Biography - Samuel Hawkins
Samuel Hawkins, a member of one of the earliest settled in Douglas
county families and a soldier in the Civil War, was born in Pickaway county,
Ohio, October 12, 1836, and is a son of John Hawkins who was born in Loudoun
County, Virginia. His mother, who was Margaret Cassady, was also born in
Virginia. In October, 1851, Samuel's father, with a family of several sons,
came and settled in what is now Douglas county, two miles and a half
southwest of Newman. After he had located his children urged him to enter a
large body of land which he could have done at one dollar and twenty-five
cents an acre, but it was his opinion at that time that the prairie land
would never be settled, and consequently he did not do so. But later on he
bought a farm of seventy-two acres along the Brushy Fork timber, where he
resided until his death, November 10, 1880.
Samuel Hawkins remained on a farm in Ohio until he arrived in Douglas county with his father. He has twice been married, the first time on October 23, 1858, to Miss Elizabeth, a daughter of Robert Hopkins, who emigrated from Pickaway county, Ohio, and settled in Newman township before the Hawkins family, and by this marriage he has two children living: W.S. and Mrs. Mary E. Busby. His first wife died August 12, 1866. In 1870 he wedded Miss Elizabeth, daughter of William Hopkins, who was a brother of Robert, and was among the pioneer settlers in what is now known as the Hopkins and Hawkins neighborhood. Mrs. Hopkins is a grand-daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Winkler, who came to this county at a very early day. Both died in 1836, and were among the very earliest buried in the Albin cemetery. Mr. Hawkins by his second wife has two children: Eva B., wife of Harrison Hawkins, and Luther B., unmarried.
On July 30, 1862, our subject volunteered in the Seventy-ninth Illinois, and became a corporal in Company E., W.A. Lowe's company. Mr. Lowe was an old and prominent early settler in Newman township, and for him the Newman Grand Army post was named; before the end of the war he became lieutenant-colonel. Mr. Hawkins was at the battle of Chicamauga, but was captured the first day of the fight and was sent to Richmond and later to Danville. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Masonic fraternity, and the Wesley Chapel Methodist church. He owns eighty acres of land and is one of the substantial and highly respected citizens of Newman township.
Extracted by Linda Lang from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, pages 176-177.
