parents, Jarusha (Parker) and Richard Hewitt Jr. lived at China Creek, 10 miles south of Nauvoo, Hancock, IL.

1844 Jun: Rebecca Hewitts Journal said they "lived on Chaney Creek
about 10 miles from Nauvoo."

1844: Richard Hewitt's lived on China Creek about 10 miles from Nauvoo
Thence to Iowa--to Texas. SeeLDS Church Hist Vol 2 pg 731-733.

1846 Jan 28: Richard Hewitt family still in Nauvoo area.
and still in Nauvoo area 28th February 1846.

1847 July 9: "Arriving at Tahlequah (Okla.) they (Richard Hewitt family) found work immediately. Bishop Miller stopped in Indian Territory about five months, during which time he held meetings in his home and later in the court house at Tahlequah. This caused jealousy among the sectarian missionaries, and in December 1847, Bishop Miller left Tahlequah, putting his contracts into the hands of his two companions, Kilting and HEWITT, and went to Texas."

1847: Rebecca Hewitt's Journal: " In the spring we started for
Texas but when we got to Tahlequah, (9 JUL 1847) Cherokee Nation,
Father rented a farm and we stayed in the nation over a year." (Rebecca is
Richard Hyde Hewitt's older sister.)

(abt Sep 1848) "We then went to Texas and lived one year on Cedar Creek
not far from Bastrop.
(1849) The next year we lived ten miles above Austin, Texas.
(1850) The following year we located on the Lampasas River five miles
from Briggs.* (*Briggs is close to present day Oakalla, Texas near the
Colo. River) Texas was very dry and Father did not like the climate."
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1850: Census in Travis Co., TX p 137-138.
House #64: Richard Heuit 56 m Farmer Ohio (OHIO??)
Gerusia Heuit 50 f NJ
Mary J 20 OH
William 16 Labourer OH
Leah Ann 15 Indiana
Rebecca 10 ?Indiana?
Richard 7 Ilenoy
Letty Ann 4 Ilenoy
Samuel Calburt 17 Laboure Miss
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(abt 1851/2)" We went from Texas back to Cherokee Nation where we
lived a year near Tahlequah and Father put up hay.
John Taylor who had also moved to the Nation from Texas cut timbers
for a sawmill with Father in the winter of 1851 and 1852."

"In the spring of 1852 we moved to McCoy's Prairie about fifteen miles
away, rented a place and kept a transit hotel and a corral for cattle.
Father was doing some freighting for there was always plenty of work
for him to do as all the natives liked him."

1852-Rebecca Hewitt said "We lived fifteen miles from Tahlequah ---
Richard Hewitt (father of Richard Hyde Hewitt) died 15 September 1852.
I was now twelve years old and fatherless, with one brother three years
younger, (RICHARD HYDE) a sister five years younger than myself
(LETTY), ONE SISTER THREE YEARS OLDER (that would be Leah Ann) and a brother six years older (WILLIAM)."

"Father died in September* and about the first of November we received
a letter from my sister Jane asking for some of us to come to Texas after
her. She was then at Hamilton's Valley about five or six hundred miles
away. Her husband had been called to Mexico and there was no means of
transportation for her in those days so my mother sent Will and I to get
her..
"There was a young man by the name of DOCKERY who proposed to assist
Mother in moving. So when we left for Hamilton Valley, Mother took a
trip up to Benton County, Arkansas and bought a small farm near where
the town of Gravette now stands but had not yet moved on the place.
She then sent Mr. DOCKERY to meet us."

Rebecca Hewitt's Journal continues: "We lived in Arkansas over two years. in 1856,the spring of, we moved to Kansas, near Atchison, or rather
between Atchison and Leavenworth. MY SISTER ANN MARRIED HARRISON DOCKERY BEFORE WE LEFT Arkansas so I was now the only girl at home." (So that marriage would have been about 1855/1856).

Later in the Journal Rebecca again says: "My sister ANN married
HARRISON DOCKERY the young man who helped Mother move, and they had gone to the Nation where a few Saints were living. My sister Jane had
been gone for some time before ANN and HARRISON left."

1857 "In about the spring of 1857 the Kansas war began and because of
the Jayhawkers* many desperate things were done. We left Leavenworth
and moved out west one hundred miles to Pottawatomie County, Kansas
where we made a claim. My brother Will broke up prairie and put in a
crop. Then in July (1857) he took my mother to where my aunt lived to
be doctored for cancer and he was going to help bring in hay for the
government at Leavenworth, Kansas. I was left with my little sister
(LETTY) eleven years old (b 1846) and BROTHER RICHARD, thirteen years
old to take care of the cows, hogs and to keep house. Think of a sixteen
year old girl staying alone with two children for three months, for my
brother RICHARD was so small one would not think him over eight or nine
years old. I was then in my seventeenth year. This was a newly settled
country with few houses built on the land. Our nearest neighbor was
three quarters of a mile away and MY SISTER ANN lived two or three
miles away. (1857-1858)
Our closest neighbors, Mr. Burtrum and his wife, were very kind and
when I got sick they took me to their house and cared for me a few days.
We had our horses to ride and ALMOST EVERY DAY WE WENT OVER TO SEE SISTER ANN but had to be at home every night to attend to our cows and hogs. We made two jars of butter and had them well packed so it kept
nice and when Mother came home we took it fifteen miles to market."
. . .
(1858) "When Mr. Adams had been at our house about a week, sister ANN
came over and spent the day. She said, "Becca, if you could only get such
a nice young man as Mr. Adams. But no danger of your getting him. I
guess you will have to take Abb." I said, "No, never. I do not expect to
try to get Mr. Adams. But as for Abb, we will never get married." For
after I had seen what a contrast there was between the two, I was fully
determined never to even go with Mr. Frisby again."

1860:Census of Pottawatomie, Kansas, pg 714
Rockingham Township, Post Office-Elden. pg. 62 9 sep 1860
Jerusha Hewit 50 f (60) 500 300 Ohio
RICHARD 17 m farmer ILL
Selby 14 m ILL going to school (gotta be LETTY a female.)
"Community of Rock Creek Valley was originally called Rockingham and
was located approximately where FLUSH is today in Pottawatomie Twp
and Pottawatomie Co." Riley Co. Gen Soc 1976 Pub.

1863: (John Adams) "and Mr. DOCKERY bought a ranch that was known as the Sand Hill Ranch two miles from the Platte River.* It was seven miles from Junction City, twenty-two miles from Fort Kearney on the Atchison Road leading from Atchison and Leavenworth, Kansas. Junction City was the junction of the two roads, the one already mentioned and the other leading from Plattsmouth and Nebraska City. This road ran two and one-half miles north of us. There was a ranch on this road about that distance from us which was the nearest house. . . . The next was Called Big Muddy. Here my BROTHER RICHARD (19) bought an interest."
*A note shows the property was in Dawson County north about two miles from the river and near the Buffalo County line.

1863 Feb 27: Letter to Pension Commissioner Wash DC from Manhattan Riley Kansas, Jarusha Hewitt died 8 Feb 1862 LEAVING 2 MINOR HEIRS... WIDOW NEVER DREW 120 ACRES BLW TO WHICH SHE WAS ENTITLED.

1863: WILLIAM (29) and bro RICHARD HYDE (19) began freighting from Marysville, KS to Ft. Kearney NE.

1864 Aug: His first venture on his own account was the operation of a ranch in NE where his property was destroyed by a roaming band of Pawnee Indians. ( Jennings News)

1864 Aug: William and Richard Hewitt put in claim for losses from Indian depredations "said to have been made on the Hewitt brothers ranches in Nebraska Territory in Aug 1864.....$10,000." (copy of letter in Hewitt notebook.)

1865: Rebecca's Journal: I went to Ft. Kearney to be married. (Rebecca is 24 years old.) Brother Richard (21) made us welcome for he liked the soldier boy who he now called brother. When Brother Will (31) came, he was now grown and said. "You have now married a soldier. You can lookout for no one."  I was so proud and indignant that I did not try to make any attempts to please him or explain. He took sister Lettie (abt 19) away to go to school and said he would bring his wife back with him. I helped to get Lettie ready and the day she left, little Rinda cried and would not be comforted as she dearly loved her Aunt Lettie. It seemed as if her heart would break.

(ABT 1865) "LETTY d at 18 years" according to Alice Dion family record.

1867: About the year 1867 he filed on a tract of land in Marshall Co, KS which he owned until 1894. ( Jennings News)

1868, Sept 22: Nancy Jane Strange, 17, marriage
to Richard Hyde Hewitt, 24, at Blue Rapids, Marshall, KS.

1868: . . married in Sep 1868 to Nancy J. Strange of Blue Rapids. . .two children: Wm S. Hewett of Jennings, OK and Hettie A, wife of W. H. Dexter of Home, KS, ( Jennings News)

1869: . united with the Baptist church about 1869. .( Jennings News)
1869: For (seven years) managed in the mercantile and hotel business in Marysville, KS, but in 1876 this property was destroyed by fire. ( Jennings News)

1870: Census Blue Rapids, Marshall KS
Richard Hewitt 25
Nancy (Strange) Hewitt 19 born in MO.
Wm S. 10/12

1873: Claim made May 5, 1873 to Senate and House by William and Richard Hewitt for losses from Indian depredations "said to have been made on the Hewitt brothers ranches in Nebraska Territory in Aug 1864.....$10,000." (copy of letter in Hewitt notebook.)

TO Do:
Find Richard Hewitt data on his wagon freighting from Marysville, KS to Fort Kearny, NE. Was he in partnership with Sam Saville?  Nancy Jane Strange's younger sister, Susan Strange md Sam Saville.
(Obituary of Sam Saville sent by g g dau, Jean Weber.)
"Came to U.S. in 1853. In 1859. . . to Blue Rapids, (KS). . .used to drive ox-teams across the country freighting from Marysville to Fort Kearney, NE."

1880: Census of Blue Rapids Twp, Marshall Co. KS
RICHARD HEWITT 36, farmer ILL ? ?
NANCY J. (Strange) HEWITT 29 MO VA MO
William S. 11 son at home KS IL MO
Hettie E. 9 dau KS ILL MO

a few houses away is:
STRANGE, ROLAND 53, farmer Va. Va. Va. pg 214
Matilda 50, and family

~1880 Census of Blue Rapids TOWN,
HENRY HEWITT age 19, born OHIO--- -----, without occupation.???
_______________________________________________

1895: Census of Blue Rapids, Marshall Co., KS.
R. H. Hewitt, 51 M, birthplace IL, came from IL, profession Restaurant.
Nancy J. Hewitt, 42 F, MO MO Homemaker
W. S. Hewitt, 25 M, KS KS Laborer
Hettie A. Hewitt, 23 F, KS KS Teacher

1895: RICHARD HEWITT & SON WILLIAM S. HEWITT filed on land in Jennings OK. William Slathill was 26 years old. Richard was 51.

TO DO! Get the rest of the censuses on this family. His two children were born in Blue Rapids in 1869 and 1871, so there should be a 1900, and 1910 and 1920 on them. Richard and Nancy Jane died and are buried in Jennings, Pawnee OK. Don't know when they moved there. Their dau, Hettie md in 1897 in Marshall Co. KS, so Richard/Nancy prob in KS till then.


1893: he moved to Blue Rapids, KS where he resided for two years. ( Jennings News)

1895 Apr 19: He and his son William filed on the farm at Jennings, OK which the family at present resides and where he remained up to the time of his death . ( Jennings News)

1921 Dec 30: Richard Hyde Hewitt Died, 77 yrs 11 mo 22 d .two children: Wm S. Hewett of Jennings, OK and Hettie A, wife of W. H. Dexter of Home, KS, all present at the time of his death. Funeral services at the Hewett home, after which the remains . . .in Jennings cemetery."( Jennings News)

1940 Aug 2: Richard's wife, Nancy Jane died- in Jennings.

1945: Snapshot-. "The Hewitt Home in 1945. It only had 2 rooms down and 2 up when they got it. Kitchen was a log room off to one side. The house has burned down and rebuilt now."
Comment: It looks like the snapshot taken in 1914 may have been on the porch of this house. Compare the two pictures. Was this house in
Jennings, Oklahoma?

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Living Descendant: Carol Minson <cminson@earthlink.net>