Matthew Huston Hawks was a businessman who followed many paths. He married first in Kentucky and after his first wife's death in 1834 he married Elizabeth Major, the daughter of William T Major, one of the important first settlers of Bloomington. Hawks kept a dry goods store, raised flax and had his own flax mill, and had a wool carding shop. He had trained as a young boy to be a tailor after his parents’ early deaths, but abandoned that trade to follow other callings. He eventually moved to Pekin where he ran a hotel.

 

               Mary Hawks married Judge Owen T Reeves and had eight children. Owen Reeves was the commander of the 75th Illinois Regiment in the Civil War. Just one daughter, Lucy McRain Reeves remained in Bloomington throughout her life. She married James W. Jarmin and had a son named Thornton Reeves Jarmin. Thornton Reeves Jarmin was one of the first trustees for the Evergreen Cemetery during its revitalization in the 1960s. His granddaughter says that he even stayed nights in the office building near the entrance during his work there, which was apparently very "hands on."  Another Hawks daughter, Sarah, married Zerah Munsell and with him ran the National Hotel in Chenoa. None of their children would remain in McLean County.

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               This photo shows five generations of the Hawks women (all oldest daughters) when Mary Lander Fay and her unnamed baby daughter visited Bloomington from Chicago: Mrs. Margaret Major, Mrs. Elizabeth Hawks, Margaret Hawks Lander, Mary Lander Fay and her baby daughter.