James Boyd Hawkins

Colonel James Boyd Hawkins (December 27, 1813 – May 11, 1896) was an American planter and rancher. He moved from North Carolina to Texas in the 1840s, and he established the Hawkins Ranch, a working sugarcane plantation, operated by 101 enslaved African Americans by 1860. After the American Civil War, he replaced the slaves with paid laborers and convicts, and gradually turned his landholdings into a cattle ranch.

Early life James Boyd Hawkins was born on December 27, 1813, in Franklin County, North Carolina. His father, John Davis Hawkins, was "land owner in Franklin and Warren counties" who "served in the state senate, 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840." His mother was Jane A. Boyd. He settled near the Caney Creek, a Southern plantation in Matagorda County. With the invention of barbed wire, he turned his plantation into a cattle ranch.

Personal life Hawkins married Ariella Alston, the daughter of Congressman Willis Alston, in 1834. They had eight children.

Death and legacy Hawkins died on May 11, 1896, in Matagorda County, Texas. The town of Hawkinsville, Texas was named in his honor. The Hawkins Ranch became a cattle ranch.