The Hawbakers of the 21st Century are descendants of German stock and trace their roots in Portville to the
pioneer days of the 1800s. Their original name was 'Haybaker' (one who bakes hay), but somewhere along the way, an illiterate
family member misspelled the name on government documents.
The legendary Milford Hawbaker moved to the area in 1834, worked as a lumberman, and eventually settled in
Obi, where he and wife Beulah raised 19 children (thus, the legend). Hezekiah was the youngest lad (born April 19, 1856)
and the first Hawbaker able to read and write fluently.
In 1876, Hezekiah and Sarah Wright Gibson Hawbaker begat Jeremiah C. Hawbaker, who begat Lynford Charles Hawbaker
(1895), who begat Jedediah Thomas Hawbaker(1913). Jedediah and Ruth Lila Hawbaker begat James T. Hawbaker (Big Jim)
in 1935.
