From Proud Heritage, Vol. 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
This name with this spelling has weathered many storms for many years across America. The first of this branch of the family has been found 1785/86 as German immigrants from Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah Valley, and there are records of the name in Penn sylvania about fifty years earlier. This branch became diluted with Scots-Irish of Virginia by the second generation after migration. A little English and a dab of French, probably some Dutch and goodness knows what else had been added, but the name is still considered German. No Germanic characteristics have been retained nor any German traditions still observed.
The first to come to Texas and the Dallas area were the proverbial three brothers: John Hawpe, Roland Montgomery Hawpe and Trezevant Calhoun Hawpe. It is known that they camped overnight within the northeast boundaries of Texas in December 1845. They came here from the area of Weakley County, Tennessee and Graves County, Kentucky.
John Hawpe was a single young man. He returned to Tennessee where he died in 1849 and is buried near his mother in Cavett Cemetery near Paris, Tennessee, just a quarter mile from the Kentucky border. He had a Peters Colony land grant for a single man which was sold unlocated after his death. His estate was settled by his brother, Trezevant Hawpe, in the Dallas County probate court.
Roland Montgomery Hawpe was also a single young man on his first trip to Dallas. He made four trips from Tennessee/Kentucky to the Dallas area; he moved his family by ox wagon three times between 1859 and 1874! He apparently went back to Tennessee with his brother, John, the first time, because he is on the tax list in Weakley County, Tennessee for the year 1849. He married in Graves County, Kentucky in 1850. His wife died in 1853, one week after the birth of their first child.
Roland Hawpe married again in 1854 to Eliza Jemima Sims Butler, a widow with a daughter. Roland and Eliza had six more children. Roland sold his land in Kentucky in 1859 and moved his family to Dallas County, Texas. He lived near Lancaster most of the time, but was known to be in Tarrant and Kaufman Counties, also. One of his children died and was buried in the cemetery in Terrell. He enlisted in the Confederate Army after the death of his brother, T. C. Hawpe. He served briefly until March, 1864. It is said he lost everything he owned during the war. In trying to recoup he moved from Texas to Kentucky and back again twice between 1866 and 1874. He then remained in Lancaster until his death from a stroke in 1878. He was buried on the Miller place where the family was living at the time, and the grave has been lost.
Roland Hawpe’s widow packed up and moved back to Kentucky after his death. After the children became grown and Oklahoma was opened for settlement, some of the children and the mother moved to Oklahoma and settled. One son, Charley Bartlett Hawpe, moved from Oklahoma and settled in Keene, Johnson County, Texas. Members of this family still live in the area near Keene.
The sister of these three men, Mary Hawpe, came to Dallas County in the 1840’s, also. It is believed that she originally came to look after the one-year old child of her brother, T. C. Hawpe, and to make a home for him and the child. She married Andrew Jackson Witt, brother of Preston and Pleasant Witt. Mary and her husband lived in Lancaster, and they moved back to Boydsville, Kentucky, also. Some of their descendants live there today.
The oldest of the three men, Trezevant Calhoun Hawpe, came to Dallas County as a widower with a one-year old son, John Roland (Rollen) Hawpe. His first wife and the mother of this child is unknown; she died in Tennessee or Kentucky before he moved to Texas. He married the second time in Dallas County on May 31, 1848 to Electa Ann Underwood Bethurum, widow of Robert Porter Bethurum, and daughter of C(S)yrus and Fannie Underwood. It is said that T. C. Hawpe had selected a home site near Rylie Springs, but abandoned it and moved nearer the settlement of Dallas. The Hawpe home place in Dallas was located at present Augusta and Junius Streets. Roughly, the boundaries of the farm were: Santa Fe Railroad on the south, Junius Street on the north, Henderson Street on the west and Fulton Street on the east. Junius Street at that time was known as “Hawpe Lane” and was the main road leading east out of the settlement toward the present White Rock Lake. This land was not acquired by land grant. T. C. Hawpe received a Peters Colony grant, but it was sold unlocated and was later patented in Tarrant County.
Trezevant Hawpe did some farming; this was necessary for livelihood in that time and place. He did a lot of “trading” also. He owned a large amount of land (or at least had title to it) and the economics of the era allowed for the sale and exchange of land in lieu of money. Trezevant Hawpe served as Sheriff of Dallas County for two terms of office, 1850-1854. He presided over the first hanging in the county in 1853. He was also sheriff at the time of the “Hedgecox Wars”, a bitter dispute between Peters Colony administrators and the settlers.
He organized a regiment of cavalry to serve from the Dallas area during the Civil War. In May of 1862 he was promoted to the office of colonel of the regiment. The regiment, known as “Hawpe’s Regiment of the Texas Cavalry”, became known later as the “31st” Regiment. He saw action in Missouri and Kansas; however, he was wounded early and resigned due to wounds received and was released on November 11, 1862.
Trezevant Hawpe returned home to Dallas and just ten months later (August 12, 1863) was killed in a disagreement with Daniel Caster over the outcome of a sale of hogs.
Hawpe was buying supplies for the Confederate Army and Caster outbid him on the sale. Hawpe became belligerent and argumentative; Caster turned on him and stabbed him seven times. Hawpe died from the wounds received. (Caster was later “no-billed” by a grand jury.) There must have been previous ill feeling between the two men; nothing further is known. The newspaper of the day referred to it as an “unfortunate encounter,” but gave no further information.
Trezevant Hawpe was a charter member of the Tannehill Masonic Lodge and was buried with the full honors of that order in the Masonic Cemetery (now Pioneer Park) in Dallas. He was only 43 years old, having been born in Franklin County, Georgia, on September 16, 1820, oldest child of George Hawpe and Mary Campbell. He was survived by his wife, ten children/stepchildren, a brother and a sister.
Trezevant Hawpe died intestate; the estate was in litigation for many years. As stated before, he owned a large amount of land (some of it in partnership with other parties), and for some reason, either due to poor management or bad advice, the bulk of the estate was consumed before settlement ever was completed. As late as 1903 the heirs were still seeking a fair and equitable settlement and division.
The children of Trezevant Hawpe: 1) John Roland (Rollen) Hawpe born 17 January 1845, probably Tennessee, died 1921, Johnson County, Texas. 2) Selinah Elizabeth Hawpe born 24 September 1850, Dallas County, Texas, died 17 September 1932, Johnson County, Texas; married Thomas Benton McPherson, lived in Johnson County. 3) George Timolian Hawpe born 29 June 1852, Dallas County, Texas, died 23 May 1914, Dallas, buried Grove Hill; married Laura Elizabeth Sypert 11 May 1876, Dallas. 4) Cora Eudora Hawpe born 26 February 1854, Dallas, Texas, died 26 September 1943, Johnson County, Texas; married Jacob Marion McPherson, 20 January 1871, lived in Johnson County, Texas. 5) Wellington (Wake) Lattimer Hawpe born 8 February 1856, Dallas, Texas, died Oklahoma, buried Oklahoma; married Albina Caton in Dallas, lived Cisco/Ranger area during early marriage, reared a large family and later settled in Oklahoma. 6) Matilda Louisa Hawpe born 18 December 1857, Dallas, Texas, died 9 December 1922, Johnson County, Texas, buried Johnson County, Texas; married Dallas Thompson 3 November 1873, Dallas, Texas, reared a large family in Johnson County, Texas. 7) Frances E. (Electa ?) (Fanny) Hawpe born 17 November 1859, Dallas, Texas, died 18 November 1877, Dallas, buried Pioneer Cemetery; married Gardner J. Bankhead, one child, died age 3. (8) Neutonia (Tony) T. (Trezevant?) Hawpe born 29 September 1862, Dallas, Texas, died Fall 1888, Dallas; married (1) Charles White, married (2) G. T. (Tom) Hale, one child, Herman Hale.
By Coye Hawpe, (Mrs. George A. Hawpe, Jr.), Dallas
