James Hawkes

American Missionaries in Hamadan, Iran; with Sarah "Belle" Sherwood Hawkes sitting on floor at right and James W. Hawkes front above James W. Hawkes (1853–1932), was an American minister, a missionary in Qajar Iran, and a founder of a school.

Biography James W. Hawkes was born in 1853 in Montezuma, Parke County, Indiana. He spent his formative years in nearby Rockville, Indiana. Hawkes spent two years at Wabash College before transferring to Princeton College, which granted him his undergraduate degree; he attended Union Theological Seminary in New York City in order to be trained as a missionary. In the early 1880s Hawkes began his career as a missionary in Persia.

He was married in 1884 to Sarah "Belle" Belknap (née Sherwood; 1854–1919), and they had a son a year later, which died shortly after birth. His wife managed the local girls schools, including the Faith Hubbard School for Girls in Hamadan, and later the Hamadan Jewish Girls' School.