Hawes was born in Dorchester, Province of Massachusetts, on October 23, 1772,[1] the son of John and Sarah.
[2] In 1816, Hawes founded the first cotton rag paper mill at North Yarmouth's Second Falls, and ran it with father-and-son duo Henry and George Cox.
With Susan, Hawes had the following children: Marcia Scott (1818), Clarissa (1820), Joseph (1822), Mary Goold (1824), Matilda (1827), William (1832) and Elizabeth Russwurm (1835).
"[1] Hawes moved to the Back Cove farm (now known as the John B. Russwurm House) of his wife and her ex-husband after 1817.
[7] In 1850, Hawes owned a house on Yarmouth's Main Street, where today's First Parish Congregational Church was built in 1867.