Biographical Sketch of William P. Hawkins, Greene County, Missouri,
Boone Township

>From "History of Greene County, Missouri," St. Louis: Western
Historical Company, 1883.

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Judge Hawkins is the son of Henry and Anna (Majors) Hawkins, and was 
born July 13, 1816, in Grainger County, East Tennessee.  His grand-
father came to Tennessee from Prince William County, Virginia.  His
father was reared in Tennessee, and his mother was a native of Sulli-
van County, same State.  They had ten children, viz.: Elizabeth,
Catherine, Sarah, Matilda, Priscilla, Susan, Stephen, Henry, William
P., and Madison, all of whom are dead, save Susan, Priscilla, William
P., and Madison.  William P., grew to manhood in the State of his 
birth, upon his father's farm.  At the age of twenty he sold goods for
Gen. Brazelton, at New Market, Tenn., for three years.  He was then 
married on the 6th of June, 1839, to Elizabeth M. Burnett, of Cocke
County, Tenn.  He farmed for five years, and then emigrated to Dade
County, Missouri, where he farmed two years.  He next moved to Stock-
ton, Cedar County, Mo., and sold goods for Wm. Jones for two years.
He traveled over the country, selling goods to the Indians and the 
soldiers at Fort Scott in the year 1852.  In 1853 he sold goods at
Caplinger's mill.  In 1854, in partnership with James Frazier, he sold
general merchandise at Stockton until the breaking out of the Civil
War in 1861.  The judge being a Union man suffered somewhat at the
hands of the Confederates.  In 1863 he was elected probate judge of
Cedar County, and became ex-officio, recorder and deputy county clerk.
He served about one year, and then removed to Ebenezer, ten miles 
north of Springfield, in Greene County, where he and his brother Madi-
son sold goods for two years.  In 1866 he moved to Ash Grove, and in
partnership with Joseph Aumoth and Calvin Kraft, under the firm name
of Kraft, Aumoth & Co., did a general merchandising business for three
years.  Then, with his son Henry, and son-in-law, C. A. Crane, he sold
goods for two years in a house where the new brick store-house of 
Wilkerson & McCray now stands.  Since that time the judge has not been
actively engaged in business.  He and his wife have been blessed with
eight children, viz.: Ada Ann, who died at Stockton, Mo.; Henry, a
physician and druggist of Ash Grove; Cornelia, wife of James Smith of
Texas; Swan P. Burnett, who died in August, 1853; Thomas J., of Ash
Grove; Sarah, wife of C. A. Crane, lumber dealer; William J., a farmer
of Greene County, and Benjamin F., a merchant of Ash Grove.  The judge
is still in fine health, and enjoys the esteem and confidence of all.
He is courteous and affiable, and endears himself to those who meet
him.  His brother, T. J. M. Hawkins, represented Stone County in the
Legislature a few years since.  Mrs. Hawkins is of North Carolina stock
and is a very estimable lady.

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