Born in 1816, at Alabama, on the Tallapoosa River, he is the son of the once well known Sam Hawkins, who married Jane McIntosh, daughter of the great Creek Chief, General McIntosh, Sam Hawkins was captured the same day that his father-in-law was killed, and suffered martyrdom for the same cause. Sam’s brother Ben was wounded, but escaped, afterwards moving to Texas and settling among the Cherokees in that State, by whom he was afterwards murdered, it is said, at the instigation, or at least with the knowledge of, Governor Sam Houston, the Texas liberator. It is but justice to remark, however, that there are no positive proofs implicating the great Texan in the death of Ben Hawkins, further than that Hawkins was a stumbling block in the way of Houston’s designs, and his death would have removed the obstacle. Pink Hawkins, the subject of our sketch, was sent for three months to school at the Creek agency, near Muskogee, after which he moved to within twenty miles of Nacogdoches, Texas, at the age of eighteen or twenty marrying Miss Annie Pigeon, by whom he had one daughter. Mr. Hawkins had a large plantation in this part of the country, which he worked with a Negro labor, having over twenty slaves. The Mexican war was the means of ruining him, as the negroes made their escape across the lines, and the subject of our sketch returned to the Creek Nation without a dollar, settling on the Canadian River, near Eufaula. In the same year he married an orphan girl named Aggy, by whom he had one son, who died early. His wife dying in five years, Mr. Hawkins married Mrs. Liddie Benson, a widow by whom he had five children, four of whom are living, John, Billy, Louisa, Michael and Rose. John is between forty-five and fifty years of age. Mr. Hawkins has a farm close to Deep Fork, eighteen miles from Okmulgee, and a small stock of cattle. When the war broke out he joined General Chilly McIntosh, and was at the Newtonia, Elk Creek and Red Fork fights, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel at the close of the war. The subject of our sketch served fourteen years in the House of Warriors, filling one unexpired term, that of Wacie Hargo. At the commencement of the new constitution he was second chief for four years, and was offered the nomination for first chief, but refused the honor, as well as that of supreme judge and other important offices, preferring to attend to his farming interests. Before and during the war Mr. Hawkins was Chief of the Hillubie Town, under the old constitution. Mr. Hawkins, though seventy-four years of age, is a fine specimen of his race, straight, broad chested and in excellent health, in appearance not over sixty, and more energetic than the majority of men are at the age of sixty. He is a man of good understanding and unblemished honesty, and is greatly beloved by his people.
