Josiah Wilson and Pernecia Lee (Adair) Hawkins

Josiah is the first of my “first convert” ancestors to join the Church as a single adult, but he was married before the end of the year, eleven months later.

Josiah Wilson Hawkins, son and oldest child of eleven of William Carroll Hawkins (who left North Carolina, went to Kentucky where he married Jane Wilson, then died in Missouri) and Jane Wilson (born in Kentucky, died in Missouri), was the born 5 Jan 1815, in Adair County, Kentucky. Pernecia Lee (Adair), daughter and oldest child of eleven of John Adair or Lee (born in Kentucky, died in Missouri) and Polly Bearden (born in Kentucky, died in Missouri).

Josiah was baptized on New Year’s Day, 1 Jan 1835, at the age of 19, just four days before turning 20. Josiah and Pernecia were married 3 Dec 1835 in Clinton County, Illinois, when Josiah was 20 and Pernecia was 16. After five years of marriage, Pernecia died 12 Dec 1840 in Clinton County, Illinois, after giving birth to their third child, Eliza Jan Hawkins, who died two days earlier 10 Dec 1840. Polly Ann Matilda, born 1838, died in 1843, age 4 or 5. Only their first child, William Carroll Hawkins, born 4 Nov 1836, in Hanover, Clinton, Illinois, survived, making it with his father to Utah and then Idaho, marrying Nancy Ann Brown (?) and Henrietta Catharina Clementina Germer 9 Feb 1859, at the age of 23, having eight children with her, and finally passing away at the age of 69 in Pocatello, ID.

Josiah was endowed 10 Dec 1864 at the age of 49. He died 9 Mar 1889, in March Center, Bannock, ID. He was sealed by proxy to parents 5 Dec 1969 and to spouse 13 Apr 1970, in the Logan Temple. We presume that Pernecia had been baptized, before or after marrying Josiah, but I have no record of it. She was baptized and endowed by proxy on 22 Mar 1906, sealed to parents 13 Oct 1960, and sealed to spouse 13 Apr 1970.

My PAF shows a fourth child of Josiah, William Jackson Wilson, born 12 Nov 1877, in Taswell, Crawford, IN, and dying 2 May 1937 in Frenchlick, Orange, IN. This is likely an error, since Josiah would have been 62 and living in Idaho. This needs to be researched and settled.