H. F. Hawks, a prosperous Butler county farmer and stockman, is a representative agriculturist of Pleasant township, where he owns and operates one of the best farms in that part of the county. Mr. Hawks was born in Kent county, England, in 1860, a son of Charles and Jane (Streator) Hawks, both natives of the mother country. They were the parents of ten children, as follows: Mrs. Gertrude McFadden, Ringwood, Okla.; Mrs. Veleria Young, Wellington, Kans.; Roland Victor, Joliet, Ill.; W. C. Longton, Kans.; Mrs. Sadie Finney, Rock, Kans.; F. S. Wichita, Kans.; S. C., Wichita, Kans.; E. A., St. Joseph, Mo.; Mrs. Emma Ellis, Tulsa, Okla.; and H. F., the subject of this sketch.

The Hawks family came to Butler county from Illinois in 1873 and the father preempted a quarter section of land, the northeast quarter of section 26, Pleasant township. He died in 1914, and the mother resides in Wichita with one of her sons.

H. F. Hawks was educated in the early day subscription schools, there being no public schools here when the family located in Pleasant township. He obtained a fair education in the early days and has been a student of men and affairs all his life, and today is one of the well posted men of Butler county. Mr. Hawks spent a number of years in western Oklahoma and returned to Butler county and bought 360 acres of land in Pleasant township where he has since been engaged in farming and stock raising. He is one of the very successful stockmen of Butler county and makes a specialty of raising Holstein cattle. He also raises

large numbers of mules and sheep. He has also been unusually successful as a cattle feeder, a business which he has found very profitable. He also conducts quite an extensive dairy in connection with his general farming and stock business.

Mr. Hawks was united in marriage in October, 1885, with Miss Lillian Barnes, of Leavenworth, Kans. Her father, Andrew Barnes, was a pioneer settler of Leavenworth county. He was a Free State man and came to Kansas in the territorial days, from Connecticut to help make Kansas a free State. He settled in Leavenworth county in 1838, driving an ox team across the country from his New England home. Mrs. Hawks is one of the following children born to her parents: Mrs. Susan Parsons, Leavenworth, Kans.; Mrs. Rose Pattee, Tongonoxie, Kans.; Mrs. Holleaux, Leavenworth, Kans.; O. J. Barnes, Leavenworth, Kans.; Mrs. Daisy Cooper, Kansas City, Mo., and Mrs. Hawks.

To Mr. and Mrs. Hawks have been born the following children: Gertrude Pitts, Rose Hill, Kans.; Ermine Jones, deceased; A. S., at home; R. C., Pleasant township; and Alice, a graduate of the Rose Hill High School.

Coming to Butler county when he was a boy, gives Mr. Hawks the distinction of being an old settler of this county while he is still comparatively a young man. He came here at an age when new surroundings and new conditions made lasting impressions on his mind. He recalls the primitive conditions just as they were and talks interestingly of the early days when he was a boy in his teens, and Butler county was also young. Among the old timers who were here in the early days, Mr. Hawks recalls Dunlap, Piersol, Tom McKnight, whose wife is now living at Rose Hill, John Scott, Henry Staley, Nate Hyde and John Kibby, nearly all, if not all, have long since passed to their reward. Mr. Hawk has in his possession some interesting relics of the early days, among which is a picture of the dugout which was the first home of the Hawks family in Kansas.

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