A Mountain Logging Team

By Tina Hawks Gibson © 2001

Online: January, 2001

The William (Bill) Hawks on the far right of the picture is the son of William (Will) Hawks and Roda Puckett, Roda was Will Hawks' first wife, his second wife was Savannah Pruitt, parents of Floyd Hawks. (Click here to read the Floyd Hawks story.)

Photo taken around 1905-1910.

This picture was taken down over the mountain around the Doe Run area [Patrick County, Virginia], where the cabins of Will, and Bill, and Erby once stood. I did notice on your site that you have Serena Pruitt instead of Savannah [as Floyd Hawks mother]. I am pretty certain it is Savannah, according to our family Bible and other sources.

The picture belonged to Homer and Ruth Tate Hawks, Homer was Brother to my Father, Edgar Wise Hawks, Homer and Edgar were sons of William (Bill) Hawks and Sarah Catherine (Kate) Marshall Hawks.

My Father and his Brothers, like Floyd, were farmed out when my Dad was about eight. His Mother had died, and when Bill remarried, a woman with three children, there was no room for the boys, so Homer, Les, and Edgar were sent to relatives or to work for whoever would take them in. When my Dad was about 12, he and Les walked from Ararat, Virginia, to West Virginia, to get work in the coal mines, He always told me they left with enough money to buy a loaf of bread, and slept under bridges and ate the loaf of bread on the trip.

My Dad loved the Blue Ridge Mountains. My Mother insisted on getting her children away from the coal mines, so we ended up on a farm in Ohio. Dad retired from the mines in the 60's with silicosis and black lung. He died in 1992, but we still go to the mountains a couple of times a year and make a trip over the mountain to his old homeplace. His last request was to be buried with his Mother and Father in the old Puckett cemetery on Doe Run. But we buried him on the family farm, so he would be near, but we bring him a rock every year from the Blue Ridge Mountains and place on his grave. The Blue Ridge Mountains will always be home to him.

Thanks very much, would love to have the picture on your site. Maybe someone can identify the other boys, I think they are brothers to Bill, but can't be sure.

Editor’s Note: A Special Thanks to Tina Hawks Gibson for sharing this old family photograph.