Amos E. Hawkins
3/19/1925 - 2/9/2021

For as long as I can remember, my father, Amos Hawkins, was always fascinated by the old charcoal iron furnaces of the Southern, Ohio area. By the time I was born, my parents had relocated to Palm Beach County, Florida. When I was a little kid, we would always take our summer vacation in southern Ohio where my maternal grandmother lived. There, among other things, my dad would take me around to all of the furnace remains. I remember that there were a few back in the 1960's with the casting house and other buildings that were still standing.

The Hawkins Family c. 1976
Amos's family c.1976
L-R Amos, Ruth (wife), Dennis (son)
My grandmother passed away in 1983 and her house was left to the elements. She had 10 kids and no will which made dividing everything up problematic. Sometime in the mid 1980's, my parents were retired and wanted to go back to Ohio and restore the old house. Every year, from then until about 2002, they made an annual pilgrimage back to Ohio for the entire summer. The house got a new roof and many other repairs to keep it in good condition. While there, my dad went full throttle doing research on the area furnaces.

In the early 1990's, I went back as an adult to visit them in their northern home. I never developed a lust for furnaces like my dad did, but that didn't stop him from taking me around and showing me all his latest discoveries concerning furnaces. On one of the last "field trips", he took me to a funeral home in downtown Ironton that was a former iron master's house who worked for the underground railroad. The people who owned the funeral home were extremely gracious and even gave us a tour and showed us the underground tunnel that was used for the railroad. They didn't let us run through it, but my understanding was that it exited somewhere along the Ohio River banks. The way I heard it, runaway slaves would enter the tunnel at the banks of the Ohio River and follow the tunnel up to the Iron Master's house where it led to a secret room in the basement. Slave trackers were not able to find the slaves, and once the dust was settled, the runaway slaves would then move on to the next stop on the underground railroad.

Amos at 17
Photo of Amos At 17 Taken From His Coast Guard ID
My dad was born in Northern Ohio near Cleveland. There really aren't that many furnaces up that way. As a teenager, he took summer jobs working on ships that sailed on the Great Lakes transporting freight. Upon graduating high school, Uncle Sam found out he had experience working on ships and sent him a letter saying "Welcome To The US Navy".

After the war, he went to Rio Grande college in Ohio. It was there that he met my mother. He never told me, but I suspect that frequent trips down to the Ironton area where my mother lived at the time is when he first developed an interest in Charcoal Iron Furnaces.

Photo of Book From that point on, learning about the history of the furnaces in Lawrence County became his passion. He even wrote a book, "Carolyn's Journal", that was published in 1998 which told the story of a woman that came to the Ironton area from back East. I helped him work on his book which made it possible for him to publish it. His original manuscript was hand written on paper and in cursive. For many days, we would both sit at the table and he would read his handwriting while I would type it into the computer. Several people have asked to download it so I am posting a PDF version of it here if anyone wants to read it. Once it was published, he sold a bunch of them, but it didn't exactly make the Best Seller's list. I think it was more of a bucket list thing rather than a money making thing anyway.

You can go to this page to download "Carolyn's Journal" and some of his other books that were never published.

Back around the year 2000, there wasn't much information about the furnaces of Lawrence County and Ironton on the Internet. My dad came to me and said that he wanted to put some of his furnace research online for others to read about. As far as I know, this was the first website to detail the furnaces in the Ironton and Lawrence County area. This website is based on his research. I only supplied the technical skills to format it into a website and put it online. Today there are numerous websites dedicated to furnaces of all sorts.

A few years later, my dad and another furnace enthusiast, Carl Malone, plus a few others, got together and formed the Mount Olive Furnace Park Corporation. Shortly after, my dad purchased Olive Furnace and deeded it to the corporation. Although the goal was to completely rebuild Olive furnace, I don't think that anything was done other than some clearing and getting it listed as a historic site.

Olive model built by Amos
Around 2005, my dad worked for over a year building a scale model of Olive furnace to display at an event.

Although my dad could have been considered an expert when it came to Charcoal Iron furnaces, none of that expertise has rubbed off on me. So if you have questions about the old furnaces and how they worked, I'm not the guy to ask. I'm still going through his things after he passed away, and if I find anything interesting, I will post a copy here.

Dennis Hawkins.

Obituary

Photo of Amos Hawkins
Amos E. Hawkins, 95, a long time resident of North Palm Beach, FL, went to be with our Lord and Savior on February 9, 2021 after a short battle with pneumonia. He was born on March 19, 1925 in North Kingsville, OH.

As a teenager, Amos sailed cargo ships in the great lakes. He was a WWII veteran of the US Navy operating one of the world's first fire control (gun aiming) computers aboard the USS Lejeune, a troop transport ship. He often spoke of the atrocities returning troops told who liberated the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. After his discharge, he attended Rio Grande College where he studied to be in the ministry. College was where he met and married his wife, Ruth (Robinson). Later they moved to Florida where he earned his master's degree in education and taught elementary school for 26 years.

He had a passion for gardening. Until just recently, he did all his own lawn work and had a vegetable garden every year and many fruit bearing trees in the yard. He loved growing tomatoes, beans, corn and giant pumpkins. He also had a passion for growing flowers in the yard. With his green thumb, nearly everything he planted would grow and thrive.

Amos is survived by his wife of 73 years, Ruth; a son, Dennis of The Acreage, FL; two grandsons, Christopher of Jupiter, FL and Andrew of Middletown, DE; one granddaughter, Kathryn Tromblay of Dacula, GA; and six great-grandchildren, Lillian, Charles, Nathan, Claire (Tromblay), Luna and Serena.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles E. C. and Ruby Lillian (Brydle) Hawkins; his son, Charles E. Hawkins (1994); his first daughter-in-law, Jacci Hawkins-Gilbert (2010); and four sisters, Lora Harwood, Peg (Minnie) Blayney, Mary Hawkins (1994), and Emma Remaley (2017).

Visitation will be at 10:00 AM, Wednesday, February 17, 2021, with a graveside funeral service will immediately following at 11:00 AM in the Royal Palm Memorial Gardens Cemetery and Funeral Home, West Palm Beach, FL, with pastor Larry Richardson officiating.

Amos was a long time member of The Gideons and helped start their Northern Palm Beach County chapter. Over the years, he placed many Gideon Bibles and spoke in numerous churches. In lieu of flowers, please donate Gideon Bibles In Memory Of Amos Hawkins. In Memory Cards are available in most churches and will be available at the services. Online donors may visit www.gideons.org.