Early Years
Hawxhurst was born on January 24, 1817, in Queens County, New York, and was the son of Townsend Hawxhurst and Rebecca Searing Hawxhurst, members of the Westbury Monthly Meeting, Society of Friends. Few details of his family life are available in part because Quakers ceased recording information about him sometime before 1840 when he married Jane Kissim outside the fellowship. They had two sons born in New York and two sons and one daughter born after they moved to Virginia in 1846. A photograph taken in 1867 shows him as a relatively tall man with dark hair and a graying bushy beard.
Civil War
The governor of the Restored government issued a proclamation calling a special session of the General Assembly to meet in Wheeling, and on July 2, 1861, some loyal Fairfax residents elected Hawxhurst to a two-year term in the House of Delegates, the incumbent having won reelection in the spring to the assembly of the Confederate state. Hawxhurst was appointed to the Committees on Banks and on Privileges and Elections. He also attended the assembly's regular session in Wheeling in the winter of 1861–1862 and extra sessions in May 1862 and the winter of 1862–1863. In the summer of 1862 Hawxhurst took a job as federal tax commissioner in Alexandria. His job was to collect federal tax on property, and in the failure of the owner to pay the tax to confiscate the property and sell it for the benefit of the government. Hawxhurst and his fellow commissioners confiscated numerous properties, including the Lee family's Arlington estate.
Hawxhurst and his brother became leaders among the county's loyal residents, who elected Job Hawxhurst to succeed him in the House of Delegates in 1863. (Reference works have incorrectly identified John Hawxhurst as the Fairfax County delegate for that term.) They became closely associated with some of the most radical white men in northern Virginia during the war. John Hawxhurst resided in Alexandria during most of the war and remained in the city afterward.
Postwar Career
A consistent radical reformer and the only delegate who had also served in the Convention of 1864, Hawxhurst used his legislative and convention experience to be more active and influential than he had previously been. As chair of the important Committee on the Basis of Representation and Apportionment, he argued for unrestrained adult manhood suffrage and asserted that the right to vote was "a great God-given right which, under a Republican government, no man or any set of men have the right to take away." He nevertheless continued to favor disfranchising former Confederates, at least until they begged pardon for starting the Civil War and for fighting against the United States. Hawxhurst proposed a provision in the new constitution, derived from the state's 1866 Cohabitation Act, to enable children born to one or more enslaved parents (who could not have been legally married while enslaved) to inherit property from their natural parents as if born legitimate. He also urged that agents of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands not withdraw from the state while doing work that benefited Virginians. Hawxhurst voted for the reforms adopted as parts of the new constitution, including suffrage for African American men, disfranchisement of unrepentant former Confederates, a homestead exemption, reformation of local government on a more democratic model, and creation of a free public school system.
Later Years
Hawxhurst did not run for office again, but continued to participate in local political meetings in the 1870s. He resumed his prewar business career, and in 1868 borrowed money to purchase a portable steam engine and sawmill, which he operated on the Potomac River as late as August 1874, when he attempted to secure it from his creditors by claiming a homestead exemption for the equipment. He had estimated his net worth in 1870 at $8,000, but he was in financial difficulty by the middle of the decade and was described early in 1875 as bankrupt. Hawxhurst remained in business and received a contract from the Alexandria city government early in 1878 to furnish timber for repairs to a wharf. By 1880 he had moved to Falls Church and continued to operate a sawmill. John Hawxhurst died at his home there on April 17, 1881, and was buried at a cemetery near the courthouse in Fairfax. His widow died in Brooklyn, New York, in January 1895, and his brother died in Falls Church on February 7, 1906.
Time Line
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January 24, 1817 - John Hawxhurst is born in Queens County, New York.
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1840 - John Hawxhurst and Jane Kissim marry in New York. They will have four sons and a daughter.
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February 1846 - John Hawxhurst purchases 470 acres of land on Difficult Run, in Fairfax County.
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1848 - John Hawxhurst sells a half interest of his landholding to his brother, Job Hawxhurst.
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1859 - Brothers John and Job Hawxhurst purchase a small tract of land adjacent to their Fairfax County holding.
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May 1861 - John Hawxhurst, a Unionist, flees his home in Fairfax County, fearing arrest by secessionists.
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June 1, 1861 - John Hawxhurst is chosen a delegate to the state convention of Unionists in Wheeling.
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June 11–25, 1861 - John Hawxhurst represents Fairfax County in the Unionist convention in Wheeling.
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July 2, 1861 - John Hawxhurst is elected to represent Fairfax County in the Restored government's House of Delegates.
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Summer 1862 - John Hawxhurst takes a job as federal tax commissioner in Alexandria.
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January 21, 1864 - John Hawxhurst wins election to a convention called by the Restored government to revise the state constitution.
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February 13–April 11, 1864 - John Hawxhurst serves as a delegate in the convention called by the Restored government to revise the state constitution.
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April 7, 1864 - John Hawxhurst votes against the new constitution proposed by a convention of Unionists.
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June 1865 - John Hawxhurst serves as vice president of a radical political meeting in Alexandria calling for the vote to be given to all loyal male citizens.
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January 31, 1866 - John Hawxhurst testifies before Congress on the mood of former Confederates in Virginia.
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April 1867 - John Hawxhurst calls to order the state Republican Party convention in Richmond.
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October 22, 1867 - John Hawxhurst is elected to represent Alexandria at the Constitutional Convention of 1867–1868.
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December 3, 1867–April 17, 1868 - John Hawxhurst represents Alexandria at the Constitutional Convention of 1867–1868.
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March 1868 - At the constitutional convention, John Hawxhurst accuses John C. Underwood of bribery.
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April 17, 1881 - John Hawxhurst dies at his home in Falls Church and is buried in Fairfax.
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January 1895 - Jane Kissim Hawxhurst, the widow of John Hawxhurst, dies in Brooklyn, New York.
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February 7, 1906 - Job Hawxhurst dies in Falls Church.
References
Further Reading
External Links
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Tarter, B., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. John Hawxhurst (1817–1881). (2018, September 13). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Hawxhurst_John_1817-1881.
- MLA Citation:
Tarter, Brent and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "John Hawxhurst (1817–1881)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 13 Sep. 2018. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: May 10, 2018 | Last modified: September 13, 2018
Contributed by Brent Tarter and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Brent Tarter is founding editor of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.