All available information indicates that George Hawkins was the first child born to Serena and William Hawkins of Talbot County, Ga., who were married on December 16, 1829. (The certificate of marriage was recorded in Upson County, Ga.)

Even though there is general agreement that Serena Millen's name was "Millen" and not "Miller," researchers should be certain to consider records that include pertinent references to individuals with the surname of "Miller." The 1834 will of Serena M. Hawkins's father, for example, was recorded in Jones County, Ga., under "George Miller." (The 1816 property tax digest of Jones County also shows "George Miller" and identifies him as "guardian for the heirs of Nancy Lacey.") Moreover, a newspaper notice published at least nine times in the "Southern Reporter" (between January and April of 1836) contains "George Miller, of Jones [C]ounty, deceased" and a reference to "Martha Miller, deceased" (George Miller's wife). The notice was posted by Tillman D. Oxford, executor of George Miller's estate. There are, also, the references to Serena M. Hawkins's sister, Winiford, that appear in Jeff Carter's "Ancestors of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter" (McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 42). George W. Carter (son of Eleanor Duckworth and James Carter), according to Jeff Carter, "married Winiford T. Miller on November 22, 1837, in Talbot County, Georgia." Winiford and George Carter were the parents of Georgia Ann (who married Thomas Beach) and Martha (who married Joseph Biggs). Both daughters were married in Talbot County.

Frances Waller, whom George Hawkins married in Talbot County in 1850 (Valentine's Day), was almost certainly his first wife. The license reports the groom's name as "George M.J. Hawkins." On the Talbot County census of that same year, in the entry that shows the two-person household of George Hawkins, his age is "19," and his wife's is "16." The census, which was taken in October, even indicates that they were married within the year, which is what Talbot County marriage records also reveal.

George Hawkins's wife is called "Nancy" on the census, which was very likely her nickname. Worth noting is the fact that both George and Frances ("Nancy") are also listed, separately, in the households of their parents, who were living in the immediate vicinity when the 1850 census was taken in Talbot County. Both George and Frances ("Nancy") are assigned different ages in the households of their parents (i.e., not the same ages that appear next to their names in their own household), probably as a result of the given informant's wish to dispense with the census-taker as quickly as possible--or simply data recalled differently by more than one Hawkins informant.

In the 1850 census of Talbot County, the William Hawkins household included the following members: William (age 44, born in N.C.), Serena (age 43, born in Ga.), George (age 20, born in Ga.), James (age 17, born in Ga.), Tilman (age 15, born in Ga.), Josiah (age 13, born in Ga.), Martha (age 11, born in Ga.), William (age 9, born in Ga.), Serena (age 4, born in Ga.).

In November of 1850, a son, William Tillman Hawkins, was born to Frances Waller and George Hawkins. William T. Hawkins died in 1917 (the year before his father died) and was buried in the Hawkins Family Cemetery (Hawkins Crossroads) in Talbot County.

George Hawkins married Mary Anne Elizabeth ("Polly") Brown in Meriwether County, Ga., on January 25, 1855. (The license, however, was purchased in Talbot County and is filed in that county.) One can safely assume that Frances ("Nancy") Waller Hawkins was dead at the time of George's marriage to "Polly" Brown. The only child of "Polly" Brown and George Hawkins, James Henry Hawkins, was born on February 29, 1856 (leap year). Known as "Jim," James H. Hawkins is mentioned in the will of his mother's father, William Brown, who died in Meriwether County ("The Cove") in 1884.

It is fairly certain, given oral tradition in the James Henry Hawkins family, that his mother, "Polly" Brown Hawkins, died shortly after her son's birth. She was probably buried in "The Cove," in the same Brown Family Cemetery (Meriwether County) that contains the graves of her parents and various other family members. Information concerning "Polly" Brown Hawkins's family can be found in Mary Gilbert's "Old First District of Meriwether County, Georgia, and Its People," a 1980 book based on extensive research conducted by Mrs. Gilbert over many years.

George Hawkins married Epsy (Epsie?) Caroline ("Carrie") Hough on September 13, 1857, in Union County, Ark. The Houghs, like George Hawkins and many others, had come "west" from Georgia; in fact, the Houghs had lived in Talbot County, where George Hawkins almost certainly first became acquainted with Epsy Caroline Hough and her family. (Joel Hough and Malinda Rogers, Epsy Caroline Hough's parents, had married in Talbot County in 1832.) Epsy Caroline Hough, who is identified with a date of birth of May 1840 (May 8th and May 10th are used as dates in May) and a date of death of "1858/59" (shown to be incorrect by her appearance in the 1860 census), is mentioned in "Some Descendants of Needham and Rebecca Hough of SC, NC, GA & AL," a family history produced by Granville Hough in 1992.

By the time of the 1860 census, George Hawkins had moved to Louisiana and was living in Claiborne Parish, which is situated just over the line that separates Arkansas from Louisiana. In the Hawkins household, in addition to "G.M. Hawkins" (George Hawkins, age 29, born in Ga.) and "E.C. Hawkins" (Epsy Caroline Hawkins, age 20, born in Ga.), there were the following sons: "W.T. Hawkins" (William Tillman Hawkins, age 10, born in Ga.), "J.H. Hawkins" (James Henry Hawkins, age 5, born in Ga.), and "J.T. Hawkins" (John Tillman Hawkins, age 1, born in La.). Given what is known about the first marriages of George Hawkins, it seems clear that the 10-year-old "W.T. Hawkins" was the son of Frances ("Nancy") Waller Hawkins, whom George Hawkins married in 1850. "J.H. Hawkins," the son who was identified as 5 years old (but who was only 4 years of age, having been born in 1856), was the child of "Polly" Brown Hawkins, whom George Hawkins married in 1855. The third son, "J.T. Hawkins" (John Tillman Hawkins), at only 1 year of age, was the child of Epsy Caroline Hough Hawkins, whom George married in 1857.

Although there is no precise date of death available for Epsy Hawkins, it is likely that she was dead at the time of George Hawkins's marriage to Henrietta Hambrick in 1868. When the 1870 census was taken, George Hawkins had returned to Arkansas and was living in Columbia County with his last wife, Henrietta, and two children. "George M. Hawkins" is listed as a 39-year-old native of Georgia, and Henrietta is identifed as a 22-year-old native of Alabama. The two children in the household were "John T. Hawkins" (12-year-old native of Lousiana, who was Epsy Caroline Hough Hawkins's child) and "Georgie M. Hawkins" (1-year-old native of Arkansas, who was, apparently, the first child born to Henrietta Hambrick and George Hawkins).

According to a short essay written by Marguerite Hawkins Dunlap, daughter of Dr. Jesse Wise Hawkins (son of Henrietta Hambrick and George Hawkins), Henrietta and George Hawkins were the parents of the following children: George Franklin Hawkins (presumably the child identified as "Georgie M." in the 1870 census), Josiah Edward Hawkins, Arkansas Hawkins, Jesse Wise Hawkins, Robert Eli Hawkins, Benjamin David Hawkins, Susan Carrie Hawkins, Serilla Jane Hawkins, Samuel Hamilton Hawkins, and Horatio Minor Hawkins. A copy of Mrs. Dunlap's text is housed in vertical files of the Kurth Memorial Library, which is located in Lufkin (Angelina County), Texas.

There is a possibility that George Hawkins was married a fifth or even a sixth time, but substantial proof of such marriages has not been found. Some believe that he was married, before leaving Georgia, to sisters with the surname of "Harris." If there were weddings to Harris sisters, the marriages would have necessarily been of short duration. Given the fact that two marriages (Waller, Brown) in Georgia are already documented during the period of George Hawkins's early manhood, two additional marriages in Georgia (which would amount to a total of four before his marriage in 1857 to Epsy Caroline Hough, when he was not yet 30 years old) seem unlikely.

An obituary for George Hawkins, the father of thirteen children by four wives, was published in the April 4, 1918, issue of "The Galveston Daily News." The obituary, which appeared on Page 8 under the heading "Pioneer Resident of Zavalla Passes Away at Age of 87," contains the following: "George Hawkins died at his home near Huntington Tuesday morning [April 2nd] at the age of 87 years." The text continues: "[He lived] for the past forty years within two miles of this place where he reared a family of nine: Dr. J.W. Hawkins, United States [A]rmy; R.E. Hawkins, deputy sheriff; Josiah Hawkins, stockman; Mesdames Renfro, Stewart and Burris, all of this county; Messrs. Sam and Horatio [Hawkins] of Marshall, all living. Two sons by a former marriage live in Louisiana."

While the obituary includes references to eight children cited by name, five children (two deceased, three living) are not mentioned specifically. George Franklin Hawkins, George Hawkins's first child by Henrietta Hambrick, died on September 6, 1877, shortly before the Hawkins family moved to Angelina County. (This is according to information in Mrs. Dunlap's brief narrative.) Another son not mentioned in the obituary, William Tillman Hawkins (son of Frances Waller Hawkins), had died in 1917.

The last sentence of the obituary refers incorrectly to two sons by a former marriage who were living in Louisiana at the time of their father's death. John Tillman Hawkins (son of Epsy Hough Hawkins) was probably the only son (and certainly the only one by a former marriage) living in Louisiana in 1918. The two remaining children not mentioned in the obituary were James Henry Hawkins and Benjamin David Hawkins. James Henry Hawkins, who was George Hawkins's child by Mary Anne Elizabeth ("Polly") Brown, did not die until 1919 and was living in Georgia at the time of his father's death in 1918. Benjamin David Hawkins, a son by Henrietta Hambrick, died in 1949. (Benjamin Hawkins, who was buried in Texas, was living in Louisiana at the time of the 1920 census and could have been there at the time of his father's death in 1918. He was not, in any event, a son by a former marriage.).

George Hawkins's widow, Henrietta, who was also not mentioned in his obituary, died in 1932.

- submitted by Roger Harris, a descendant, January 31, 2018