JUDD, Hawkins

JUDD, PETTIS

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/28/2014 at 13:36:09

Biography ~ Hawkins Judd

"Biographical and Historical Record of
Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa"
(Lewis Publishing Company (1887)), p. 634:

HAWKINS JUDD, was born in Weatherfield, Vermont, October 27, 1802. He came West to Pike County, Illinois, when he was a young man, to take up the hardships of a pioneer life. He was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, for which he received a bounty of 160 acres of land. After the war he was elected school commissioner, and he entered the land that is now the site of Pittsfield, Pike County, Illinois, and took an active part in organizing the town in its first settlement. December 29, 1841, he was married to Almira O. Pettis, the daughter of Stephen and Olive Pettis. Mr. Pettis was a soldier and Colonel in the war of 1812, at that time living in New York State. After the close of the war he, with his family, moved to Pike County, Illinois, and was one of the early settlers of that county. Mrs. Judd lived in Pike County from her eleventh year until the spring of 1854, when Mr. Judd and his family, of wife and five children, moved to Franklin Township, Decatur County, Iowa. The children were -- Newton, Oscar, Stephen, William and Mary J. One year after coming to Iowa another son, Allen, was born. Mr. Judd had lost his health in Illinois, and removed to Iowa for a change of climate. His health improved, and he went into the business of buying and selling land on time and helped many to get homes in the beautiful State of Iowa. When the land office was closed in Chariton, Iowa, and his sons were old enough to help him he settled down to farming, and at the time of his death had a fine homestead of 600 acres. He gave his children land for farms, or the money with which to get themselves homes, his wish being to have his family settle near him, but Stephen and William chose their homes in the State of Kansas, in Bourbon County, where William is still living. Stephen died in September 1873, aged twenty-six years. The others live in Iowa, near where their parents first settled. Allen, the youngest of the family, is an Episcopal clergyman, of Oskaloosa. All are married and have children, there being fourteen grandchildren in the family. Mr. Judd died in 1871. Mrs. Judd is still living near Garden Grove.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2014