Untitled
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901- 923-924
WILLIAM HAWK, now living retired in Platteville, Grant county, was born in Cornwall, England, in September, 1840, and one of the six children born to George and Johanna (ROLINS) HAWK, also natives of Cornwall, where they were married. On the voyage of George HAWK, wife and children to America, Mrs. HAWK was taken sick and died, her body being buried at sea. Mr. HAWK, with his children, finally reached Potosi, Wis., where he worked in the lead mines until his death, which occurred in 1869. The children all attained maturity in Potosi, where they were educated, the five besides William being born and named in the following order: George, who was a soldier in the 21st Wis. V.I. during the Civil war, is married and is a resident of Platteville, Wis.; Johanna, widow of William GILBERT, resides in Pittsburgh, Kans., with her daughter, Elizabeth; Elizabeth, wife of Philip KNAPP, resides in Oregon, and has several children; Alice, widow of William CHESTER, lives in Missouri, and has four children, and Mary, widow of John FORSYTHE, of Central Illinois, also has four children.
William HAWK enlisted in 1861 in the United States Volunteer service, was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, under Gen. Thomas, and took part in a number of hotly-contested battles, including those of Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, and all those in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama and through the campaign under Gen. Sherman, inclusive of his historical march through Georgia to the sea, and at the close of the war was honorably discharged with the rank of corporal.
While home on furlough in May, 1864, Mr. HAWK married Miss Mary GRINRODD, daughter of Edmund and Elizabeth GRINRODD, formerly of New York State, but both now deceased. After the close of the war Mr. HAWK lived on a farm east of Platteville one year, and in 1867 retired with his wife and children to his handsome residence in Platteville, where he still resides in ease and comfort. The following is the record of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. HAWK; William A., who died a young man; Etta M., wife of John BROADBACK, a butcher in Vandalia, Ill., and the mother of three children - William, Girdon and Gladys; Fannie E., a graduate from the State Normal school at Platteville, and now a teacher at Warsaw, Mo., where she has been for the past five years; Edwin G., who married Miss Laura PITTS, and has one son, Kenneth, and now resides in Platteville; Johanna, wife of Thomas Julian, of Montfort, Wis.; John J., a resident of Vandalia, Ill.; and Alice S., who received a college education, and is in the millinery business in her native city of Platteville.
Religiously Mr. HAWK and family are Episcopalians, and politically Mr. HAWK is a Republican, under the auspices of which party he has held the office of town treasurer six years. He is an enthusiastic member of Sherman Post, G.A.R., and socially he and family are among the most respected residents of Platteville.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck