Dear Fellow researchers, My HAWKINS ancestors came from JoDaviess County, IL between 1855 - when the first two kids moved on - and 1860. James Preston HAWKINS m. Barbara Henderson DAVIS back in Garard Co., KY in 1830. Four children were b. in Woodford Co., KY, and two more in MO, then on to Scales Mound, near Galena, where my ggrandmother Sarah Batty HAWKINS was b. in 1847. A couple of more were b. on their farm there, but after Barbara d. of pneumonia in 1855, and was bur. in the Old Galena Cemetery, they all moved on. So they were there when Chickasaw was made a county , and would have been around when the fight over where to put the county seat was going on. In 1860, Mary Elizabeth, "Betsy" was keeping house . Also at home were Kate, William, Sarah, James P. Jr., and Robert, ranging in age from 7 - 19 years. Betsy was 22. Maybe somebody is descended from one of the siblings of Sarah, who married chickasaw Co. people.Sarah went over into Floyd Co. and m. Moses BLOOD, of rural Charles City, and they spent the rest of their life there. But Catherine, "Kate", m. George G. SCRIPTURE in 1862. In 1867, George HAWKINS m. Jane MITCHELL. Both William and George served in the civil War. George was in Co. B of the IA Sixth Cavalry, and William was in CO. C, 28th IA Infantry. The brother, John Campbell HAWKINS, had stayed on in JoDaviess as sheriff deputy until 1866, when he bought land just in time to sell to the Milwaukee & St. Paul R.R. Joshua m. Jeanette STRONG 1 OCT 1857. The HAWKINS family was no longer listed in the Census after 1870, not surprising, as Betsy and George were both land speculators, as was Robert, whose ads appeared in the Floyd Co. papers up until around the turn of the century. If anyone knows anything about any of these people, either HAWKINSES or the families they m., I'd love to hear from you. I also wonder if any of them were bur. in Chickasaw, and where, for sure, they lived as the kids grew up and went to school. I believe they would have lived in Richland Township, as that is where James P's land was. I have visited Chickasaw Co. twice, and got all the land records from the courthouse, and everything I could find in a short, one hour stay at the library a year ago. I am from Kewanee, IL, in Henry Co., which is about 200 miles SE of chickasaw. Thanks, Betty Sullivan