Wetzel County, West Virginia Biography of Harris Clinton HAWKINS This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 255 HARRIS CLINTON HAWKINS is one of the energetic busi- ness men of New Martinsville, a. young, progressive citizen, who has succeeded in building up a widely extended and prosperous insurance business. Mr. Hawkins was born at Belington in Barbour County, West Virginia, December 14, 1884. His grandfather, Wil- liam Hawkins, spent the greater part of his life at Buek- hannon, where he was associated with the Giffin Lumber Company. He was in the Quartermaster's Department of the Union Army during the Civil war, and died at Buck- hannon. His wife was Caroline Farnsworth, who died at Sutton but is buried at Buckhannon. Thomas Henry Hawkins, father of the New Martinsville business man, was born at Buckhannon September 22, 1857, and was reared and educated there. Shortly after his marriage he was ordained a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for a number of years continued active in the ministry, both in West Virginia and in Missouri. He also engaged in business as a merchant in Belington, but in 1887 removed to Sutton, where he continued merchandising, and in 1898 established his home at New Martinsville, where he organized the West Virginia Monumental Works and later resumed merchandising. He died at New Martins- ville in October, 1912. He served two terms on the City Council, was a republican, and after retiring from the ministry kept up a deep and sincere interest in the working affairs of his church and was especially prominent in the first church of the Methodist Episcopal denomination at New Martinsville. He was also a Knight Templar Mason. Thomas H. Hawkins married Mary King Harris, who was born in Henry County, Virginia, October 17, 1863, and now lives with her only surviving child in New Martinsville. Her older child, Bertha, died at the age of twenty-one years. Harris Clinton Hawkins acquired his early education in the public schools of Sutton and New Martinsville, and spent two years in West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buck- hannon. Leaving college in 1903, he was for six or seven years employed by the Brast Hotel Company of New Martinsville, but since 1910 has been giving his time and talents to the life insurance business, and is now state manager for the Masonic Mutual Life Association of Wash- ington. The main offices are in the Federal Realty Build- ing on Main Street, New Martinsville, and also branch offices are maintained at Wheeling, Huntington, Charleston, Bluefield, Clarksburg, Fairmont and Bramwell, West Vir- ginia. Mr. Hawkins is a past master of Wetzel Lodge No. 39, F. and A. M., and district deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge. He is affiliated with West Virginia Con- sistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling and Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine in that city. When the Kiwanis Club of New Martinsville was organized he was elected its first president, in 1921. He is also vice presi- dent and a director of the Ohio Valley Builders Supply Company of New Martinsville. Mr. Hawkins is a repub- lican and a member of the Official Board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. During the war he assisted in all the drives for funds, and took charge of the Salvation Army drive for Wetzel County. February 27, 1913, at New Martinsville, he married Miss Maude Amelia Funk, daughter of Thomas J. and Helen (Fisher) Funk, residents of New Martinsville. Her father is now retired after a long service with the Koontz Lumber Company. Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins have four children: Mary Helen, born February 7, 1914, Eloise Frances, born Decem- ber 15, 1915, Harris Funk, born December 5, 1917, and Betty Ann, born February 3, 1920.