Person:Harry Hawkins (10)

    The following is from my book HAWKINS From Tipton County, Indiana, A Migrating American Family 1861 - 2001 / Jonas E. Hawkins Patriarch. Phillip A. Hawkins, 2003. 
     "She was a dreamer, like Pop," and together for 41 years they worked the land that they finally inherited. This land, one of the last frontier lands in America is located in Tipton County, Indiana, that along with Howard county to it’s north were the last two counties in Indiana created from new land. The counties were created in 1844 from the Miami Indian lands, and Liberty Township had been  an Indian hunting grounds. Harry’s father Jonas first worked the land, cutting the trees with an ax, and planting corn between the stumps. 
     Harry was born 12 March 1889 in Liberty Township, Tipton County, Indiana. He was the fourth child, and  second son of Jonas and Louisa (Turner) Hawkins. Edna, born 6 January 1891 on land adjoining the northeast corner of Jonas’ land was the second child, and the first daughter of Eli and Eliza (Townsend) Spaulding. There was no high school in the county when Harry finished his normal grade school but he did later go to Marion Business College for a year. While there he learned to add full numbers (e.g. nine columns at a time), instead of the normal add a column and carry. Two years later, there was a one year high school available, which Edna completed. They were married on 24 February 1909 in the East Hopewell Presbyterian Church, across the road from the house that Jonas would build for them in the northeast quarter of the land that he owned in section 11. 
     They worked the land, and had eight children and three grand children before first receiving any titles to it. The first deed, dated 8 December 1934, was for 60 acres, and was from Edna’s mother, Eliza. Finally in February of 1935, they received a deed from Jonas for 80 acres, but with a $6,000 mortgage to the Prudential Life Insurance Company (Most of Jonas’ land had been mortgaged to refund the depositors of his failed First National Bank of Tipton, Indiana). From Jonas they received another 40 acres  in August 1938,  and in November 1942, they received 20 acres from Harry’s mother Louisa. In July 1945, 20 acres was received from Louisa’s estate. This 220 acres, part of the swamp between Tipton and Sharpsville that the original survey (1840’s) stated would never be suitable for farming, is in what is considered the richest county in the state of Indiana, and one of the three richest in the world. 
     The "dreamers", Mom and Pop, with the children worked the land, and they worked hard.  In the spring there were fields and a garden to be plowed and planted, and birthing animals to be cared for. In the summer hay was cut and stored, the fields tilled and hoed for weeds, grass cut, flowers cared for, and when  the fruit ripened (17 trees of cherry, apricot, apple, plum, and pear, plus the berries) canning to do, and there was oats, barley and wheat to harvest.  In the fall there was corn to pick, walnuts and hickory nuts to gather and hull, and animals to be butchered and salted or smoked. In the winter there were fences to fix, manure to spread on the fields, machinery to repair, buildings to repair, and snow to plow. And, every day of the year, there were cattle, pigs, horses, chickens, geese, guinea hens, dogs, and cats that had to be fed and cared for. 
     Harry’s father had raised cattle and Harry raised cattle. In the early years polled shorthorn, and in the late 1930’s he started a heard of registered Black Angus that over the years produced a number of blue ribbons. In the 1920’s they had purchased two large incubators and eggs to start  raising Rhode Island Red chickens. They even had advertising cards printed up, but this venture did not do well., and they later switched to Leghorn chickens. There were a number of bee hives. Once, outfitted with his screened hat, gloves, and smoke pot, "Pop", was trying to capture a swarm which had followed a new queen out of the hive. "Mom" was holding the ladder, and did not have much protective clothing on. In the process of bagging the swarm, it fell loose and landed on her. She received hundreds of stings, making her very sick, and after that she was always extremely careful when around bees. Harry’s real pride though were his Berkshire hogs. They were a relatively new breed that carried less fat.  
     Harry was very aggressive in improvements for the county and he was an innovator. He pushed for rural electrification, for telephones, for better road maintenance,and he was a vice-chairman of the County Drainage Commission. One of his inventions was a four row checking corn planter. At the time the planters seeded two rows at a time,and the seed was released (checked) by a wire strung the length of the field that had coils in it that triggered the planter every so many inches (checking created rows the width of the field as well as the length so that weeds between the corn could be plowed in both directions). Each time the end of the row was reached, the checking wire had to be released, the planter turned around, and then the wire moved over and reconnected to the planter. Harry connected two planters together and synchronized their seeding mechanisms, thus doubling the work that could be accomplished. 
     Edna and Harry were staunch republicans, and supported the party with their time and their money. Harry ran for County Treasurer in two consecutive elections, but was defeated by an opponent that stressed education. 
     Harry died at age 61 on 27 July 1950, as a result of a heart attack. Edna lived to be 81 years of age, dying 3 February 1972. They are buried together in the Sharpsville Cemetery. This beautiful cemetery is located over an old Indian burial mound. 
     Harry on occasion was known to vent his anger. He could add a few expletives to make his point, and he certainly did not believe in sparing the rod. He worked hard, and he did not have much patience for carelessness or error. There are many stories. Following are a few of them. 
     In 1946 when he was remodeling the house, he was laying some copper tubing into the basement. It was a hot day, and it wasn’t any cooler down in the trench that the tubing was  in. He had on his bib overalls, a bandanna around his forehead to keep the sweat out of his eyes, and he had been trying unsuccessfully to solder one of the fittings. He was spitting tobacco juice and every once in a while adding some magic words. He had been in and out of the trench a number of times, and with his frustration growing, he sent Donnie (Harold’s son, who was there helping him) to get a board to support the pieces that he was trying to solder. He described the board in detail and exactly where it was. Donnie brought what he thought was the correct board, but of course it was not. He got a lecture on the exact location and size of the board, sprinkled with a few magic words, and he again set out to retrieve it. Again he failed to bring the board that Harry wanted, and he really cut into Donnie. Off Donnie went again, but this time deciding that since he was heading west, and that Sharpsville and home  were that way, he would just keep going. He always said that he could still see grandpa down in the hole, sweating, and spitting tobacco juice. 
     And then there was the time when Donnie and Bill (Lloyd’s son) were there and decided to set some traps for rats (using muskrat traps). They set a number of them under some hog houses and the old chicken house. Later when they ran their traps, lo and behold, they had a catch. It was not a rat but it was pretty (black with a white center stripe), and they decided to build a cage and make a pet of it. The cage was made and they went to remove it from the trap. They decided that they might get dirty, and that was not going to make grandma very happy, so they took off their clothes and approached the new pet. A few feet before reaching the trap the skunk politely turned around, lifted it’s tail, and sprayed them, getting Bill in the eyes. They ran into the house, where Harry was resting, Bill screaming that it had peed in  his eyes.  They were quickly ushered out of the house, and got to camp out for the rest of the week. 
     Don was working for Harry, and they were building new fence around one of the "woods." At the same time, they were clearing a path around the woods next to the fence, wide enough to drive a truck. They were using a crosscut and sawing the trees off as close to the ground as they could. On one of the pulls, Don’s leg got in the way and he got a really deep cut just above the knee. Harry took off his hat, removed the bandanna from his forehead, and wiped the blood out of the wound. He said, this will sting a little," and spat tobacco juice into the wound. He then took the tobacco cud from his mouth, packed the wound, and tied it with the bandanna. Then he walked over, rinsed his mouth out, got a drink, a new chew, and said, "Let’s get back to work, we have a lot to do." The next morning it did not hurt; there was no infection; later only a scar. 
     One evening, when he was president of the Farmers Mutual insurance company, he went to Tipton to do some work. After parking, and ready to get out of the car, he suddenly feels hands on his shoulders at his neck. His mind knew that he was being mugged. What really happened was that Lela’s (Edna’s sister) dog  had gotten in the car earlier and gone to sleep. When Harry parked, "Eight-ball" made his presence known  by getting up on the back seat and putting his paws on Harry’s shoulders. It was said that Harry had to go straight home. 
     Harry enjoyed the movies, and especially the Marx brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and Wallace Beery,  who was his favorite actor. He would often remove his false teeth and mimic Beery. Saturday evening meant a trip to Tipton for the weekly shopping and a movie. After the shopping was done, Harry and Edna went to the movies, generally the Ritz theater. Harry had a big rich laugh, and could not contain it. He also had the habit of elbowing Edna at the really funny parts. One night, carried away with the comedy, he started elbowing Edna, but it turned out that Edna was sitting on the other side of him.  

    The East Hopewell Presbyterian Church across the road from Harry's, was attended by most of the Hawkins clan over the years. Harry's children, and Edna went every Sunday, but Harry seldom attended. Harry worked all the time, but he would not work on Sunday. The children fed the animals on Sunday, and did everything else that had to be done. When they started putting lights on tractors, Harry declined refusing to do tractor work after dark.
     Harry did not encourage any of his children to go into farming. He had worked long and hard at it and he felt that the children would do better for its themselves in other endeavors.

    Harry got into black Angus cattle in the early 1930s. "He got to like them because they were so much more gentle than his previous short-horns. He was so proud that he could walk out to the pasture with a halter and lead the head bull back to the barn. The bull, whose name was Sir Buxom, was almost a pet." In 1938 Midnight won the Indiana State Grand Champion Get of Sire.

  Application for Letters of Administration (1 Aug 1950): The sole heirs listed wereMary Edna, wife, and children Charles, Harold, Lloyd, Robert, Larry, Helen, and Katheleen. The personal estate was estimated at $10,000, and real estate was estimated at $10,000.

  The probate of Harry's estate is filed in Tipton Co., In book ADM 9, p 114, #1626. The administrator was son, Harold T. Hawkins.
The personal estate, coming to $8,450.14 was signed by appraisors J. M. Hawkins (Mont), Ernie Foster, Harry Warner (neighbor), and administrator Harold T. Hawkins on 29 Aug 1950. 

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    Their farm home in Liberty Twp., Tipton County, Indiana, USA located at Lat.  40°22'34.42"N & Long.  86° 2'7.28"W.

Census - 1940 Liberty Twp, Tipton Co., IN, Sheet 3-B, line # 46 my grandparents Harry & Edna (Spaulding) Hawkins + Larry, owned a $ 1800 home, farming. Phillip A. Hawkins

Harry Talmage Hawkins circa 1905.

Harry & Edna Hawkins, 1909 wedding.

Edna (Spaulding) & Harry T. Hawkins circa 1944.

Harry T. Hawkins & his Michigan Touring car circa 1925.

Harry Hawkins & grand champion 'Midnight"circa 1939'

Harry Hawkins & Family, Mothers Day, 1940.

Harry Talmage Hawkins circa 1944.