The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-24
MRS. HAWKINS TOOK CENSUS.
Her Struggles with the Law and an
Old Soldier.

olu COAuAeEs
Raleigh, N. c., Nov. 22.-The first
time that the census was taken by a
woman was in 1890. when such was
done with unusual accuracy and skill
by Mrs. Marie E. Hawkins of Macon
county, North Carolina. Ten years lat
er Mrs. Hawkins again was commits
stoned to do this work, and started for
the second time on a task which re-
quired her to walk between two hun
dred and fifty and three hundred miles
through the rugged, wild country of
the Blue Ridge mountains.
The supervisor of the district told
Mrs. Hawkins plainly that a woman
could not be employed as enumeration
Such a thing he said, was unheard
of" Fortunately, however. Mrs. Haw-
kins read the newspapers, although 70
secure them a walk of eight miles a
day to the nearest postoffice at High
lands was necessary. She was, there
fore, enabled to reply promptly to the
supervisor that Miss Phoebe Cozzens
OF st. Louis had been appointed super
visor of district, and that what could
be done as a whole could surely be
done in part. To this, he answered that
he would appoint her husband, provid-
ed that he was an old soldier, and add
ed that he might then delegate her to
do the work. Mrs. Hawkins replied:
THE work can not be delegated, who
soever is appointed and takes the oath
must do the work.
At this critical point in the decision
rival for the place presented himself,
a physician and old soldier who claim
ed it through an order issued by Por-
ter, the commissioner, which stated
that ex-soldiers should have the pref
erence above anyone else. When, how
ever, Mrs. Hawkins heard her adver-
sary boldly assert, ut is the law that
soldier is to have the place in pref
erence to anyone else she concluded,
as she says, that a man who thought
AN order from the head of a depart
ment- constituted or made a awrand
did not know that such must be ac-
complished by an act of Congress, was
not very formidable opponent. There
was a good deal of undetermined work
on the part of the old soldier but final
ly through sheer mastery OF the sub
ject Mrs. Hawkins received the APP
pointment, not, however, until about
the third of June of the year 1890. She
had then long passed her fiftieth
birthday.
weeks of Hard Work.
From Mrs. Hawkins home, an eerie,
high place far away from the sight OF
other human habitations. the township
reaches out fourteen miles in three d.
rections. At the beginning of each
week she would go up the Blue Ridge
to make her start, and not until the
sun was we'll down the following Sat
urday would she again darken her own
doorway. From cabin to cabin she
walked. they being sometimes twenty
and thirty miles apart. At the close of
the day she rested wherever night
overlook her.
In Macon county the two Carolinas
and Georgias come together in a sort
of triangle. This makes it quite pos
sible for justice to be evaded by the
simple means of stepping over the bor-
dering line. Here strange things oc-
cur and desperate risks are run. In
fact, in certain parts the district is
very much of a criminal settlement.
It might also be termed the heart of
the moonshiners. This practice, the
curse of the mountaineers' life. of dis
tilling Illicit whisky, makes them sui