AN INTREPID PIONEER WOMAN


An Intrepid Pioneer Woman
Mary E. Corcoran

In early October of 1886, Washington Gallihugh Hawkes secured the contract to deliver mail on the Williamsport-Livona route. Livona was located 13 miles west-northwest of Hazelton. “Wash” Hawkes was a hard-working settler, who among other talents, was an expert carpenter and builder. He successfully bid on building one of the Williamsport schoolhouses, by making his bid, $297.50, two dollars and fifty cents less than his competitor. He helped build carriages for his neighbors, and among other projects, completed an addition to the Williamsport Courthouse and official offices.
Washington Hawkes and his wife, Jennie, were then in their early twenties, had been married since 1881, being transplants from Carroll County, Virginia, where Wash had grown up. He was born in January 1857. His father, Martin Hawkes, had died in the Civil War in 1863, serving for the Confederate Army of Virginia. In 1876 in Virginia, when Wash was 19, his brother John, age 21, was shot and killed in the town square, and Wash was severely wounded. It was said to be a result of a neighbor’s grudge. That may have been the impetus for his move to the Dakotas. Wash and Jennie are enumerated in the 1885 Dakota Census in Williamsport, Emmons County.
In May of 1886, The Emmons County Record reported that Mrs. Jennie Hawkes, the wife of Wash was actually delivering the mail three times a week on the Livona route, a total of 18 miles round trip. The article noted that Wash and his helpful wife deserved to succeed in making a comfortable house in the near future, and would succeed. It looked as if the young couple were renting homesteads, and later on, offered to rent their own land five miles west of Williamsport, on shares. The Hawkes may have wanted to be closer to their mail routes.
Jennie Hawkes continued to deliver the mail, and newspaper articles commented on the regularity of the mail delivery, despite all the bad winter weather. The following year, in May of 1887, The Emmons County Record reported that Mrs. Hawkes had a rough experience on one of her trips as she approached the bridge at Beaudry’s land; it had been taken out by high water. (This was where the Sully Trail crosses the Long Lake Creek; land later purchased that year, 1887, by Sheriff Peter Shier of the Dinner Ranch in Gayton.) Jennie Hawkes had to go multiple miles out her way to return home. “Night overtook her,” (it was written) and she was forced to spend the night alone on the prairie. She was able to return in the morning after a long trek. In 1887, it was reported that Wash Hawkes was out in a blizzard, delivering the mail. Later, in 1887, it was noted that Jennie Hawkes kept another horse at the village of Buchanan, to make the route faster. The Hawkes were renting the old Bussey place, just outside the townsite of Williamsport.
A month later, Jennie Hawkes had her colt, pulling her wagon. become unmanageable, and the horse broke the shafts on the wagon. She had to abandon the wagon, and ride the colt home. On her next mail run, the following Wednesday, the pony again, ran out of control, and this time, threw Jennie out of the vehicle. Luckily, she was not injured.
In March 1887, Wash Hawkes began a formal Stage Line between Williamsport and Livona. The stage ran Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. and returned in the afternoon. The connection could be made with the Bismarck stage. Passengers traveling from the Capital could leave in the morning and reach Williamsport the same evening by using the two stage lines.
On October of 1894, the ever-enterprising Hawkes secured another sub-contract mail route from Mandan and Stanton, ND and his partner, Charley Stuart, went to Mandan to begin work.
The Hawkes, despite their hard-working ways, suffered a variety of bad luck. The newspaper offered sympathy to their run of misfortune: Wash seemed to suffer bad health that year, and was unable to work. Their new yearling heifer was gored by a herd of cattle, and their mare fell through the roof of the barn, falling down nine feet in total. Throughout all these troubles, Jennie Hawkes continued to deliver on their mail contracts. The newspaper also reported that Jennie was also helping cook meals at The Koker House (Hotel) in Williamsport, because Mrs. Koker had broken her arm.
Wash’s mother, Mrs. Martha Jane Combs Hawkes, relocated from Virginia, along with her brother, Mr. Combs and his family. A few years later, Martha married Daniel Long of Williamsport. Wash’s brother, Stephen Hawkes came with his family to Williamsport, took out homestead and timber claims, and became an involved and popular settler.
Jennie and Wash had a daughter, Edna Mae Hawkes, born 05 September 1890. In 1894, the Hawkes moved to Oliver County, ND (west of Burleigh County, and above Morton County) where they lived until about 1910, again, re-locating for another mail route. They seemed to spend a lot of time in Williamsport as well. The Hawkes were devoted parents, and eventually moved to Alberta, Canada in 1912, to be with Edna and her spouse, William Rosser, and their seven children.
Washington Hawkes died on 15 November 1915, in Lewisville, Alberta, Canada at the age of 58. Jennie Hawkes lived another twenty-five years, never re-marrying, and died in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada, at the age of eighty, on 19 August 1940. Jennie Hawkes is buried in Wetaskiwin Cemetery. Pioneer women like Jennie Hawkes were incredibly impressive, whether they were battling blizzards, high water, snow storms, or difficult horses, while delivering the mail, working a farm, or helping out their neighbors. They were the epitome of “true grit.”