Bellwood Chase Hawkins (1885-1955)

From the Modesto News-Herald, September 2, 1928.

  Modesto, California attorney Bellwood Chase Hawkins is the newest of several "-wood" suffix names that have been featured on the site, and despite a limited amount of sources mentioning him, was a leading figure at the Stanislaus County bar. A justice of the peace in Modesto in the late 1920s, Hawkins was subsequently named as police judge for that city, and after eight years in that post advanced to judge of the Superior Court of California, where he served for nearly two decades. 

  The son of Nicholas Andrew and Emma E. Hawkins, Bellwood Chase "B.C." Hawkins was born on September 21, 1885, in California. A distinguished figure in his own right, Nicholas Hawkins was a former member of the California state assembly, district attorney for San Benito County, and in 1908 took office as Superior Court Judge for Yolo County. A resident of Woodland, California during his youth, Bellwood Hawkins followed in his father's stead and began the study of law.  In 1905-06 Hawkins was a student at the University of California, and from 1906-07 undertook additional study at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

 Following further studies at Stanford University in 1907, Hawkins married in 1910 to Pearl Minniear (1889-1944), to who he was wed until her death. The couple would have one daughter, Myrne. After the death of his wife in 1944 Hawkins remarried to Aline Hardin, who would survive him upon his death in 1955. 

  Prior to joining his father and brother in the practice of law in Modesto in September 1917, Hawkins held the presidency of the Modesto Abstract and Title Co., which later underwent a name change to the Stanislaus Abstract and Escrow Co. After a decade of practice in Modesto Hawkins was appointed as a justice of the peace for that city in September 1928, and just a few days following that appointment was selected by the city council as police judge for the city. Hawkins' appointment to the bench was occasioned by the death of sitting judge W.H. Rice, and after serving out the remainder of Rice's term won a term of his own as judge in 1930.

   Bellwood Hawkins entered into the race for Superior Court Judge of Stanislaus County in 1936 and in November of that year defeated sitting judge L.J. Maddux. Hawkins' nineteen-year tenure on the bench saw him preside over several high profile trials in the county, including the 1953 trial of Henry Simpson, a Modesto carpenter who was convicted in August 1953 for inciting his 13-year son Clarence to shoot an kill the boy's mother Vivian. Simpson would subsequently be handed the death penalty for his role in the shooting, with that sentence being upheld by the state supreme court in October 1954.

  In addition to his judgeship, Hawkins was a leading club-man in Modesto, being a past master of the Stanislaus Masonic Lodge No. 206, an exalted ruler of the Modesto Elks Lodge, and was a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West. In March 1955 Hawkins took ill and was transported to a Modesto hospital, where on March 16th he died after having suffered "severe internal hemorrhages." He was survived by his wife and daughter and was interred at the Acacia Memorial Park in Modesto.

From the Oakdale Leader, March 17, 1955.