Aden Hawk Family

about 1910

Left to right:  John I, Amy C "Kate" Blankinship, Aden C Hawk

Amy P "Nellie" Hawk Lawton, Leroy C Hawk, Aliff J Hawk Carr

Missing: James Edward Hawk who died in the spring of 1899.

Averitt and Hawk Reunion 1905

Decatur Herald, Decatur, Illinois, 3 October 1905

Averitt and Hawk Reunion

 

“At Niantic a reunion of the Averitt and Hawk families took place Thursday at the J. M. (James M.) Hawk residence, formerly the home of Mrs. Penelope (Nellie) Hawk Averitt.

The families of A. C. (Aden Clevenger) and Armstrong (John Armstrong) Hawk, C. A. Hill, T. H. Claypool, M. E. Lockhart, Wm. Lawton, Clarence Whaley, Howard Carr, Aaron Ford, J. G. Willard, Elmore Averitt, Mrs. E. B. Chamberlain, and James Chamberlain are the representatives here at Illiopolis and Decatur. Mrs. Mark Camp, Mrs. Ella Averitt, of Harristown, A. D. Averitt of Willow Springs, Mo, is a brother. Frank Averitt and wife of Decatur, must not be forgotten. Mrs. Walter Pritchett, now in Colorado and Mrs. Arthur Pritchett are entitled to be named as well as Walter Averitt and wife of Lanesville.

The program included an experience meeting and the entire affair was in honor of Mrs. Rebecca Woods, a sister from Alexandria, Mo.

After an address of welcome from the host and hostess had been read by Mrs. Alice Gilcrest, a fine dinner was served. Owing to illness, neither Mrs. Willard nor Mrs. Chamberlain could be present. The guests were Mrs. R. J. Woods, Alexandria, Mo; Mrs. Rebecca Ford and daughters, Mrs. Minnie Garvey and Miss Gertrude Ford, also little Marjorie Garvey and Mrs. G. A. Drum and son Donald, of Illiopolis; Mrs. Nancy Hobbs, Mrs. Alice Gilcrest, Armstrong and Aden Hawk, C. A. Hall, Elmore Averitt, Wm. Lawton, Clinton Higgins and their wives, Mrs. Aliff Carr and daughter Nancy. Mrs. Minnie Whaley and children, Mrs. Mary Kitch and daughter Sophia, Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Alice Claypool, Mrs. Maria Mansfield and Russell Hall.

The old stage coach was told of by Mrs. Woods, who with her parents and brothers were among the first settlers in the township. Their old home land is now owned by N.A. Mansfield. Soft soap was told of by Mrs. Ford. The ox wagon was also discussed by Mrs. Hobbs, who gave a graphic account of how old “Buck” and “Berry” ran away one time. Other times were ably discussed and the occasion was one long to be remembered by everyone present."

Notes:

1.Nellie Hawk was the widow of George William Hawk. After he died, she married Nathan G. Averitt and had a daughter, Laura Averitt who married Charles Hall.

2.Rebecca Hawk Woods was a sister to AC, James, Nellie and Armstrong Hawk and half-sister to Laura Averitt.

Children of John I. and Eda M. Sanders Hawk

Their only son, Virgel Aden, married Leva Ann Whiteside, the daughter of William Modrel Whiteside and Hattie Myrtle Davis Whiteside on March 12, 1918. They had four sons: John W., Virgel, Jr., Roland "Rod" and Garry.

Leva and Virgel in 1918






Thelma married Don Carl Williams, the son of Adelbert and Corene (Widick) Williams, on the 11th of June in 1925 in Illiopolis, Illinois. She graduated from the Illinois State Normal Teachers College in Bloomington, then taught at Bend School in Macon County, Illinois. After a few years, Thelma got a position in the Elgin School District where she taught 5th grade for many years. They had one son, Carl Winston in March of 1927.

Mildred remained single, but moved to the Chicago area where she became a seamstress at Marshall Field's.

Ayliffe married Paul Robert Moore, son of Robert C. Moore and Pauline, of Carlinville, Illinois, in 1927. Their daughter, Mary Helen, the first granddaughter of John and Eda, was born in 1930. According to the 1930 Census, when she was 2 months old, the family lived on Stewart Avenue in Chicago in an apartment building that was at 6617-19 Stewart Avenue. The second granddaughter was named Barbara . Ayliffe died on the 29th of December, 1931, when the baby was just a few days old. She was buried in Moore Cemetery near Carlinville, Illinois.

In 1930, John and Eda were still living south of Harristown in Macon County, Illinois, where he was farming. John was 62 and Eda was 55. When he was ready to retire, about 1934, they sold the farm and moved to the village of Niantic.

In 1944, John and Eda celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.









John I Hawk--Reuses Tires

On the 10th October of 1925, this article was published in the Decatur Review newspaper:

OLD TIRE IS USED TO WATER CHICKENS

Old tires have been put to many uses, their utility not being destroyed when they are no longer fit for the road. But one of the latest uses to which it has been put is found on the John hawk farm in Harristown township, where an old tire is in use as a water trough for the chickens. The tire, not quite worn through, was slit all around the middle and the halves laid flat on the ground and filled with water. it doesn't need a diagram to show how accessible and convenient this device is.

From Alabama To Illinois

By 1910, the John I. Hawk family lives in Selma, Alabama. There are now four children: Virgil Aden, Thelma Kate, Mildred Olivette, and Ayliffe Cyrene. The census shows that Eda had five children, four of whom are living. John’s occupation is drilling wells. They now own their own home and John works for himself.

John moved his family back to Illinois about 1915. John’s father died in 1918 and John’s son, Virgel, married a local girl (Leva Whiteside) after going to serve in World War I and settled close by to help him farm.


By 1920, John and Eda had moved back to Harristown, Macon, Illinois, where John was living on and farming his father’s farm. John's mother, Amy C. "Kate" Hawk, lives with them as well as the three girls. His son, Virgil and wife, Leva Whiteside, live next door and have the first grandson, John William. Leva’s brother, Dyle Whiteside and his wife, Edna Hartwig Whiteside, live close by. Thelma Hawk is a public school teacher at Bend School.

Leltter from Eutaw, Mississippi

Eda and John traveled throughout the south during the early years of their marriage. He drilled wells for water. Their children were born in West Point, Mississippi and Selma, Alabama. John I wrote a letter to the Decatur Review from Eutaw, Alabama in February of 1899 which was published in the Decatur paper.


The Decatur Review
Friday Morning, Feb. 17, 1899 Page 4
Source: www.ancestry.com Newspaper archives

Eutaw, Ala. Feb. 14, 1899
Ed. Review.
The Review being a regular visitor to me at this place and seeing a good many letters from farther south than this, I thought I would give the Macon county people a description of this country here.
We are just recovering from a sudden attack of a northern-type blizzard, the measure going sown to nine degrees below zero yesterday morning, being the coldest weather by eight degrees ever experienced in this country, according to the oldest settlers.
I am an old Macon county boy, being born and raised in Harristown township.
Eutaw is a beautiful little town of 600 inhabitants about seventy-five miles southwest from Birmingham and sixty-two miles northeast from Meridian, Miss, on the A. G. S. railroad. The soil in town is sandy with red clay subsoil and is excellent land when fertilized, but south and southwest from town two miles begins the celebrated prairie belt of Alabama, the finest cotton land in the United States. Land that has grown nothing but cotton for sixty years and not a shovelful of fertilizer and still makes a good crop, from 600 to 800 pounds of seed cotton to the bale. Of course, taking these lands as a whole, they will not produce that much, for there are spots in them, as in all other sections of the south, that will not produce anything. The best of these lands will produce from fifteen to twenty-five bales of cotton per acre, but would do better if they were fertilized.
These lands lay as pretty and look as good as Macon county lands and can be bought from $10 to $25 per acre and rent for from $1.50 to $2.50 per acres, so you see it is a better per cent on the amount invested than most Macon county lands.
Good pasture can be made here in a short time, also good hay grasses do well here and hay is in good demand at from $12.50 to $18 per ton.
All kinds of stock do well here and do not have to be fed so long through the winter. I have seen good hogs killed taken up from the woods and they had not see a grain of corn all fall. Some fine deer and turkeys are in the swamp and plenty of quail and rabbit. The climate is mild and healthful, about the same as through all the central south.
I would not advise any one to come here without some capital. I believe any one coming here with small capital and investing it prudently would realize quick and good returns. There is plenty of labor and good land and it needs some energy and eastern push to utilize it.
John I. Hawk

Eda Sanders Married John I Hawk

Eda Sanders married John I. Hawk, the son of A.C. Hawk on
01 Aug 1894 in St. Louis, MO. They went back to Niantic on Saturday where they made their home.

Eda, Thelma, John I and Virgel Hawk, about 1898. Thelma and Virgel were born in West Point, Mississippi, which must not have been far from Meridian, Mississippi where this photo was taken.

(Photo from the files of Ayliffe Hawk Moore, inscribed in Mildred Hawk’s handwriting,
“For Alie – John I Hawk and Family, Taken in December, 1898”. From Mary Moore
Willis Armstrong, Ayliffe’s daughter, 2005.)

.

The children of John I. HAWK and Eda Myrtle Sanders were:

1. Virgel Aden Hawk, born 18 Oct 1895 in West Point, Clay, Mississippi; died 25 Apr 1973 in Springfield, Sangamon, IL. (married Leva Whiteside, March 12, 1918.)

2. Thelma Kate Hawk Williams, born 29 Mar 1898 in West Point, Clay, Mississippi; died 26 Mar 1993 in LaMesa, CA. (married Don Williams)

3. Mildred Olivette Hawk, born 04 May 1900 in Selma, Dallas, Alabama; died 03 Feb 2003 in St. Louis, MO.

4. Ayliffe Cyrene Hawk18 Moore, born 14 Apr 1902 in Selma, Dallas, Alabama; died 29 Dec 1931 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. (Married Paul Moore)

Eda Sanders Social Life

This card was a “social card”[1] and was inscribed with “Miss Edith Sanders” on the back. It was an invitation to a Picnic near Sanders’ Ford, which is on the river, south of Niantic on July 4^th, 1890.

This social card was an invitation to an “Anagram Party” at the home of Mr. & Mrs. John Wacker on Tuesday evening, March 29 of 1892 at 7:30 p.m. Anagrams[1] was a popular game in the late 1800’s.

---

[1] These cards were in the files of Mary Armstrong and were generously given to Sue Ridgley in 2008.

Mary Jane Hollingsworth Sanders

 

Mary Jane Hollingsworth was the daughter of Eli Hollingsworth and Mary Baughzel Russel. She was born on 15 Dec 1846 in Vermillion, Indiana, USA[7, 8].

When she was 3 she appears on the1850 Census, Vermillion County, Indiana, with parents Eli and Mary Hollingsworth. Her residence in 1860 was Helt Township, Vermillion County, Indiana. [9] . Her siblings Anna and Zimri are still at home.

This small picture was labeled by her daughter, Eda Sanders and is marked 1859, aged 16.

This may be Harriet Singleton Sanders (George’s mother) or Mary Jane Hollingsworth.  No name was on the photo. The clothes appear to belong to an Indian. Harriet Singleton Sanders was 1/2 Cherokee, her mother being married to John Singleton. A large 15 x 24 framed copy and the small copy are known.

Lavina Shoemaker Marshall

1880 Census: Myrtle Sanders, age 5, living in the home of Greg and Lavina Marshall in Friends Creek Township, Macon County, IL. Listed as “cousin”. Lavina was a Shoemaker, daughter of Amanda Hollingsworth (sister to Mary Jane) and Unknown Shoemaker, which would have made her a first cousin to Eda and Will Sanders.

Will and Eda Sanders about ages 16 and 15 or so.

Children of George William and Mary Jane Hollingsworth

Eda Myrtle Sanders was born to George William and Mary Jane Hollingsworth Sanders on 24 Aug 1874 (Mt. Auburn, Christian, IL)





William Dallas Sanders. He was born on 06 Aug 1876 in Mt. Auburn , Illinois; picture probably taken in 1877.



Eda was about 3 1/2 and Willie was about 17 months old when their mother, Mary Jane Hollingsworth Sanders, died in 1878. When Eda had grown up a bit, she went to live with her cousin, Livina ShoemakerMarshall and husband Greg Marshall and worked in her boarding house. In the 1880 census, she is shown as age 5.Willie was raised by Frank Sanders , his uncle and his aunt, Annais Hollingsworth Sanders, who was a sister to Mary Jane.(It is unclear if or how Frank Sanders is related to George William.) Their father, George William Sanders, was a “traveling man” and was not settled down enough to raise the children.

George William Sanders + Mary Jane Hollingsworth

George William Sanders II was born on 23 Dec 1844 in Wilson County, Tennessee , (or Vienna , Johnson County, Illinois) to George William Sanders, Sr. (born about 1821) and Harriet Singleton Sanders, who was claimed to be one-quarter Cherokee Indian. George was usually known as William Sanders.

George William II may have served in the Civil War. The Illinois Civil War Detail Report [1,2] from www.cyberdriveillinois.com shows a William Sanders, who was a Private in Company K in the 152 IL US Inf. His residence was Decatur, Macon Co, IL, age 20, Height 5’4” with light hair and blue eyes. He was single and a farmer. He mustered in Springfield, Illinois, in Feb. 1865, and out in Memphis, Tennessee, in Sep. 1865. Other George W. Sanders fought on the Confederate Side. (It is difficult to ascertain whether either was actually our G William.)

Eastern Cherokees vs. United States
On 30 June 1906, Congress appropriated more than $1,000,000 for the Eastern Cherokees of the U. S. George W. made application for a share of those funds as he was a descendant of the Cherokees of Tennessee. The task of compiling a roll of eligible persons was begun by Guion Miller, special agent of the Interior Department. The funds were to be distributed to all Eastern and Western Cherokee Indians who were alive on May 28, 1906, who could establish the fact that at the time of the treaties they were members of the Eastern Cherokee Tribe or were descendants of such persons and that they had not been affiliated with any other tribe of Indians. (See Application No’s: 170811 (George W. II), 178400 (William D.) and 18115 (Eda M and minor children) on the Guion Miller Rolls).

The applications were first prepared and sent by attorney P.L. Van Cleve, Blue Mound, Illinois, and received by the Indian Office on Mar.5, 1907. In this first application, George W. provides information that he lives in Blue Mound, Illinois. He states he was born Dec. 22, 1844 in Vienna, Johnson County, IL. His mother (Harriet Singleton Sanders) died about 1850. George W. was a widower, his wife Mary J. Hollingsworth Sanders having died on Feb. 28, 1878. His father was George W. Sanders (I). He did not know the Indian name of his mother or father. George W.’s father and mother (George W. and Harriet Singleton Sanders) were both born in Wilson County, TN. Harriet died about 1850 and his father George W. died about 1860 .
George W.(II) had three brothers, according to this application:

John Sanders, b. 1840 d. abt 1854
James Sanders, b. abt 1842, d. abt 1866 and
Richard Sanders, b. abt 1846 (and presumably alive in 1907).

Presumably, these were all children of G. W. and Harriet Singleton Sanders.

George W. (II) thought his Grandmother Singleton was still alive in Wilson County, Tennessee in 1907. His Singleton grandparents had three children who would be siblings to Harriet. (Adaline, Fate and Nancy). , George did not know where his aunts were living in 1907. He did not know any of their Indian names. Two of George’s long time acquaintances, George W. Elliott and H. N. Donavan, witnessed this application. Applications were made as well for George W. (II)’s children William Dallas and Eda M. Sanders. The applications took a long time and there were a number of letters back and forth to Guion Miller because Mr. Miller claimed that there was not enough information to prove their relationships. In February of 1908, a letter requested more information from George W. about his mother and maternal grandparents.

George's reply letter provides evidence that George was probably born in Illinois, as he testified, and that his grandparents were John and Clara Singleton of Wilson County, Tennessee in 1834-36. Not being slaves was a requirement for the application as well.

The Sanders Side

George W Sanders + Harriet Singleton

George William Sanders-(John-1)[3] was born about 1823 in TN. He died about 1860 in TN. He married Harriet Singleton on 11 Jan 1845 in Wilson, Tennessee, USA[2]. She was born about 1825 and died about 1850 .

Their Marriage Record #10, Wilson County, TN 11-Jan-1845 was found on Ancestry.com

As can be seen in the two records , the names are George W. Sanders and Harriet Singleton. (The record is listed on Ancestry.com as “Marnel” Singleton, clearly a transcription error.) They were married in Wilson, Tennessee, where George W. II’s obituary says he was born in 1844 ( which may be incorrect as the place was later found to be Illinois.) It was not uncommon for marriages to be later than births, as the Justice of the Peace may have traveled around from place to place and was only available at certain times. This documentation proves they were married the 11th of January in 1845 by Saml Bond, Justice of the Peace.