Hawkins

(submitted by Janet Hawkins Firman)

James and Ann Hawkins left Yorkshire, England in 1848 with three children. They settled first in Peel County where another child was born. In 1854 they obtained 200 acres, west half of Lot 4 and east half of Lot 5, Con. 1 NER. (Egremont Rd). They cleared the land and built a one story log house. Trees had to be cut to clear the road eastward to Warwick Village.

In 1877 sons Thomas (1850–) and Charles (1854–1935) were listed as tenants of the farm. That same year Charles married Delilah May Wilkinson (1861–1906), daughter of neighbours Robert and Eliza (Lambert) Wilkinson. Charles and Delilah lived on the home farm. In the late 1880s a new brick house replaced the old log house.Delilah, born February 12, 1861 became ill with typhoid fever and died October 22, 1906, at the age of 45. Their first born, Ann Elizabeth, was born on October 5, 1878 and died November 2 of the same year. Albert (born April 18, 1881), Edward (born January 1, 1885), Robert J. (born May 28, 1897) and Mary Grace (born October 25, 1900) made up the rest of the family.*

Charles remarried, to Sarah Jane Brush of Forest. They moved to London and their son Robert J. took over the homestead. Robert married Addie Janes in 1922.

Robert and Addie’s daughter Janet and son George attended SS#15 on the Egremont Rd. They, and 38 other schoolmates, were taught by Loretta Logan. Other teachers, Jessie Cran and Ruby McMillan, boarded at the Hawkins’ during the school year. In the fall, the children marched to the Orange Hall in Warwick Village where school projects were judged at the School Fair. Fruits, vegetables and baking displays were judged inside the Hall, while calves were tied up to a fence for judging outside. The school also toured the Elarton Salt Works to see how salt was taken from below the ground and processed.

Often a neighbour, Milton Barrett, gave Janet and George rides with his horse and buggy down the rutty Egremont Rd.

Hawkins family on Egremont Rd.: Annie Moore standing, Delilah Hawkins, Robert in wagon, Edward holding handle of wagon, Albert with bicycle, Charlie Hawkins. Courtesy J Firman.

Robert J. Hawkins grew peas for the cannery, and with a team of horses would bring them to the smelly pea vinery north of Warwick Village. After the peas were removed the vines were brought back home for ensilage for the cattle. The piles would heat up and ferment and a sweet aroma filled the barn. The cattle relished it mixed with chop.

Strawberry socials and fowl suppers were a big event every summer and fall. They were held in the old large church sheds that had been built for parking horses and buggies.

In 1932 the Lambton County Plowing Match was held on Carmen Ferguson’s farm, east of Warwick on the corner of Egremont Rd. and First School Rd. The Warwick Women’s Institute catered the supper held in the Knox Presbyterian Church shed.

Les McKay from Warwick Village brought his steam engine and water tank for threshings at the Hawkins farm, which took two or three days. Neighbour women helped each other prepare three meals a day for at least 10–12 men. Laundry tubs were set out on a bench to warm up in the sun for the men to wash up before their meals.

In 1936 when Janet was ten years old, her father sold the farm to Ernie McKay and moved the family to the 4th Line NER, to the eastern edge of Warwick Twp. A cistern in the ground caught the rain water from the eavestroughs to provide soft water for washing. Addie Hawkins baked her own bread and made butter. An iceman delivered blocks of ice for the icebox. Gordon Vance brought groceries around once a week. The Hawkins children attended the White School SS#8, two miles from home.

In 1940, a neighbour, Wilson Butler, who worked at the Saunders Machine Shop in Watford, took Janet and seven other students to Watford High School every day, for a fee, in what was the original school bus. But the war was on and tires and gas were rationed, so after a year he wasn’t able to give them a ride. Janet then stayed with relatives in Sarnia while attending Sarnia Collegiate Institute. During her high school years Janet was allowed out of school in April, on farm leave.

In 1945 Robert sold his farm again and moved to Plympton Twp. Janet married a neighbour, Harold C. Firman (1926–1997), in 1950. The wedding took place on the Hawkins’ veranda while the guests were seated on the lawn. Janet and Harold settled on a farm a few miles away. Then, in 1961, they moved to the Janes homestead on the 2nd Line NER (Brickyard Line).

After Addie died, Robert J. Hawkins married Edith (Peg) Dewar and moved to Forest, Ont.

Chapter 24 of 25 - Hawkins Family

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