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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