Sunday, January 3, 2010

My parents, Joe and Josephine Hawk














My parents adored their grandchildren and considered themselves especially lucky to still be living when they were born. Mama and Daddy were beyond the typical age for children when my sister and I were born and they worried a lot about ever seeing us become adults. But they did. I only wished they had been here longer.

My father, Joe Hesacar Hawk, was born November 23, 1899 in Phillips County, Kansas to Joseph Washington Hawk and Martha Jane Hess. On the 1900 census he is listed as "unnamed." In those days they didn't name children right away. On the 1910 census his name was listed as "Joseph H." He always called himself Joe or J.H. It was so much easier then to change your name, especially any given name. I don't know where the middle name of Hesacar came from but a second cousin ten years older also carried the middle name (Walter Hesicar Hawk, b. 1888). Daddy moved to south Texas in 1908 coming to Matagorda County with his family by covered wagon.

My mother, Alma Josephine Bond, was born March 18, 1906 to Benjamin Moses Bond and Nora Mellissie Timmons, near Tishomingo, Johnston County, Oklahoma. They moved back to Red River County, Texas by 1915and then to South Texas where they are shown on the 1930 census in Brazoria County. At that time Mother was living in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana with her husband, Leonard George Showers, who was working in the oilfields. He died March 1, 1936 of tuberculosis. They had one child, Leonard George Showers. In researching the Showers family, I discovered my brother was the 7th Leonard George Showers.