Benjamin Hawkins

    Benjamin Hawkins is a native of Butler County, Ohio, and was born October 28, 1813. He is one of six living children in a family of nine born to Levi and Mary Hawkins, natives, respectively of South Carolina and Georgia, and of English and Welsh descent. The grandfather of Levi Hawkins emigrated to America before the Revolutionary war, and settled on the James River in Virginia, where he embraced the Quaker religion. He afterward settled on the in South Carolina, where he passed the remainder of his life. His son, the grandfather of the subject, being opposed to slavery, emigrated into Ohio in 1805, where he afterward died. Levi Hawkins and family removed to Tippecanoe County, Indiana, where he and wife died in 1833 and 1826 respectively.

    Benjamin Hawkins' education was only such as was afforded at that early day. In October, 1834, he married Elizabeth Lett, who died September 28, 1848, leaving five children, four of whom are yet living. His second wife, Mrs. Sarah (Baugh) Jones, to whom he was married in 1849, died in 1875, leaving him three children, all living in Fowler. He and his present wife, Sarah A. (brown) Hollingsworth, were married in April, 1878. Mr. Hawkins after aiding his children to a considerable extent still owns 180 acres of land in Benton County, besides good town property in Fowler. He was first a Whig, but became a republican in 1856. For twelve consecutive years, beginning in 1856, he has served as one of the Commissioners of Benton County. Although reared a Quaker, he has for the past forty years been a member of the M. E. Church. Three sons served their country faithfully in the late war, two throughout the entire rebellion, and one, a year, the latter being discharged for disability.

Source: Counties of Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton, Indiana. Historical and Biographical. F.A. Battey & Co., 1883.