Born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1849, Hawley attended Catholic parochial schools and the Christian Brothers College there.

The Galveston area was a center of an urbanized population, including many German immigrants and African-American freedmen, groups that favored the Republican Party.

[1] In 1896, the one-term Democratic Congressman Miles Crowley chose not to run for reelection in Texas's 10th congressional district, which at the time included Galveston County.

Hawley also realized the likely effects of the poll tax passed by the Texas Legislature in 1901, which sharply reduced voting by minorities and poor whites.

Total voter participation dropped markedly in the state in the early 1900s, essentially ending Republican and Populist competition and leaving elections to be dominated by white Democrats.

In 1899, taking advantage of the situation in following the Spanish–American War, Hawley acquired 77,000 acres of land in Cuba and established the Cuban American Sugar Company.

In 1921, he was living at 36 Gramercy Park in New York City with his good friend, artist Arthur G. Learned[7] and Mr.