Hawes Family Association Reunion
Hawes families and descendants from near and far met at the Port O’Connor Community Center on Saturday, April 20, 2013 for the annual Hawes Family Association reunion. There were about one hundred in attendance. The day was filled with conversation, visitation, story-telling of true events in the lives of some of our memorable ancestors, genealogy, and other family history. Many drawings were held for door prizes. The three eldest family members in attendance were Mary Nell Hawes (age 96) of Victoria, and L’Roy O. Bell, Sr. (age 92) & Marjorie Hawes (age 90) of Port O’Connor. Out of state family attending the reunion were Walter “Pat” Hawes of Maryland, Claudette Hawes Hennessey of New York, John & Alice Joehnk of Arkansas, and Missy Deckert of California.
A luncheon buffet of barbecued brisket with all the trimmings, including potato salad, pinto beans, casserole, iced tea, coffee, and lemonade was enjoyed by all. Dessert was a variety of delicious cakes.
Teddy Hawes of Port O’Connor served as chairman of the event. He was assisted by a committee that included Forrest Hawes, Marian Stevenson, and April Buzzell of Victoria; Clara Paulk, Madeline Bourg, and Judith Bowman of Port O’Connor; Missy Deckert of California; and Joanne Hawes Stoe of San Antonio.
The Hawes Family Association was established in 1989, by descendants living in Kentucky and Tennessee. Reunions since have always been held in either Owensboro or Hawesville, Kentucky, until last year when it was held in Waco, Texas. Next year the reunion will return to Hawesville, Kentucky. The association was established to gather the family history of the first known Hawes in Colonial Virginia. That man was Samuel Hawes I, born about 1675 and died about 1769 in Caroline County, Virginia.
Samuel Hawes I married Elizabeth Anne Spencer in about 1717; they became the parents of five children, Isaac Hawes, Sr., Mary Hawes, Elizabeth Hawes, Eunice “Nicey” Hawes, and Samuel Hawes II.
Samuel Hawes II and his wife Anne Walker, a descendant of the Aylett family of Virginia, had ten children. Two of their sons died young, one died when he was thrown from a horse into a Beech tree. But their oldest son was Lt. Col. Samuel Hawes [III]. He served in the Revolutionary War, earning land patents in Kentucky instead of salary for his service. The land was located in an area that is now the city of Dayton, Ohio. Lt. Col. Hawes never married or had children, and suffered many health problems from his war years. He died at thirty-four and willed his patents to his father. By the time President John Adams actually signed those patents and they came to the family, both Lt. Col. Hawes and his father were deceased. Those patents were inherited by all of his younger brothers and sisters, or their descendants, one of whom was Richard Hawes, the ninth child of Samuel Hawes II and Anne Walker Hawes.
Richard Hawes, his wife Clary Walker Hawes, and their sons Richard II and twelve year old Hugh Walker Hawes migrated to Kentucky in 1810, with a group which included some of their married children & their families, and some of their sisters & brothers-in-law. They built plantations in Kentucky, farmed, invested in land, opened the coal mine Victoria, and were very successful. Richard Hawes II became a lawyer and was the first and last Confederate governor of Kentucky. Hugh Walker Hawes became a lawyer and went to New Orleans, Louisiana to work under the tutelage of Judge Jean de Rion, later marrying the judge’s beautiful young daughter. Juliette Justine de Rion.
Hugh Walker & Juliette de Rion Hawes had two sons, John Richard and Charles Theodore. They were very happy in New Orleans, but after the death of his father Hugh Walker & Juliette moved their family to Kentucky, to help his mother. There they added a daughter to their family. Another child was expected to be born in 1840, but the beautiful Juliette and an infant daughter died during childbirth on March 5th, leaving Hugh Walker Hawes a widower.
Hugh Walker Hawes and his second wife Corilla Calhoon Hawes came to live on Matagorda Island, in Texas in about 1850. With them came John Richard & Charles Theodore, their children from his first marriage, and the children from their marriage Hugh Walker, Jr., Mary, Alfred Calhoun, and Corilla. After moving to Texas they had three additional children, Edwin, William Isaac, and Irene.
Most of the Hawes family and descendants living in this part of Texas are descendants of Hugh Walker Hawes. He came to Texas from Kentucky in 1839 to view coastal land and while here purchased patents from Sam Houston to buy Texas land. Those patents when used to purchase land after statehood, were backed, guaranteed, and protected by the State of Texas. The land he purchased included the eastern end of Matagorda Island that included the town site of Saluria, the proposed site of a future deep-water seaport, and many acres of prime land in Victoria, Refugio, Calhoun, Jackson, and Matagorda Counties. He sold most of his land in other counties at the time of the Civil War to outfit Confederate troops at his expense. These troops were to protect the Texas coast. He held onto his Matagorda Island land, except for a short period of occupation by Yankee soldiers. The story of how the federal government later robbed Hawes descendants of this Matagorda Island land in 1939 is well known in this area. I will not retell that story now.
Contributed by Joanne Hawes Stoe,
Great-great granddaughter of Hugh Walker & Corilla Calhoon Hawes
