Yolo-Santa Clara-San Benito County CA Archives Biographies.....Hawkins, Nicholas A. 1856 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 22, 2006, 11:20 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

HON. NICHOLAS A. HAWKINS

    The genealogical records indicate that the Hawkins family became established
in Virginia during the colonial era of our national history. Following the
example of so many pioneer Virginians, who crossed the mountains to found homes
in the beautiful "blue-grass" country of Kentucky, Thomas Hawkins took up
government land in the vicinity of Lexington and aided in the development of
that picturesque region. The next generation was represented by Nicholas, born
on the plantation near Lexington, and reared in the same locality. Through his
personal fearlessness in hardships, he established the family still further
beyond the then confines of civilization. Taking up government land in Marion
county, Mo., he engaged in tilling the soil there for fifteen years.
Subsequently he spent five years as a farmer in Crawford county, the same state.

    The tide of migration was drifting still further toward the setting sun, and
Nicholas Hawkins was eager to join the host of homeseekers in the far west.
Accordingly he disposed of his Missouri holdings and in 1860 crossed the plains
to California, accompanied by his wife, Margaretta M. (Frasier) Hawkins, and
their seven children. At that time the Indians were peculiarly active in
depredations, but the family traveled with a very large expedition, the size of
which deterred the savages from hostile efforts. The original location of the
family was upon the Solis grant near Gilroy, Santa Clara county. The title was
disputed for some time, but finally the United States supreme court sustained
Mr. Hawkins in his ownership of the land. Later he disposed of the land to a
son-in-law and removed to Hollister, San Benito county, where he died in 1890 at
the age of eighty years. During 1896 occurred the death of his widow, who was
born near Lexington, Ky., in 1812, being a daughter of Joel Frasier, of
Virginian birth.

    The family of Nicholas Hawkins comprised the following-named sons and
daughters: Thomas S., a banker of Hollister; Joel F. and John W., who long
engaged in farming near Hollister; Margaret Jane, whose husband, J. Q. Patton,
occupied the old Hawkins homestead near Gilroy; Elizabeth, Mrs. J. A. McCroskey,
of Hollister; Mary E., Mrs. R. W. Chappell, also a resident of Hollister; and
Nicholas Andrew, whose name introduces this article, and whose birth occurred in
Crawford county, Mo., May 31, 1856, When only four years of age he was brought
to California, and among his earliest recollections is that of the long journey
in a wagon across the plains. As a boy he lived in Santa Clara county and near
Hollister. After having graduated from the Gilroy high school in 1873 he
matriculated in the Pacific Methodist College at Santa Rosa, Sonoma county,
where he took the four years' course of study and received the degree of A. B.
During the fall of 1877 he entered the Albany (N. Y.) Law School, and after two
years of study he was graduated with the degree of LL.B. About the same time his
alma mater conferred the degree of A. M. upon him.

   Upon his return to the west the young lawyer began to practice his profession
with N. C. Briggs at Hollister. From 1880 until 1882 he served as district
attorney for San Benito coumty-and then declined in favor of his friend, B. B.
McCroskey, who was elected to the office. During 1884 he was himself chosen for
the position and served one term. In search of a warmer climate for
considerations of health, he came to Woodland in January of 1887. Two years
later he formed a partnership with J. Craig, and the connection continued until
the retirement of Mr. Craig from practice. Afterward Mr. Hawkins served as
attorney for the Yolo County Consolidated Water Company and the Bank of
Woodland. Under his personal management were conducted many of the most
important suits in Yolo county. Seldom was one of his cases lost, for with
masterly acumen and profound knowledge of the intricacies of the law he pushed
every case forward to its anticipated termination.

    When the Republican "landslide" occurred in 1904, Mr. Hawkins was the only
Democrat north of San Francisco elected to either house of the legislature, but
he became a member of the assembly and ran four hundred and fifty votes ahead of
the rest of the ticket. During the session he introduced and was instrumental in
securing the passage of the agricultural farm bill, a measure for which the
people of Yolo county had been working for some years. The bill provided for an
appropriation of $150,000 to be used in the establishment of a farm in
connection with the agricultural department of the California State University.
In addition he served as a member of the committee on swamps and overflowed
lands. The irrigation committee had in him an intelligent member, and the same
may be stated concerning the committees on county boundaries, engrossment and
enrollment, and military affairs. Some amendments to the codes, and municipal
and county government acts were passed through his painstaking efforts. The fact
that he was a Democrat and the legislature largely Republican did not affect the
standing of Mr. Hawkins, who was chosen to serve on committees because he was
recognized as a man of fine ideas, unusual ability and patriotic devotion to the
state. He was elected superior judge of Yolo county in 1908 and still fills that
high position with impartiality and intelligence. On the bench, as at the bar,
he displays a broad knowledge of the law in its every detail and few men are by
nature and also by education as well qualified as he for the important duties of
a jurist.

    The judge was married at Amity, Ore., in 1879, his bride being Emma E.
Chase, a native of Fairbury, Ill., and a daughter of William T. Chase, a cousin
of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. Her father enlisted at the opening of the
Civil war as a member of an Illinois regiment and died while at the front in the
service of the Union. Mrs. Hawkins is a graduate of a seminary at Peoria, Ill.,
and a woman of unusual culture. The two sons in the family are J. Waldo and
Bellwood Chase. The former received the degree of LL. B. from the University of
Michigan in 1904 and is a practicing attorney at Modesto, Stanislaus county. The
latter was educated at the University of California and University of Michigan.
The judge is a member of the California Bar Association and maintains a warm
interest in every matter connected with his chosen profession. For many years he
has been connected with Woodland Lodge No. 156, F. & A. M., and the Order of the
Eastern Star. In addition he belongs to the Woodmen of the World, and since 1879
has been an Odd Fellow, having joined at Hollister, but now belonging at
Woodland, where he acts as past grand of the lodge. In his service on the bench
the conventional phrase, "an able and upright judge," fitly describes the
qualifications of Judge Hawkins, who in addition may be said to be scholarly,
devoted, independent, incorruptible, earnest and impartial, a fitting type,
indeed, of the men who honor the office to which they are called and who justify
the faith of the public in the incumbents of these high positions.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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