Bio: Hawks, Ira

Surnames: HAWKS LOKKEN

----Source: ABBOTSFORD, WIS. CENTENNIAL BOOK - 1973

Hawks, Ira

Members of the Hawks family have been prominent in Abbotsford business affairs for many years. In the 1890’s Ira Hawks, great uncle of Robert and David Hawks, prominent Abbotsford businessmen, moved to Abbotsford, Wis. from Virginia. In 1897 he built the house which is the home of Bob Hawks.

In 1918 Ira Hawks bought the opera house and other property from A. J. Young. He also purchased a feed business, then located in the building now occupied by the Kelsey Implement Co.

Later he moved the feed business to the Bal Blatz Brewing Co. warehouse, located where the E. J. Crane and Sons warehouse is now located. He sold the feed business to E. J. Crane in 1923.

The Opera House and a hotel owned by H. J. Cornelius were destroyed by fire in 1926. The buildings were located where Kalepp Bros. and the Abbotsford theatre are now located. In the late 1900’s Ira Hawks disposed of his property in Abbotsford and moved to Galesville., Wis.

After being mustered out of service in World War I, Merlin Hawks, the son of Ira Hawks, and a brother-in-law, Earl Van Ornum, operated a restaurant in Abbotsford. Their business was in the building now occupied by the Abbotsford Variety Store. The two men had married twin sisters from Marengo, Wisconsin and after selling the business both moved to Marengo, where Merlin Hawks served as school principal for over twenty-five years.

Emmett Hawks, grandfather of Bob and Dave Hawks, Abbotsford, moved here from Virginia with horse and wagon, locating on wild land northwest of Curtiss, Clark Co. The wild land where Emmett Hawks made his home was developed into an attractive and prosperous dairy farm by the owner and his son Allen, father of Bob and Dave. Allen Hawks was married to Norma Lokken, pioneer residents of the Curtiss area.