Nancy Pack had an ancestor with name Benjamin who has a connection:
I just sent an e-mail to Bret as I really believe we have a common ancestor in what would now be Warren Co. TN. ... His last known Hawkins ancestor Joseph lived and died in that area and my last known ancestor GGG Grandfather Benjamin Hawkins (maybe John Benjamin) died in Warren Co. TN (his will in my tree gallery) but was buried in Riceville, McMinn Co. TN. I think we may share either him or his father as a common ancestor. It would be so great if we could find that out!
and
Nancy Pack’s line:
(Hawkins Group #1) (Dekalb County AL Hawkins—Steven Thomas Hawkins participant 59402)
Our earliest ancestor Benjamin Hawkins (1754-1827) was born in NC and died in McMinn County TN. We know from Benjamin's will that his wife was Mary and they had 10 children—Benjamin,Jr., James,Joseph, William, Nancy, Blanche, Polly, Sally, JOHN and Raleigh. In the Chancery Court Records of McMinn County TN there are disputes documented about the land Benjamin Hawkins had bequeathed to his wife Mary and their children. Depositions describe what happened to the children in the years after Benjamin's death. John Hawkins (our Great-great grandfather) and his brother Raleigh migrated to Dekalb County AL from the McMinn/White counties of TN about 1833.
By this time, John had married Elizabeth Cook and had six children. Six more children were born to them in Dekalb County AL---Benjamin,III, Alexander, Raleigh, Lucinda, John,II, Mahulda Jane, James, Preston, WILLIAM, Mary Ann, Jerusha, Blanchey. Raleigh (1800) also married Henrietta Beene and had several children in Dekalb County AL. Most of the descendants stayed in the area of Dekalb County AL and Dade County GA except for a few descendants who migrated to Arkansas and Texas. The first generation of John Hawkins and Elizabeth Cook are included on our Hawkins Family Tree on ancestry.com.
Our Great-grandfather WILLIAM C. Hawkins (1840-1872) married Mary Ann Beene (1845-1923) in Dekalb County AL in 1859 just before the Civil War. He was a union sympathizer but was conscripted into the service of the Confederacy in April 1862. He quickly deserted, hid out in the woods for 8 months--- then crossed federal lines and joined the First Tennessee & Alabama Vidette Calvary, Company C. He served as sergeant until honorable discharge in June of 1864. He was then employed by the United States to work on the military railroad until the end of the war. In 1872, he decided to join a wagon train going out west so he left Dekalb Co.AL with his wife and 3 children. (William Jacob, Nancy Elizabeth & JOHN PRESTON ) They did have Hawkins and Beene relatives in Arkansas so possibly that was their destination. Around Boles, Arkansas our Great-grandfather William C. Hawkins died and was buried in an unmarked grave. His wife Mary Ann had their fourth child (Amanda Jane) and promptly returned to Dekalb County AL with her four Hawkins children.
In 1874, Mary Ann finished filing a claim with the Southern Claims Commission that her deceased husband had started in 1871. (case no. 7538). In 1875 she took her mother, nephew and three neighbors to Cleveland, TN to give depositions proving that she and her husband had been loyal only to the union and had not aided the confedrate cause. She proved her case and received $366 for 280 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of potatoes, 7 sheep, six hogs and one good horse taken by the General McCook's army in September 1863.
Our grandfather JOHN HAWKINS (1869-1925) was quite industrious and adventurous. He left Dekalb County about 1900 and traveled south to Shelby County AL. He found work as a guard in the Longview Workcamp (1900 census) One evening, the warden Thomas J. Sanders took him home for dinner and he met the warden's daughter, IDA B. SANDERS. She was to be our grandmother. They moved a few miles away to an area of Bibb county called Six Mile and opened a general store---serving several mining towns that had cropped up as the iron ore was being mined out of the hills and dales of Shelby, Bibb and Jefferson counties. They also lived in part of the store which was situated at the fork of the Cahaba and Little Cahaba Rivers. (now part of a nature conservancy) About 1913, the store burned and they returned to Dekalb County and bought a farm in Lebanon, AL---the county seat at that time. The railroad was closeby and brought all the materials to build a house. They had six children—Horace, Mary B., John P., Chad, WILLIAM THOMAS & Warren G. Their mother Ida B. passed in 1923 and their JOHN P. HAWKINS in 1925 so the young children were reared by a half-uncle and neighbors. In 1923 their grandfather Papa Sanders and Ggrandmother Mary Ann also passed so they had lots of troubles but they all grew up to be hard working respectable people.
John Preston Hawkins (1869-1925)
& wife Ida B. Sanders (1879-1923)
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