Mary Lewis (Hulet)

This is for cousin Lorie Rawson Shreve :)  She asked the question, "Do you remember Cindy, Darlene's daughter told us we have native american in our line? Do you have anything to cooberate it?"  No, I do not remember being told that, but the answer is YES!  Our 5th Great- Grandmother (4th Great-Grandmother to my aunts and uncles) who was 1/2 Mohawk Indian.(Sorry Lorie, I think I told you Delaware Indian)  It is through her history that this is found.  This is the line (sorry, I will try and make a pedigree at some point to show this better.

Mary Leona Dalley---William Sylvanus Dalley---Catherine Melissa Hulet---Sylvanus Cyrus Hulet---Charles Hulet---Mary Lewis---Jane Tryphena---Josnorum Scoenonti (Running Deer) and Squaman (first name thought to be Charles)

Mary Lewis (Hulet)

My 4th Great-Grandmother

Birth Date: 3 Apr 1763
Birth Place: Lee, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States
Parents: Francis Lewis and Jane Tryphena
Death Date: 6 Mar 1835
Death Place: Clay, Missouri, United States

 

Spouse: Sylvanus Hulet
Marriage Date: 1786
Marriage Place: Lee, Berkshire, Massachusetts

 

 

Sorry, no picture on her. She died in 1835

 

Mary Lewis was born about 1762 (possibly in New York, Mohawk land) and later lived at Lee, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

 

She was the granddaughter of Josnorum Scoenonti (Running Deer) and Squawman (perhaps Charles). Mary’s parents were Francis Lewis and Darker Mother, Jane or Tryphena. Mary Lewis married Sylvanus Hulet about 1786. He was perhaps 28 years of age and Mary about 24 years of age.

 

Sylvanus Hulet was a Revolutionary War Veteran of two campaigns, against Bourgogne in 1777 and Arnold, who burned his home town in South Connecticut in 1780. According to his Military Record, at age 20, Sylvanus was 5 feet 10 inches tall and of a dark complexion.

In June 1782, Sylvanus' father, John Hulet transferred land to him. After the war was settled, Sylvanus, with his two brothers John and Samuel, moved and set up a blacksmith and wagon-making shop and a mill in the edge of Lee township, against Tyringham township, Berkshire, Massachusetts.

Of note, at the close of an earlier war, known as King Phillip's War, around 1676, the whites in New England enslaved many Native American women and children. Few records were kept of their descendants.

 

In his book "Before and After Mt. Pisgah", Clare B. Christensen, on pages 29 and 30, tells an interesting background of Mary Lewis, as does also Howard R. Driggs in his book "Pitch Pine Tales" (dated 1955).

Quoting from Clare B. Christensen: "Running Deer was a lovely Indian girl living with her tribe in an Indian Village in the western part of Massachusetts or along the Mohawk River in New York, which runs from Lake Oneida on the west to near Schenectady, north of Albany, into the Hudson river. White men came exploring. Some of them married Indian women. So it was, that Running Deer married a white man. They had children. Then, one of Running Deer's daughters married a man by the name of Lewis, who had a daughter, Mary Lewis. When the dark haired, dark eyed Mary was a girl, her even darker mother took Mary to an Indian village. One of the Indian women gave Mary an Indian dress, another gave her moccasins, others gave gifts. Mary never forgot her visit with her kindred."

 

Mary Lewis and Sylvester Hulet’s daughter, Sally Hulet visited with her Mohawk Indian relatives about 1814 in New York state, while on her way from Massachusetts to Ohio.

In 1814, the Hulets' moved from Lee, Berkshire, Massachusetts to Nelson, Portage County, Ohio. Sylvanus died there ten years later, on November 10, 1824.

 

The remaining Hulet family members were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October, 1831. At that time they moved to Independence, Jackson County, Missouri.

October 31, 1833 they were driven north across the Missouri River into Clay County by mobs. In 1836 they moved north into Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri. Early spring 1839 they moved to Melrose in Lima township, Illinois, about 30 miles south of Nauvoo and in the fall of 1845 mobs drove them into Nauvoo. In 1846 they were driven into Iowa, finally coming to the Salt Lake Valley with the Saints.

 

Mary Lewis died March 6, 1835 in Clay County, Missouri, at about 73 years of age, during
the time of heavy persecution. She is buried at Nelson, Portage County, Ohio.