Benjamin Hawkins: First husband of Rebecca McIntosh Hagerty

Who would believe that a man of mixed Creek heritage and his wife who was 3/4 Creek would be involved with land dealings in Cass County? Ben Hawkins and his extended family were a great part of our history. The father of Benjamin Hawkins, Benjamin Hawkins Sr., and his grandfather, Philemon Hawkins brought a degree of intelligence and culture not only to the McIntosh Family, but to the entire Creek Nation. Colonel Philemon Hawkins was born in 1717 and came to America with his wife from England. He is recorded as an American Statesman of some greatness. During the Revolutionary War, he organized and commanded a regiment of soldiers. After the war he was a member of the Convention that ratified our National Constitution. He died in 1801.

Colonel Benjamin Hawkins (Sr.), a distinguished soldier, statesman and author was born in Warren County, North Carolina in 1754. During the Revolutionary war he was a student at Princeton university. He was fluent in French and was appointed by George Washington as an interpreter with French officers serving with the American armies. He served two terms in Congress and died at Hawkinsville, Georgia in 1816.

Benjamin Hawkins (Jr.) who was Vi Creek was born in Georgia and acted as an interpreter for the Creeks in their dealings in Washington. He was in Washington in December of 1825 and in August, 1827. Chief William McIntosh and Benjamin’s brother Samuel were killed by a rival band of Creeks along the Chattahoochee River in Georgia on April 30, 1825. Benjamin along with about 700 other Creeks were given safe haven by the United States in the west. They arrived in Oklahoma in February of 1828. Hawkins established a business with Peter Harper and John Drew in association with Sam Houston in the Three Rivers District near Ft. Gibson. Benjamin Hawkins married Rebecca McIntosh, the daughter of the above Chief William McIntosh about 1831 near Fort Gibson, Oklahoma [Indian Territory at the time]. On January 1,1832, at son William was born. A daughter, Louisa was born there on December 27, 1832.

In 1835, at Sam Houston’s invitation Benjamin Hawkins came to Nacogdoches County, Texas to begin negotiations to bring Creeks into Texas. This due to the many Creeks who arrived in Oklahoma during the “Trail of Tears”. He was to settle not less than five thousand Creeks on lands controlled by Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees for a sum of $100,000. Hawkins was to make a down payment of $20,000. In September, 1835, Thomas Rusk warned Houston to “arrest the progress of one Benjamin Hawkins, who we have every reason to believe is attempting to introduce a body of Indians from the United States [believed to be Arkansas Creeks] into Texas.” In 1836, somewhere north of Nacogdoches, Benjamin Hawkins was killed, reportedly by a band of Texas Cherokees.

Hawkins along with other Creeks and Texas Cherokees were supposed to have aided Sam Houston in the Texas Revolution. Because of that service Hawkins was granted a league and a labor of land in Cass County, Texas. One, a tract of some 3,965 acres was southwest of Linden on both sides of present Highway 155. [Surrey issued to the Ben Hawkins heirs by the Land Commission for Nacogdoches County fled August 26,1841, survey notes Book B, page 80, Cass County courthouse. ] Cave Springs Church and Cemetery are on the eastern boundary of the tract. The other, a tract of 640 acres is located in what is now Marion county just west of present Highway 43 near the junction of Carter’s Lake Road. [Survey issued to me heirs of Benjamin Hawkins as part of Headright Certificate No. 216 issued by the Land Board of Nacogdoches County and “made correct” on July 22,1841. survey notes Book B, page 87, Cass County Courthouse.]

A second daughter, Anna Hawkins had been born near Nacogdoches on November 28, 1835. After Benjamin Hawkins’s death, Rebecca fled with her children to the present Marion County tract of 640 acres. It was while she was living here that she met Spire Hagerty, a land owner who lived south of Cypress Bayou in Harrison County. Their marriage was recorded in Shelby County as March 30, 1839. [Record from family papers. Shelby County records were burned in 1881.] Rebecca then moved to Phoenix, his 3,600 acres plantation within the Walter H. Payne Survey in Harrison County. It was here that William Hawkins, Benjamin, and Rebecca’s young son died and was buried in the Haggerty Creek Cemetery on the plantation.

Quite possibly at the request of Rebecca Hagerty, Spire M. Hagerty went to Nacogdoches to open probate for the estate of Benjamin Hawkins. His petition was presented to the Probate Court for Nacogdoches County on July 30, 1838. He requested that he be empowered to act as the administrator of the estate of Benjamin Hawkins and act as the guardian of the minor Louisa Hawkins. [Book of oaths. Nacogdoches County, Texas pages 17 & 18.]

On October 8, 1838. Spire Hagerty went to Nacogdoches to open probate for Benjamin Hawkins, deceased, and post bond. He appeared before Judge Charles S. Taylor and asked to be appointed as administrator of the estate of Benjamin Hawkins, deceased and guardian of Louisa Hawkins, a minor. Spire M. Hagerty as principal, posted a bond of $4,000 as administrator for the estate of Benjamin Hawkins. Sureties were Ambrose Grain and C. M. Gould. On the same day he posted a bond of $5,000 as guardian of Louisa Hawkins. The sureties were Ambrose and Thomas T. McIver. [Wills & Bonds, Nacogdoches County. Texas Book A, pages 193-196.]

On October 2, 1847, Spire M. Hagerty was issued a citation by the sheriff of Harrison County to appear at probate court in Nacogdoches to give an accounting of the property of Benjamin Hawkins, deceased along with disbursements. The “undivided part of a League and a Labor of land situated in the County of Cass - the value to be ascertained on July 31, 1848”. The following slaves were described as property: Scott age 27, value $650; Ireland age 25, value $650; Troy age 17, value $550; Redy (a woman) age 35, value $450; Lark (a girl) age 15. value $450; Monday age 12, value $400; Ellen age 10, value $300; Henry age 7, value $250; Patsy age 3, value $150 and an infant, value $100. A total of $3,950. Hagerty swore that “no profitable use of the Slaves could be for a long time made for they were what one called Indian Slaves and were in great danger of being run off several times”. [Probably meant “danger of running off ”.] The disbursement included clothing, tuition, and board for Louisa at a school in Arkansas and tuition, passage by boat and board at Cedar Grove Academy in Portland, Kentucky. This all totaled $1,770.15. Hagerty swore he was the stepfather of Louisa having married her mother. [ Wills & Bonds. Nacogdoches County, Texas, Book A, pages 211-215.]

In January, 1849 Rebecca Hagerty became estranged from Spire Hagerty. Through his attorney in Nacogdoches Ashbel Green, Hagerty, advised that he had handed over the property in his hands as guardian of Louisa Hawkins to Rebecca Hagerty and that he had her receipt of the same. This was sworn to before S. M. Orbon Chief Justice of Nacogdoches County on April 9, 1849. Final accounting was made on September 24, 1849. [Wills & Bonds of Nacogdoches County. Texas Book B. pages 1 & 2.] Spire Hagerty [Sr.] died about the 7th day of December, 1849, possibly in Alabama.

The property known as the Ben Hawkins Survey, which is west of Linden, Cass County stayed in Rebecca Hagerty’s hands until February 8, 1876, when she sold it to her son and daughter, Spire M. Hagerty and Frances Hagerty for $200. The deed mentions the certificate issue to Benjamin Hawkins in 1838. [Cass County Deed Book X. pages 360-363.] In April of 1877, Spire M. Hagerty and Fannie (Frances) Hagerty sold 1150 acres of the Ben Hawkins Survey to M. L. Crawford. [Cass County Deed Book Y, page 261.] It wasn’t until 1919 that this estate could be legally settled due to a disbelief that title had ever been issued to Benjamin Hawkins or his heirs, fa an affidavit before L. L. Harper Notary Public of Cass County, Ebb Frazior on oath, deposed that he was 79 years of age and was acquainted with the Benjamin Hawkins Headright and well acquainted with the heirs of Benjamin Hawkins, deceased. Mr. Frazior further deposed that in about 1877 a suit was brought before the District Court of Marion County and that the survey had been partitioned among the heirs of Benjamin Hawkins. The parries to this suit were Spire M. Hagerty. Fannie (Frances) Hagerty, Louisa and Samuel McFarland and Lou M. Scott. The affidavit is dated October 7, 1919. [Cass County Deed Book 0-4. page 294.] If Benjamin Hawkins did not have the privilege on living out his life on the property he was granted, his name, his heirs and heirs-at-law did live on in Cass. Marion and Harrison counties.