Representative Joseph H. Hawkins

Joseph H. Hawkins (c. 1785–1823) was a United States Congressman from Kentucky and an early supporter of the colonization of Texas. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, about 1785, at a time when the region was transitioning from frontier territory to a more settled community within the early American republic. Little is recorded about his family background or early childhood, but he pursued an academic course in his youth, preparing himself for a professional career at a moment when formal higher education in the West was still limited.

After completing his preliminary studies, Hawkins read law, following the common practice of legal apprenticeship rather than attending a formal law school. He was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Kentucky. His legal training and growing reputation in local affairs led him into public life. By the opening of the second decade of the nineteenth century, he had become sufficiently prominent to win election to the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Hawkins served in the Kentucky State House of Representatives from 1810 to 1813, during a period of rapid population growth and political development in the state. Within that body he rose quickly, serving two years as Speaker of the House. In that role he presided over legislative deliberations and helped guide the assembly’s work in the years immediately preceding and during the War of 1812, when questions of militia organization, internal improvements, and state finances were central concerns in Kentucky politics.

In 1814 Hawkins advanced to national office. He was elected as a Republican to the Thirteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry Clay, representing Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1814 to 1815. His service in Congress coincided with the closing phase of the War of 1812 and the negotiation of peace with Great Britain, a time when issues of national defense, war finance, and postwar economic policy dominated congressional debate. Hawkins chose not to be a candidate for renomination in 1814 and, upon the expiration of his brief term, he returned to Kentucky and resumed the practice of law. In addition to his legal work, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, reflecting the broader shift of many western politicians into commercial and land-related enterprises as the frontier economy expanded.

In 1819 Hawkins moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, then a rapidly growing port city and commercial hub for the Mississippi Valley. From this base he became involved in business ventures that extended into the newly opening territories to the west. His financial resources and willingness to invest in speculative enterprises led him to support efforts to colonize Texas, then a province of Mexico. His financial contributions aided Stephen F. Austin and others in the colonization of Texas, providing crucial backing for the establishment of Anglo-American settlements that would later play a central role in Texas history.

Hawkins spent his final years in southeastern Louisiana, residing near Madisonville, an area on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain above New Orleans. In 1823 he died in the vicinity of Madisonville of yellow fever, a frequent and often fatal disease in the Gulf Coast region. According to contemporary accounts, his illness was worsened while he was helping distressed sailors near the shore of the lake behind his home, indicating that he contracted or aggravated the fever in the course of rendering assistance during a local emergency. His family’s connection to the southwestern frontier continued beyond his death: his son Norbonne Hawkins later took part in the Texas struggle for independence and was killed at Goliad, linking Joseph H. Hawkins and his descendants to both the political life of early Kentucky and the violent upheavals that shaped the future state of Texas.