Historcial ties

Abstract

The National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots is a genealogical society in which a person is eligible to join only if they can follow their surname in an unbroken line back to an ancestor who participated in the American Revolution and back further in the same unbroken line to a founder who settled in what is now the U.S. before 1680, said Joy Jacoby of Hastings, the unofficial family historian.

Khristine Elliott

The Enquirer

Joseph Hewes isn't one of the most well-known signers of the Declaration of Independence, but he's got a built-in fan base in Calhoun, Branch and Barry counties.

Hewes represented North Carolina at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia; amassed a fortune through a shipping business in Wilmington, N.C., by the time of the American Revolution; and was the defacto first Secretary of the Navy, according to the Independence Hall Association's ushistory.org Web site. Born in Princeton, N.J., in 1730, he went on to graduate from Princeton College. He served the Congress as the secretary of the Naval Affairs committee until 1779, when he became ill. He died later that year at age 49.

Hewes never married and never had children. His fiancee died days before their wedding, according to a genealogy Web site for relatives of Hewes.

But Hewes' congressional and personal legacy are still alive today on the most American of holidays: Independence Day. He was one of the 56 people who signed the Declaration of Independence, making him one of the founding fathers of the United States of America.

On a personal level, several residents of Battle Creek, Marshall, Hastings, Sherwood and the Burlington area are distant relatives of Hewes.

"We're kind of proud of Joseph," said Wanda Gard of Marshall. "We just wish we could talk to them - all our ancestors."

Gard is one of 14 area women who are distant relatives of Hewes and members of the National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots. There are other women who live in Calhoun, Branch and Barry counties who are relatives but aren't part of the organization, Gard said. Several Burlington-area men also are distant relatives of Hewes.

Some of the area residents are first cousins, six times removed of Hewes, Gard said. The men's surnames and the women's maiden names are Hughes. The spelling from the original "Hewes" varied over many generations.

The National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots is a genealogical society in which a person is eligible to join only if they can follow their surname in an unbroken line back to an ancestor who participated in the American Revolution and back further in the same unbroken line to a founder who settled in what is now the U.S. before 1680, said Joy Jacoby of Hastings, the unofficial family historian.

Jacoby discovered her family's connection to Hewes several years ago while doing a genealogical search. She wrote a book called "The English Ancestral Family and American Descendants of William and Deborah Hewes of Ouldman's Creek Plantation, Salem County, New Jersey, and of Marcus Hook, Chester County, Pennsylvania." Published in 1999 by Heritage Books Inc., it includes information about Joseph Hewes.

On Wednesday, 13 of Hewes' distant relatives, including Gard and Jacoby, gathered at Barbara Welcher's Battle Creek home to talk about their family ties to a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Every year since 1998, the Hughes clan has held a family reunion in late July in the Burlington area. Last year, about 70 relatives attended, said Robert Hughes 0of Burlington.

Jacoby said she gets goose bumps every time she sees the Declaration of Independence in Washington DC. She first saw it in 1988, and she and her husband visit the nation's capital every other year.

"It was very exciting for me," she said of the first time she saw the document, years before she found out her connection to Joseph Hewes. "When you think of what the men that supported that, the dangers that they took to sign that ... A lot of those men took just really great chances, lost their holdings to fight for it."

Ward said she and her relatives are even prouder of being Americans since finding out about their relationship to Hewes.

The family's interest in its own history has even trickled down to the youngest members. Christopher Woodward, 13, of Concord, grandson of Clarence Hughes of Burlington, said he saw a copy of the Declaration of Independence in Lansing a few years ago. But now that he knows he's related to one of the signers he said he wants to go to Washington D.C. to see the real one.

Welcher said she would like the public to know that Joseph Hewes was a patriotic, honest and trusting man.

"He was exceptionally patriotic and very sincere in his belief that America should be self-governed," Jacoby said.

Khristine Elliott covers news and Neighbors features. She can be reached at 966-0675 or [email protected]