GED4WEB version 4.41 Hawkins John Henry [Male] b. 11 AUG 1841 Bedford County, Virginia, USA - d. 28 DEC 1926 Axtell, Marshall, Kansas, USA
[wwspiers-erickson.GED]
John Henry was born to Fountain and Celine Hawkins in 1841. His parents were farmers in Bedford County, Virginia. John grew up amongst a large network of family members. Relatives lived and worked in Bedford for generations, and his uncle George bought a farm right next to his parents. Some of his relatives were fairly well off and employed a number of slaves. John was a laborer on his fathers farm until the Civil War, when he enlisted in the Confederate Army. He once told his grandson, Claude Walter (Sr.) that he should join the Navy instead of the Army because in the Army you spend all your time knee deep in mud. John was a member of Battery A, 10th Batallion Captain- Tyler C. Jordan. Known as the Bedford Light Artillery. This company was organized in Liberty, Bedford County, Virginia on January 23, 1861. The muster roll lists J.H. Hawkins as a . There were no remarks next to his name on the muster roll. After the war, he returned to Bedford. His father died a few months after the war's close. John bought many items from his father's estate, as is recorded in the Inventory List and Estate Sale papers filed with the Bedford County court. It is unknown at this date where John farmed, it is possible he remained on his fathers land. Two years later he married Mary Jane Hurt. They began their family with a son, William. Shortly after his birth the newlyweds moved to Missouri to farm. The tough economic times following the war and the tense atmosphere in Virginia at the time drove many Virginians from their home state. Confederate states were treated poorly by the Union government. In Missouri, they lived in Buchanan County, near the infamous Jessie James. John Henry was noted to have said he thought Jessie was a good fellow, drove to crime by the railroads invasion. It is also said that they left Missouri in a hurry and it had something to do with the James'. This story was told by John's grandson, Claude W. Hawkins Sr. many years later. The true story is lost in time. In Missouri, he employed a farm hand from Virginia. He is listed on the 1880 Census as a carpenter. Upon leaving Missouri, they settled in Kansas to again, farm. There they lived and worked the rest of their lives. After John and Mary's son, Walter, shot himself, after a flood of Cottonwood Creek, the elderly couple were entrusted with the care and upbringing of their grandchildren. Claude Sr. was one of those children. He has noted that John was a very strict, cold man. He was apparently difficult to live with. John's wife died in 1921, and John, in ill health and despondent, committed suicide on December 28, 1926. The death certificate lists the cause of death as Suicide by shooting in the right temple with a 32 revolver. He shot himself in the kitchen of his home in Axtell, Kansas. He was 85 yr. old. Some people say he always blamed himself for the death of his son, Walter. John is burried at Rose Hill Cemetary in Kansas. Services were conducted at the Methodist Church by Rev. M. Thorne. His brother, Spotswood was said to still be living in Good View, Virginia at the time of John's death.
It has been noted that John Henry always slept with a shotgun over his bed. A left over habit from his days on the farm in Virginia, I'm sure.
In a photo taken in late 1800's or first few years of the 1900's, it shows John as slender man with a full beard and mustache. His hair is kept very short. It is grey but it appears as if it had been brown. (His eyebrows were thick and still rather dark). His wife, Mary was rather petite with dark brown hair.
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