Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-04
JEFFERSON LOSES \ SON Whose Life Added Luster to
 Her Fame. HON. JAMES E. HAWKINS Gathered to His Father After Life of Honor and Usefuness-A Bographi-
 cal Sketch.

Hon. James 1G. Hawkins, who for the past two months has been confined to his bed, died yesterday afternoon at 4:2O o'clock. For the past three days he had been lingering, half conscious, between life and death, and physicians had given his case up as hopeless one. Physicians had administered everything known to the profession that was applicable to his case, but at last they saw that deaths icy hand had laid hold of him and that his existence here could be but short at the most. His beloved family remained at his side and administered to his wants until the end.
 He leaves wife and six children. The funeral will take place from the Church of the Advent this afternoon at 4:30 o'clock and the interment will take place in the old family burial ground at Ely ton cemetery. The pail bearers had not been decided upon last night, but will be this morning.
 Biographical Sketch.
 James E. Hawkins, who at the time of his death was assistant United States district attorney was born in Elvton April 10. ]S5l. He was the third son of Dr. Nathaniel Hawkins He comes from ancestry on both sides of honest, sturdy and industrious stock, making no pre- tention to nor covetlng any of the glitter and show of life, but resting deserVedly npon genuine worth. His grandfather was one of the first white men to in wade the forest of Jones valley with his gun and all, and share it's primitive fastnesses with the Indian, panther and bear. Ike settled where Woodiawn now is in 1873, but soon afterwards moved over to Village creek and settled on what for three-fourthS of a century has been known as the Hawkins plantation pr. Nathaniel Hawkins was the third of five sons and made an enviable reputa- ton as a physician of skill, dying in 1S77
 AS all of the southern fortunes were swept away by the war the draining young James had received as farmer boy stood him in good hand then, for he and his brothers took the blows and fin ished out the rows where the negroes had left them when Wilson's raid stopped farming operations in the spring of 1865 He then spent four years on the farm In 1869 he entered the University of the South at Sewanee. He remained there three years. In September, 1872 he was admitted to the bar before Judge Mudd In November of the same year he mar ried Miss Temple Fitts of Tuskaloosa, and since that time has practiced law in this county.
 combined virtues of his parents, having the activity, push, sagacity and ambi- tion of the yankee, and the courage, com mon sense and genial affability of his southern ancestry. He soon showed a taste for public life, and his profession gave him full opportunities for the culti- vation of his taste. He became at once prominent as a worker and writer in the hard-fought political contests Waged af- ter he attained his majority
 sIn December, 1874, he removed to Shel- by county, where he formed a law part nership with Senator John T. Morgan. He remained there two years, and re- turned to this city
 In 1880 he was the democratic nominee for representative in the legislature, and was defeated after hot contest by majority of z. Again in 1882 he was the democratic nominee and defeated his op- ponent and served his constituents with credit to himself and the county. In De cember, 1880, he was appointed assistant solicitor, in which capacity he served for six years. In December, 1884 he was elected solicitor for this county, and then again in 1886.
 In 1892 he was the choice of Jefferson county for congress
 He was one of the few native Jeffersol4 county young men who appreciated the grand advantages possessed by this county, and kept pace with it's rapid progress and enjoyed. the fruits of it's development.
 He had been amply able to hold his own with the splendid intellect and energy that had crowded his profession from nearly every state in the union. His high sense of justice even-tempered judgment and f~l discretion, backed by thorough knowledge of law and long experience in criminal prosecution, made him an officer that the courts and at \ torneys respected and admired, and his genial humor, kind heart and affable nature won friends throughout the south. He was one of the most successful so- licitors in the state, not to say In the south.