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COL. BENJAMIN HAWKINS 1754-1816
Born to Col. Philemon Hawkins and Delia, daughter of Zachariah Martin. Benjamin was a senior at Princeton when he was selected by Gen. George Washington as French interpreter on his official staff during the American Revolution. Later he became a congressman from North Carolina, then was appointed agent for all Indians south of the Ohio in 1796 and served in that capacity until his death in 1816 at the Agency Reserve on the Flint River. Col. Hawkins was not among strangers in Taylor County, North Carolina land records show him living near the Glover family in North Carolina. This same Glover family would later live in Crawford and Taylor County Georgia.
The Indian Reserve, a five square mile area with half being in Crawford County and half of it in Taylor. Col. Hawkins residence was on the Flint river in Crawford and he was buried on a bluff overlooking the river near where the present Col. Hawkins Bridge is located. A faithful servant was buried at his feet. Boy Scouts placed an appropriate marker on his grave donated by the D. A. R.
Col. Hawkins was called the beloved man of four nations, the Creeks, the Cherokees, the Choctaws and Chickasaws.
In 1812 Col. Hawkins sent for his common-law wife,to come to the Agency to be with him. She was the daughter of Isaac IXJwns, dispatch rider for Col. Hawkins, who was stationed at Ft. Wilkinson. Hawkins married Lavinia, 1782-1828. He made a naming his wife and their children. Jeffersonia, their youngest child, was born about 1815 after the will had been made. Jeffersonia was not named in the will and when probated in Jones County in 1816, a legal battle ensued. Jeffersonia married Francis Bacon who came from Boston and founded the town of Francisville on the Crawford side of the Agency around 1825. It flourished until railroads were built in the area in the early 1850 s and it gradually became a dead town. After the death of Francis, Jeffersonia married Dr. J. C. Harvey.
Children named in the will were: Madison; Georgia and Caroline who died without marrying; Muscogee mar. Christopher Kizer and Bagnell B. Tiller who left her Cherokee married Lewis Lawsha; Virginia b. 1810 married William A. Carr b. 1803 Captain in the Creek Indian War of 1836, Stewart Co., in which he was accused of ordering his men to retreat without sufficient cause and they roved to Yalobusha Co., Miss. William A. was the son of Henry Carr who mar. Mary IXJwns, 1783-1851, also a daughter of Isaac IXJwns and a sister of Lavinia who mar. Col. Hawkins. (See the Carr Family in the 1900 Census of Taylor Co.). Gen. Hawkins widow went into business with John Buchanan and lost her share of Hawkins I estate. Lavinia died 1828 and was buried at Ft. Hawkins, Macon, Ga., her grave is unmarked.
Source: Will of Col. Hawkins, Taylor county records, Tarried in Taylor, North Carolina land records
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