Site of Old Hawkins Springs

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, if you ever find yourself rolling through Ellis County wondering how this stretch of Texas got its footing, the marker at the old Hawkins Springs site has got a story worth slowing down for. May of 1848.

William Alden Hawkins, born in 1800, and his wife Anna Eddy, also born in 1800, pulled up to this piece of ground fresh out of La Porte, Indiana. And they didn't come alone. Not by a long shot.

They brought the whole family with them: Marcellus Tolbert, Mary Melissa and her husband Harrison F. Hinkley and their child Annie Lucretia, Benjamin Franklin, James Emerson, William Alden the younger, Elizabeth Ann, David Peter, John Wesley, and George Washington Hawkins. That's a lot of mouths, a lot of hands, and, as it turned out, a lot of land to claim.

As members of Peters Colony, William A. Hawkins and his adult children laid claim to something in the neighborhood of twenty-five hundred acres. Now here's where the story tightens up.

There was a deadline: July 1, 1848. And to hold those claims, they had to have houses standing. Not just one house.

Five houses. And they had twenty-eight days to do it. Logs had to be cut and hauled all the way from the cedar brakes of Dallas County.

Twenty-eight days. Five houses. The marker calls it a critical period, and that's not just marker-talk; that is the plainest description of a family racing the calendar you're likely to find carved in stone.

They made it. And right about a hundred feet from William A. Hawkins' own home, there was a spring.

Hawkins Spring. It supplied water for every one of those households, and it didn't turn away a traveler passing through either. Out here in 1848, a reliable spring wasn't a convenience; it was the whole arrangement.

Two years later, when Ellis County got itself organized in 1850, the community apparently knew exactly who to look to. William A. Hawkins was appointed the first Chief Justice, what we'd call the County Judge today.

The man who'd hauled logs against a deadline and settled a family on raw Texas ground was now the one sitting in judgment for the whole county. William Alden Hawkins died in 1867. Anna Eddy Hawkins lived until 1895.

And the land they staked their lives on? It didn't go anywhere. Part of the Midlothian business district sits on the William A.

Hawkins survey to this day, east of the Santa Fe Railroad. Northridge Shopping Center stands on the Harrison Hinkley survey (that's the same Harrison Hinkley who came here with Mary Melissa and little Annie Lucretia in May of 1848). And the First United Methodist Church sits on the B.F.

Hawkins survey. The cedar brakes are long gone. The spring is history.

But the land those twenty-eight desperate days won, it's still holding people up.

What the marker says

William Alden Hawkins (1800-67) and wife Anna Eddy (1800-95), from La Porte, IN., arrived with family at this site in May 1848, becoming first settlers in area. The family included Marcellus Tolbert (1824-96); Mary Melissa (1824-84), with her husband Harrison F. Hinkley and child Annie Lucretia; Benjamin Franklin (1828-91) and wife Mary; James Emerson (1829-1912); William Alden (1831-89); Elizabeth Ann (1838-1903); David Peter (1838-63); John Wesley (1841-76); and George Washington (1842-1931). As a member of Peters Colony, Wm. A Hawkins and adult children claimed about 2500 acres of land. In a critical period of 28 days prior to July 1, 1848, logs were cut and hauled from Dallas County cedar brakes to build five houses, to sustain the claims. Hawkins Spring, about 100 feet from the Wm. A Hawkins' home supplied water for all households and often for passers-by. Upon the organization of Ellis County in 1850, William A. Hawkins (1800-67) was appointed first Chief Justice (County Judge). Currently situated on Hawkins' family lands are part of Midlothian business district east of Santa Fe Railroad, on the Wm. A Hawkins' survey; Northridge Shopping Center, on Harrison Hinkley survey; First United Methodist Church, on B.F. Hawkins' survey.