{{Short description|American politician}} {{About|Samuel Hawkes, 19th century politician from Saugus, Massachusetts}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = File:Samuel Hawkes.png | image_size = 250 | name = Samuel Hawkes | birth_date = December 4, 1816 | birth_place = | death_date = March 24, 1903 (aged 86) | death_place = | resting_place = | website = | occupation = Farmer<br>Politician | party = Democratic | spouse = | alma_mater = | title = Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from Saugus | term_start = 1854 | term_end = 1854 | predecessor = John B. Hitchings | successor = Richard Mansfield }} '''Samuel Hawkes''' was an American politician who represented Saugus in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a young man. He spoke at Farmers' Institutes and represented the state at the National Farmer's Congress in Missouri. Hawkes belonged to family and local history organizations and served the Saugus community in several capacities.
==Early life== Hawkes was born on December 4, 1816, to his mother, Theodate Pratt Hawkes, and father Ahijah Hawkes. His father was the chairman of Saugus' first Board of Selectmen.<ref name=Atherton>{{cite book|last=Atherton|first=Horace H.|title=History of Saugus, Massachusetts|year=1916|publisher=Citizens Committee of the Saugus Board of Trade|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofsaugusm00athe_0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofsaugusm00athe_0/page/91 91]–93}}</ref><ref name="Lynn Historical Society" />
His mother descended from immigrant Richard Pratt from Maldon, County of Essex, England; His father from immigrant Adam Hawkes.<ref name="Lynn Historical Society" />
==Samuel Hawkes House== His home, known as the Samuel Hawkes House, was built by his father about 1800. It was located on the corner of Walnut Street and the Newburyport Turnpike.<ref>{{cite book|last=Down|first=Norman E.|title=Saugus|year=1997|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9780752404691|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZUtZJgqezoC&pg=PA16}}</ref><ref>[http://heritage.noblenet.org/items/show/14376 "Abijah Hawker House / North Saugus / Samuel Hawkes Home / Walnut St. / Zayres there now."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915051104/http://heritage.noblenet.org/items/show/14376 |date=2016-09-15 }} NOBLE Digital Heritage, Item #14376. Retrieved April 19, 2013.</ref> The property in "Hawkes' Corner" was inhabited by his family since Adam Hawkes, Saugus' first settler settled there in 1638.<ref name="Lynn Historical Society">{{cite book|last=Lynn Historical Society|title=The Register of the Lynn Historical Society, Volumes 1-7|year=1898| pages=43–45 | publisher=The Register of the Lynn Historical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zr8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA4-PA44}}</ref>
Hawkes owned thirteen acres of tillage and ten acres of cranberry bog.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hurd|first=Duane Hamilton|title=History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Volume 1|year=1888|publisher=J. W. Lewis & Company|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_15Q6AQAAIAAJ/page/n653 420]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_15Q6AQAAIAAJ}}</ref>
==Career== Hawkes, a Democrat, represented Saugus in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1854.<ref name=Atherton /> On April 30, 1861, Hawkes was chosen to serve on a finance committee in the first town meeting related to the Civil War. The committee was responsible to setting the payments to Saugus' soldiers and their families.<ref>{{ cite book | title=A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War, Volume 2 | author=William Schouler | publisher=E. P. Dutton & Co. | year=1871 | page=241 }}</ref>
Hawkes spoke at many Farmers' Institutes in the United States and served "many years" as the Saugus trustee in the Essex Agricultural Society.<ref name="Lynn Historical Society" /> In 1891 he was appointed by Governor William Russell to represent Massachusetts at the National Farmers' Congress in Sedalia, Missouri.<ref name=Atherton />
In Saugus he served as a Town Moderator. He was chairman on the town's Board of Selectmen and the Overseers of the Poor. In Salem, Hawkes was an expert on woodland titles at the Registry of Deeds; This was a "favorite" position he held late in life. Hawkes was a member of the Sinking Fund Commission since it was organized in 1888; Although he was quite ill, in March 1903 he was reelected.<ref name=Atherton />
==Personal life== Hawkes was a bachelor and attended meetings of the Society of Friends. He was president of the Hawkes Family Association and member of the Lynn Historical Society.<ref name="Lynn Historical Society" />
Hawkes died on March 24, 1903.<ref name=Atherton />
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkes, Samuel}} Category:1816 births Category:1903 deaths Category:Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Category:People from Saugus, Massachusetts Category:American Quakers Category:19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court