John Christian Hawken, Jr.

Hawkins/Hawkens Ferry and Hawkens rifle

   From the History of Merced County, "Settlement of the Plains"On the north side of the Merced there were only about five (settlers), going down from the vicinity of Livingston: T.P. Carey, then a place where Isom J. Cox afterwards lived, Adams, John Hawkins, who had the ferry, and Judge George G. Belt.

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   There were six ferries on the Merced: John Hawkins', below the Stevinson place ....

   From History of Merced County, "Biographical and Historical Sketches"

   JOHN HAWKINS.

   Hawkins' Ferry was established many years ago by John Hawkins. He was a native of St. Louis. He married a young lady who had been six months a captive among the Comanche Indians. Some fifty had been taken captive and William Bent purchased her freedom and that of two other girls.

   He started for California in 1849 with several others under the guidance of the celebrated Captain Joe Walker. In June 1852, Hawkins moved to and located on the right bank of the Merced River about three miles from its mouth. He died in 1858 leaving a widow, three sons and four daughters.

   From the San Joaquin Valley Argus, 17 May 1873: [Letter from "Juanita," alias John McPherson] When about to part with our friends on the San Joaquin near Hills Ferry, it occurred to us that we should pay a visit to the widow of our lamented, deceased friend and early Pioneer, George Belt. We found her with several daughters and sons very comfortably living at the old place on the Merced river, about two miles from its junction with the Jan Joaquin at Hills Ferry. From Belt's we wended our way to Hawkins Ferry, about one-half mile above, and were induced to remain there till the following morning. We have something to say about this beautiful region and some of its settlers.

   JOHN HAWKINS,

   who established the Ferry many years ago, and which still bears his name, was we think, a native of St. Louis, Missouri [sic, Maryland, moved at an early age to St. Louis]. His uncle, Sam Hawkins [sic, Jake], was a gunsmith there and had acquired no little celebrity in his vocation. The Hawkins' rifle is a favorite till this day, particularly with mountaineers. John Hawkins learned the trade of gunsmith with his uncle and ultimately became celebrated in the manufacture of fire arms. While with his uncle, he had many opportunities of meeting with mountaineers from the Rocky mountains, who occasionally visited St. Louis and he afterward adopted in a great measure their nomadic mode of life. Hawkins has been in his grave for more than fifteen years, but we remember distinctly how, on a very beneficial [beautiful?] summer day, sometime before his death, we passed several hours with him beneath the umbrageous foliage of a noble live oak and listened to numerous incidents of his life in the Rocky mountains and elsewhere in the then "far West." That giant Oak yet stands proudly, with his wide-spread arms full of life and dense quivering foliage, green as when with Hawkins we reclined long ago beneath its grateful shade.

   THE COMANCHE INDIANS.

   A band of those savages, in their numerous incursions into the towns on the Mexican frontier for the purpose of robbery and murder, had in 1845 [sic, 1843] suddenly made a descent upon the mining town of Mapimi in the State of Durango and after mercilessly killing all the male inhabitants, save a few who were fortunate to have made their escape, captured about 50 helpless and terror-stricken females and then with fire, laid the town in ashes. The poor captives had to follow their inhuman captors and were treated with the barbarity belonging to the savage nature of the Comanche. Bent's Fort on the Arkansas river was a trading post well-known to all mountaineers engaged in trapping and from which parties frequently went forth in long excursions to trade with Indians for peltry. About six months after the massacre at Mapimi, a party of traders from Bent's Fort met with a band of Comanches who held in captivity some of the women referred to. Bill Bent effected the purchase of three of those unfortunate prisoners--two maidens, each about seventeen years of age and a little girl of more tender years. They were brought to the Fort and tenderly and generously provided for. John Hawkins at this time was living at the post working at his trade, and after awhile married one of the maidens. Remaining here, and a while at Taos in New Mexico, he, with his wife and little daughter (the latter born at Bent's Fort) started for California in 1849 with several others and guided by the celebrated mountaineer, Captain Jo Walker, repeatedly spoken of in some of our letters elsewhere a few months ago. The party arrived safely at Los Angeles toward the latter part of the year. In January, 1852, Hawkins, with his family, moved to and permanently settled at the place yet occupied by Mrs. Hawkins and several members of her family. It is situated on the right bank of the Merced river and about 2-1/2 miles from its confluence with the San Joaquin. Magnificent groves of majestic live oaks are seen in the immediate vicinity of the place, while the river, now flowing gently onward and transparently, makes a beautiful incurvature and bordered on either side by a grand belt of lofty evergreen oaks intermingled with cottonwood, sycamore and other trees. John Hawkins died in 1858, leaving his widow with the care of three sons and four daughters, not one of whom was of an age with sufficient physical vigor to assist her--yet this woman, Mrs. Hawkins, raised this large family by her own exertions, stimulated by maternal affection, in comfort, and never omitted an opportunity to give them every educational advantage within reach--and remembering her own humble origin--born of and reared by poor parents on the frontier of Mexico--her subsequent captivity, privations and horrible sufferings among the inhuman Comanches, she commands our highest admiration and respect, as she most deservedly with each member of her family, is esteemed by the community in which she resides. Besides the ferry franchise, she owns about 5909 acres of land including perhaps 180 acres on the south side of the river and of as fertile soil and splendidly timbered as can be found in Merced county. Her eldest daughter, born at Bent's Fort, is the wife of Mr. John Johnson, a gentleman in good circumstances and largely engaged in sheep and wool raising. They are the happy parents of several pretty and interesting children. *** The other members of the Hawkins family reside with the mother, and we may mention that the name of the eldest unmarried daughter, an amiable maiden of sweet eighteen, is Juanita--sweet and euphonious, is it not? We were earnestly urged to remain a day longer than we did, to be present at a pic-nic to be held in a beautiful grove hard by and thereby have an opportunity to seeing some of the "beauty and chivalry" of the circumjacent country, but doffing our sombrero we said adios to all and sped away."

   From the San Joaquin Valley Argus, Merced, CA, 8 Nov 1873, letter from "Juanita" (i.e., John McPherson) [in a biographical sketch of Dr. Joshua Griffith, born 28 Jun 1800 in Washington Co., PA in 1800, emigrated with his family to an area near Cadiz, OH; and eventually became a pioneer of CA on the Merced River in Merced.] In 1820, Griffith found himself in St. Louis, a just graduated apprentice gunsmith. "At St. Louis, Griffith readily found employment in the gunsmith shop of Jacob and Sam Hawkins, and continued for sometime.... Jacob and Sam Hawkins were, we believe, natives of Hagerstown in Maryland. They were brothers, and each became celebrated in the manufacture of firearms. One learned his trade in the U.S. armory at Harper's Ferry, and the other at Richmond, Virginia. In time, Jacob went west and reaching St. Louis, determined to settle there, and so opened a shop and went to work. His gunsmith shop was the first ever established in St. Louis. Work flowed in apace and he was fast making money, so after awhile he returned to Maryland, married there or in Virginia, and with his newly wedded wife, his brother Sam and a little nephew went back to St. Louis, and the brothers then entering into partnership, their business prospered beyond their anticipations, and the 'Hawkins Rifle' became celebrated far and near, and soon there was not a mountaineer west of the Mississippi who was not in possession of and prized almost beyond price his 'Hawkins rifle.' The little nephew referred to was no other than John Hawkins, many years afterwards of Hawkins' Ferry, on the Merced, a sketch of whom and the surviving members of his family we gave not long ago in the Argus. In that sketch we said that we believed John Hawkins was born in [Missouri], but we find that the state of his nativity was in all probability Maryland. When Griffith met him in the shop of his uncles in 1820, just commencing to learn the trade of gunsmith, the boy was then 10 years of age, and is it not a little remarkable that 32 years afterwards those two persons though widely separated from each other, after a series of vicissitudes, of wild adventure, through scenes of peril among hostile savages under circumstances 'that try men's souls,' hair-breadth escapes, and then of quiet and comfort, is it not strange, we say, that after 32 years had passed away from the time those two persons--Griffith and John Hawkins, met at St. Louis in the year of 1820--should ultimately find themselves in 1852 settled down into tranquil life, and each with a family, on the Merced river in California? But such has been the fact. Jacob Hawkins, the founder of the gunsmith establishment at St. Louis, died years ago, but his brother Sam, according to late advices, is yet alive, a hale and hearty, venerable gentleman, still residing in St. Louis, and very deservedly esteemed for his many noble qualities, particularly for inflexible integrity during a long life in which he was engaged in active business. The second son of the widow Hawkins of Hawkins' Ferry, Sam Hawkins, a very worthy and excellent young man, was named by his father John Hawkins, after the uncle of the later, the venerable Sam Hawkins of St. Louis.