Randolph County, Indiana
John Hawkins
Standing for upright manhood and progressive citizenship, John Hawkins, long one of Randolph county's active agriculturists has been an influential factor not only in the material welfare of his community but also the moral welfare of the same. He is one of the gallant boys in blue," having fought for his country’s honor in its hours of direst need in the great rebellion of the sixties. He comes of an old and highly esteemed Hoosier family, the genealogy of which is traceable to the earliest period in the history of this section of the Middle West, the Hawkinses having braved the wilds of the same a decade before the commonwealth was organized, for it was over a century ago that our subject's grandfather established his log cabin home in the wilderness here, amid wild beasts and scarcely less wild men, this country still being the undisputed domain of the Indians.
John Hawkins was born near Richmond, Indiana, September 18, 1836 and is thus past seventy-seven years of age. He is a son of Nathan and Sarah Hawkins. Nathan Hawkins was born in Wayne county, Indiana, April 15, 1808, and was a son of John and Lydia (Comer) Hawkins, who emigrated to Indiana in 1806. John Hawkins entered three hundred and twenty acres of land in Wayne county, and began the development of a farm. He also engaged in the saw mill business, and there he prospered and was a prominent man among the first settlers. His death occurred in 1859, at the age of eighty-two years. He at one time owned a large tract of land which he divided up among his children. He was a member of the Society of Friends, was an Abolitionist, afterwards a Whig and later a Republican. His children were Tamar, Sarah, Nathan and John.
Nathan Hawkins was reared in the usual manner of pioneer farmer lads and like his father followed agricultural pursuits in connection with the operation of a saw mill. He was successful in a business way, and the last years of his life were spent in retirement in the city of Richmond, where his death occurred July 14, 1890. He was married in 1829 to Sarah Wright, who was born in Wayne county, this state, in 1811, and was a daughter of Elijah and Susanna (Hoover) Wright, natives of North Carolina. The family numbered ten children, named as follows: William established his home on a farm in Illinois; Eliza, who married Daniel Comer, is deceased; Lydia married C. Terpening of Arkansas; John, of this review, was next in order of birth; Henry became a leading citizen of Lynn, this county; Eli is deceased; Jennie married J. Burgoyne; Allen remained in Randolph county; Charles is deceased; George became a citizen of Richmond, Indiana. The mother of the above named children died October 10, 1867, and in 1873, Nathan Hawkins married Minnie Long, by whom he had two children, Belle, who married O. Quigg, of Lynn, Indiana; and Omer, of Richmond. The second wife died in 1884. Nathan Hawkins became owner of two hundred and fifty acres of land in this county and other valuable property. Politically, he was a Republican and he was a member of the Society of Friends.
John Hawkins grew up in his native community on his father’s farm, and he received a meager education in the old-time schools. He enlisted in January, 1862 in Company I, Fifty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in which he saw much hard service and proved to be a faithful defender of the Union. He fought in the great battles of Shiloh. Stone River, Missionary Ridge and Chattanooga. In the last named battle he was wounded in the right arm and side and in the left breast by bullets and on top of the left foot by a shell. He was in the hospital two months, and was honorably discharged from the service in September, 1864. He returned home and took up general farming and stock raising in which he was very successful and which he followed until he retired from active life in 1901. He lived many years in Darke county, Ohio where he still owns a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and he also owns forty acres in Randolph county, Indiana.
Mr. Hawkins is a Republican. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Religiously, he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. He has filled all the offices in the Grand Army of the Republic.
Mr. Hawkins was married in January, 1865, to Martha Jessup, whose death occurred May 3, 1913. She was a woman of beautiful Christian character and proved to be a most faithful helpmeet. Five children were born to our subject and wife, named as follows: William H., of Bradford, Ohio; Sarah B. is at home; Charles N. lives on the home farm; John E. lives at Ashtabula, Ohio; and Oliver N. who lives in Lynn, this county.
Past and Present of Randolph County, Indiana, 1914.
Contributed by Gina Richardson