CAPT. ELBRIDGE LA FAYETTE HAWK

Sacramento County

Biographies

CAPT. ELBRIDGE LA FAYETTE HAWK

CAPT. ELBRIDGE LA FAYETTE HAWK.--Prominent as a successful rancher and business man Captain Hawk is named for Elbridge Gerry, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and General La Fayette.

Elbridge L. Hawk was born at McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio, on November 30, 1841, the second child and eldest son of John Switzer and Malinda (Dowd) Hawk, all of representative Southern families; the Hawks, of English origin, being among the early settlers of that part of Virginia, devoted to agricultural pursuits, which became West Virginia, while the Switzers were of German origin, and the Dowds came to America from the north of Ireland, in Colonial days, became planters in North Carolina. It is through his mother’s ancestors that our subject is eligible to membership in the Sons of the Revolution, his great-grandfather being Connor Dowd, a native of North Carolina. He was noted for his loyalty as a Whig, and served under Francis Marion, as well as under that other general, Thomas Sumter, helping Marion, by a fearless and unrelenting opposition to the Tories, prevalent in those days in the Colonies, to lead Sir Banastre Tarleton such a long and fruitless chase that the British commander is said to have exclaimed, in reference to Sumter: “Come, boys, let us go back and find the game-cock,” while he added concerning Marion and Dowd, “As for these damned swamp-foxes, the Devil himself could not catch them!”

The Dowds, as well as the Hawks, were true lovers of liberty, and therefore of the great outdoors and plenty of elbow-room, and very soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, Connor Dowd moved into what was then the wilderness of Ohio. There he succeeded in building up a new home, and the members of his family were consistent Protestants, all being Presbyterians or Methodists. The Dowds, in fact, were among the very early permanent settlers of Ohio. They followed agriculture, principally, and did much to bring in desirable immigrants.

David Hawk, the Great-Grandfather of Elbridge La Fayette Hawk, came to Ohio from the “Natural Bridge,” Virginia–known in the Old Dominion as Hawk’s Bridge, and for a century regarded as one of the great natural wonders of America; and his son, Grandfather John Hawk, married a Miss Switzer, five of the Hawks (John and four of his brothers) each marring in time a Switzer girl. The Hawks, as well as the Dowds, came to Ohio in the Ohio Territorial days; and the place where the Hawks settled was then known as Athens County, while later that region was named Vinton County. John Switzer Hawk and Miss Malinda Dowd were married in Ohio on August 1, 1839, and there they became the parents of seven children, in whom longevity and strength of mind and body have been conspicuous.

Captain Hawk attended the public schools of McArthur village, and when sixteen years of age, suffered an irreparable loss in the untimely death of his sainted mother, after which his father’s household was presided over by an older sister. It is of interest that three sisters, one older than Mr. Hawk, are still living in the full vigor of enjoyable health. The father, John Switzer Hawk, was running a general merchandise store at McArthur, and Elbridge clerked for him until something happened that gave a thrill to the keyed-up nation. As already stated, the Hawks loved liberty; but more than that, they were opposed to slavery, and this was their main reason for leaving Virginia and removing to Ohio; and when, on the 12^th of April, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired upon by Edmund Ruffin (under orders from General Beauregard), who afterwards shot himself, some people said because he realized the significance of his name, it convinced young Hawk that his place henceforth must be in the Union ranks. When President Lincoln, therefore, called for men, he was among the first to respond and to raise the mighty chorus, “We are coming, Father Abraham, five hundred thousand strong!” and he enlisted on April 20, 1861, and was assigned to Company G, 18^th Ohio Volunteers, a three months’ regiment, and served in West Virginia under Gen. Charles W. Hill and Gen. George Brinton McClellan, and was mustered out in August, 1861, He reenlisted in September of the same year, as a member of the 18^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (this being a three-year regiment), and was in O. M. Mitchell’s division in Kentucky and Tennessee, and mustered out in March, 1862, at Nashville, Tenn. He recruited as a member of Company F, of the 114^th Volunteer Infantry, was elected first lieutenant, August 12,1862, and promoted to be captain, on February 6, 1863, and mustered out on August 24, 1865, and was in the 1^st (Osterhaus) Division, of the 13^th Army Corps. He commanded his company through the entire Vicksburg campaign, and also at the capture of Fort Hindman, in Arkansas, and in the Red River campaign under General Banks, in 1864. He was ordnance officer of the 1^st Division, 13^th Army Corps, and commanded the recruiting and draft depot, during the draft in New Orleans, from February 12 to April 15, 1865, when he equipped and trained 2,000 New Orleans soldiers in pursuance of General Butler’s orders, which required all residents to register for draft into the Union army or register as enemies. He was retained in service after the mustering out of the regiment, as mustering officer, at New Orleans, until August 24, 1865, when he himself was mustered out. It will thus be seen that Captain Hawk enlisted three times, and was thrice honorably discharged, and that much of his active service was rendered during the time of his third enlistment. He led his company in the following battles and engagements: At Chickasaw Bayou, on December 28-30, 1862; Arkansas Post, on January11, 1863; Port Gibson, Miss., on May 1, 1863 when the regiment captured two guns of the Botetourt (Virginia) Battery; at Champion Hills, Miss., on May 16, 1863; at Black River Bridge, on May 17, 1863; in assaults on the Confederate works, at Vicksburg, on May 19, 1863, and again on May 22; and he was under constant fire from May 19 to July 4, 1863, when Pemberton surrendered to Grant. He was also engaged in Banks’ Red Rived campaign, in 1864, and served in numerous skirmishes. By special order, he was detailed to take command of the draft rendezvous at New Orleans, in February, 1865; and, as aforesaid, helped to enlist, and equip and train some 2,000 soldiers from the vicinity of New Orleans. On June 1, 1865, he was detailed as a mustering-out officer, and served as such until he himself was honorably discharged, on August 24, 1865, as senior captain.

After the war, Captain Hawk took up mercantile pursuits, and in 1866 engaged in business at Circleville, Ohio, in 1867 and 1868 at McArthur, and in Kansas in 1869-1873, he really continued his business interests in Circleville and McArthur for about four and one-half years, and in Kansas he was at Garnett, then the boyhood home of the now noted Senator Capper. In 1873, he decided to come out to California, and on October 9, he arrived at Sacramento, and the same day secured work with the Pacific Ice Company; and ever since he has been more than active, and more and more prominent, in the business life of the capital city. After a while he was teller in the Odd Fellows’, now the People’s Bank; and for five years, he was bookkeeper for the Crocker Company. His farming operation in California begin with the year 1883, when he purchased the celebrated “Orange Ranch” of 480 acres in Placer County, from the late Senator Newton Booth, formerly governor of California, and of this ranch Captain Hawk still retains 240 acres.

In 1889, Captain Hawk entered the real estate field in Sacramento, and formed a partnership with James E. Mills, under the firm name of Mills & Hawk, which was later dissolved. He than accepted as a partner J. C. Carley, and the firm became the Hawk & Carley Company, later Hawk, Hawley, Carley & Company, of which he continued the senior partner until 1911, when he disposed of his interests in it. With his various associates, Captain Hawk has carried out in a very successful manner several important development projects in Sacramento, among them the putting onto the market of no less than twelve subdivisions, actively promoting the same, two of them being the Curtis Oaks, and the West Curtis oaks subdivisions. In addition to his real estate enterprises, he has been busy with other projects, and with five other men he organized and promoted the Central California Canning Company, of which organization he was secretary, until it was merged into the Central California Canneries, which is now the California Packing Corporation, of gigantic proportions. He purchased land in Sutter County, and planted and developed a fruit ranch, now one of the best in the county, producing almost 1,000 tons yearly in hops, prunes and peaches, his son being equally interested with him in this project. This is, in fact, one of the notable ranches in all California, and much credit due to his son, Arthur S., who is now the resident manager. They pay out about $25,000 annually for labor.

Captain Hawk was married on June 13, 1871, at Garnett, Kans., to Miss Barbara Shelly, also a native of Ohio; and two children were born to them. Arthur S. has married Miss Rose I. Gross, and is the father of two children, Blanche Alice, aged ten, and John Shelly, aged six; and Blanche, the second child, has become the wife of W. E. Pinkham, a prominent architect, residing in San Francisco.

Throughout the fifty years of his residence in Sacramento, Captain Hawk has taken an active, prominent part in everything meaning the advancement of the city’s and county’s best interests, and he has given willingly of his time, energy and financial aid in the further development of the natural resources of this district, and in advancing the intellectual life of the community, a factor quite as important to posterity as material progress. His interest in political government is evinced by the fact that he was chosen a member of the California State Assembly from the Eighteenth district, in 1908, and he introduced many patriotic measures, being author of the Lincoln Day bill. That same year, he also went as a delegate to the National Republican Convention, held in Chicago, which nominated William H. Taft. He was the first president of the Ohio Society at Sacramento, and Colonel of the Army and Navy Republican League Club of San Francisco, and of the Sutter Club of Sacramento, he is a member of the board of directors of the Veterans’ Home at Yountville, having been appointed by Governor Stephens. He belongs to Tehama Lodge No. 3 of the Masons, the Sacramento Chapter No. 2, Sacramento Council No. 1, Sacramento Lodge No. 2, I. O. O. F., and to Elks Lodge No. 6. He also belongs to the California Society, Sons of the Revolution. He belongs to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and was its commander in 1914.

Captain Hawk has been exceptionally prominent in the activities, for years, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and has attended nearly every national G. A. R. encampment, and he has missed not more than three state encampments, in thirty-five years. He is a member of the Col. E. D. Baker Post, at Newcastle, which he helped to organize in 1896, and before joining that post, he was a member of the Sumner Post at Sacramento. As departmental commander of California and Nevada he visited nearly every city of the State of California. He was appointed by Governor Gillett Californian representative to the meeting at Gettysburg which decided to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, and he was the guest of Pennsylvania during the celebration, and received a medal from the governor. He entertained members of the 114^th Ohio Regiment at the old campground, on September 19, 1912, in celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of their leaving Camp Circleville, Ohio, over one hundred members being present, and in conjunction with George D. Kellogg of Newcastle he secured an appropriation enabling those participating in the Vicksburg campaign to make the pilgrimage and participate in the celebration of that victory. It seems that on leaving the camp in 1912, Captain Hawk had promised his comrades that in ten years he would entertain them again at the same place; and this he did on September 19, 1922, thus proving a most generous and gracious host, it being then the sixtieth anniversary of that interesting event.

Captain Hawk is particularly active, as an octogenarian of prominence, in the noble Grand Army of the Republic, and he is regarded as in line for commander-in-chief of that vast organization, and has already been mentioned frequently in the columns of the press, for that honor.

Transcribed by Patricia Seabolt.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 460-461. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.