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History in
a Pecan ShellNamed
after early settler James Boyd Hawkins, who arrived here in the 1840s, Hawkinsville
was in fact, a sugar plantation. It’s first name was Hawkin’s Post. In
the early 1850s, Hawkins built a brick sugar mill – made of bricks fired in his
own kiln. A substantial enterprise, the slave-built mill vented through a 40-foot
smokestack. As Hawkins diversified into ranching,
the town became the headquarter’s for Hawekin’s Ranch.
During the Civil
War, John Magruder maintained a contingent of troops and supplies here from late
1963 through January 1864. The end of the war did not mean the end of Hawkin’s
empire. He merely changed his labor force from salves to convicts.
In
1874 Hawkinsville was granted a post office but the population remained below
25 – into the 1880s. By 1888 the post office had closed but a new one under the
name Hawkinsville opened in 1898.
In 1903 the NewYork, Texas and Mexican
Railway ran a tap line from Bay City,
roughly running parallel to present-day FM 457. The railroad
increased the number of residents to around 100. In the 1930s the railroad tracks
were taken up and Hawkinsville settled into a deep sleep that continues to this
day.
Although there are scattered houses in the vicinity, the town disappeared
in the 1950s.
A
Visit to HawkinsvillePhotographer's
Note:
Hawkinsville looks like an unorganized village. Really just a
road intersection: FM 2611 and FM 457. - Barclay
Gibson, 2009 |
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