John R. Hawkins, M. D. Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1750-1751 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JOHN R. HAWKINS, M. D., who was summoned to the life eternal on 
the 3d of May, 1904, in the very flower of his manhood, was a native of 
Sioux Falls and a son of one of its honored pioneers, Robert C. Hawkins, 
to whom a memorial tribute is accorded on other pages of this volume. 
Dr. Hawkins was born in Sioux Falls, on the 10th of July, 1874, and was 
a son of Robert C. and Harriett (Albertson) Hawkins. He secured his 
early education in the public schools and manifested from his boyhood a 
distinctive predilection for study. After completing a course in the 
local high school he entered the University of Chicago, where he 
continued his studies for four years, at the expiration of which he was 
matriculated in Rush Medical College, in Chicago, where he completed the 
prescribed technical course and was graduated as a member of the class 
of 1900, receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Through his own 
efforts he, to a large extent, paid the expenses of his higher 
education, and in the few years of his active professional work he had 
gained marked prestige and distinction. Soon after his graduation he 
engaged in active practice in his native city, making a specialty of the 
diseases of children, and he gained a representative support and a 
stronghold upon popular confidence and esteem, as well as upon the high 
regard of his professional confreres. He was made major surgeon of the 
Second Regiment of the South Dakota National Guard, and recently 
promoted to surgeon general with the rank of colonel, and held this 
office at the time of his demise, while he was a member of the State 
Medical Society and secretary of the Minnehaha County Medical Society, 
as well as county coroner and medical counselor of the ninth district 
when summoned from the sphere of life's activities, having been 
incumbent of the office of county coroner for three years. He was deeply 
devoted to his profession and took a great interest in all that tended 
to conserve its advancement. He was practically the originator of the 
present medical laws of the state, having expended much time, effort and 
money in preparing the measure and urging its passage, the enactment of 
the law having been made by the last legislature. He was a Master Mason, 
being identified with Minnehaha Lodge, No. 5, and was a consistent and 
valued member of the Methodist Episcopal church. 

	On the 19th of June, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Hawkins 
to Miss Minnie Edna Dull, of Freeport, Illinois, who survives him.