HAWKINS, TEXAS

Wood County, East Texas

32°35'30"N 95°12'3"W (32.591694, -95.200936)

U.S. Highway 80 and FM 14
7 miles W of Big Sandy
18 Miles E of Mineola
20 Miles S of Quitman the county seat
17 Miles N of Tyler
W of Longview & Marshall
Population: 1,299 Est. (2016)
1,278 (2010) 1,331 (2000) 1,309 (1990)

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Downtown Hawkins
Photo courtesy Barcly Gibson, 2007

History in a Pecan Shell

Although it had been settled sometime before, Hawkins began life with the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1873. It was granted a post office the same year The population was 400 by the mid 1880s and the town was thriving with most essential businesses and five general stores. But a few years later the population had declined by half. For the 1890 census the town rebounded with a reported population of 500.

In 1914 the town once again dropped population – down to a mere 150 residents. Once again it rebounded – doubling by the mid-1920s and once again reaching 500 by the early 1930s.

After a Depression population decline to 200, oil was discovered just north of Hawkins and the town experienced a boom. That same year a discovery was made inside the city limits and property values went sky-high.

The population in the early 1940s was around 1,200 but it lived up to its roller-coaster reputation when it dipped to 493 by the early 50s. It rose and dipped again – but has remained about the same since the early 1980s – between 1,200 and 1,300 residents.

Hawkins, Texas Landmarks

Hawkins Tx - First United Methodist Church

First United Methodist Church
Photo courtesy Barcly Gibson, 2007

First Baptist Church
Photo courtesy Barcly Gibson, 2007
More Texas Churches

Hawkins, Texas Chronicles

Remembering Integration by Bob Bowman

While the 1954 Supreme Court decision to desegregate public schools "at all deliberate speed" was a moral victory for America, there was another story that has been largely neglected by historians. more

Take a road trip

East Texas

Hawkins, Texas Nearby Towns:
Quitman the county seat
Mineola
Tyler
Longview
Marshall
See Wood County

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