In 1836 George Hewes (my grandfather’s grandfather) and his wife, Sara Ann Avise traveled from their home in Swedesboro, NJ to Quincy, Illinois. Traveling with them were Sarah’s parents, Jesse Avise and his wife, Ann Louderbeck.
Until that time the descendants of William Hewes 1, lived in the area of the Delaware River including Chichester, originally called Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania and Ouldman’s Creek, Pedricktown and Swedesboro, New Jersey from first settling there in 1675 until 1836.
Dutch colonists renamed the settlement as “Marrites Hoeck” after they conquered the area in 1655. The name is derived from the word Hook, meaning promontory, or point of land projecting into the water and Marcus, a corruption of the name of the Indian chief, called Maarte by the Dutch, who lived at the Hook.
Some English settlers had migrated to Marcus Hook from Burlington and other West Jersey hamlets, but most arrived in 1682 and 1683. Within six years, the English predominated enough to have the area’s name changed to “Chichester†after the Sussex town from which the most influential citizens had emigrated.
Before leaving their home in Swedesboro they buried their infant son, William. There is no record of how they made the trip but some suggestions exist in the journey of other settlers and in the history written by Matthias Avise, their eldest son.
Settlers moving west at that time (1836) used the “National Road” later the PA Turnpike to reach Pittsburgh, PA.
The National Road, in many places known as Route 40, was built between 1811 and 1834 to reach the western settlements. It was the first federally funded road in U.S. history. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson believed that a trans-Appalachian road was necessary for unifying the young country.
Pittsburgh, on the Ohio River, offered a river route to Illinois. Settlers traveling west could board a steamer or paddle boat and continue to the junction of the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois. At Cairo those going north could continue on the Mississippi to Quincy, Illinois. Quincy was named for President John Quincy Adams and became the seat of government for the county named for him as well, Adams County.
In an account by my great grandfather, his parents ” landed in Quincy” in 1836 and proceeded to Payson, Il, fourteen miles south. It was there that George Hewes and his wife Ann Avise settled and it was there that my great grandfather was born.