DANIEL W HAWK

Fully a quarter of a century ago Daniel W. Hawk came to Atchison county, and during this period, which has been so important in the history of this progressive state, he has been active in the promotion of all enterprises calculated to prove of permanent benefit to his fellow citizens. He is a worthy representative of the agricultural class, to whose labors, more than all others, should be attributed the wealth and importance of this state, now one of the foremost in the Union.

Daniel W. Hawk is one of ten children whose parents were Leonard and Margaret (Ridenouer) Hawk. Both of his grandfathers were valiant soldiers in the war of 1812, and one of our subject's brothers, William Hawk, fought and suffered in our late civil war and is now living in Ohio. He enlisted in Company K, Twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, participated in some of the most important campaigns of the war, and at the battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, January 1, 1863, was severely wounded. Of the children of Leonard Hawk and wife, John, David, Jonathan and Abraham are deceased, as also is the youngest of the family, Mrs. Sarah DeCamp. Mrs. Barbara Need and Samuel Hawk live in Ohio, the state of their nativity. Andrew, of Atchison county, is represented upon another page of this volume. Leonard Hawk, the father of these children. was honored by all who knew him as an upright citizen, a kind neighbor and a devoted husband and father. Both he and his wife were members of the German Reformed church. Death claimed him when he was in his seventy-sixth year. while the wife lived to attain her eighty-sixth year.

The birth of Daniel W. Hawk took place June 15, 1834, in Coshocton county, Ohio. Reared on a farm, he became proficient in all branches of agriculture, and in 1869 removed to Grinnell, Iowa. After spending five years in that place he came to Kansas, and has since been actively engaged in farming in Atchison county. Success crowned his energetic labors to make a livelihood and to lay aside a competence for advancing years, and to-day he is one of the wealthy farmers of his locality. His property comprises five hundred and ten acres of well cultivated land, three hundred and twenty acres being situated in Benton township, while the remainder is across the line in Grasshopper township. A flourishing grove and orchard add to the desirability of the homestead, which is otherwise improved with a modern house and commodious barns and other buildings.

Soon after reaching his majority, Mr. Hawk married Sarah DeCamp, a daughter of John and Mary (Hewitt) DeCamp, both of whom departed this life at their homes in Ohio. Mrs. Hawk's brother, Samuel, who died in Oregon, was a soldier of the Union army during the civil war. Of the eight children born to our subject and wife, one son, Leonard, nineteen years of age, and a daughter, Edith, aged twenty-one years, died the same night. Francis, the eldest son, is a successful farmer of Grasshopper township; Noble is engaged in farming in Benton township; Harvey is a farmer of Center township, and Royal Grant carries on a farm in Mitchell county, Kansas; Emma, the eldest daughter, is the widow of Robert McPhilimy, of Effingham, and Mary Maud is the wife of Carl Stever, of this township. In 1884 the mother of these children was called to the better land.

In his political attitude Mr. Hawk is a stalwart Republican, devoted to the interests of his party. Religiously he is a Lutheran. and contributes liberally toward the support of that denomination. Though now approaching the evening of life, he enjoys excellent health and bids fair to witness many another year of happiness and prosperity.