Benjamin Hunkins

Hunkins, born in Charleston, Vermont in 1810, was the son of settler Robert Hastings Hunkins and Hannah Emerson.{{efn|Hunks was grandson of the Revolutionary War Captain Robert Hunkins, and first cousin to poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.{{cite book |last=Whitcher |first=W.F. |title=Descendants of Thomas Whittier in New Hampshire |date=1881 |publisher=The Granite Monthly |pages=[https://archive.org/details/granitemonthlyne04dove/page/336 336]–337 |url=https://archive.org/details/granitemonthlyne04dove}}}}

Hunkins moved to Wisconsin at the age of 28 when his father and family relocated there. He purchased land in what became Waukesha County in the town of Mentor, renamed New Berlin in 1840. The heavily timbered land was cleared by Hunkins for farming, and he cultivated the land himself.{{cite book |editor-last=Quaife |editor-first=Milo M. |title=The Convention of 1846 |series=Publications of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin |volume=27 |place=Madison|publisher=State Historical Society of Wisconsin| year=1919 |page=778 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EY0UAAAAYAAJ&q=The+Convention+of+1846 |access-date=March 9, 2014}} He subsequently got involved in local state politics and became one of the first representatives in the territorial legislature.

On April 5, 1842, Hunkins was elected Chairman of New Berlin's board of supervisors. After serving as Chairman, Hunkins served on the board of supervisors in one-year periods in years 1849, 1852, 1853 and 1858.{{cite book |title=The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin: Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development, and Resources |place=Chicago |publisher=Western Historical Company |date=1880 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028871627/page/n606 575] |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028871627 |quote=The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. |access-date=March 9, 2014}}

Hunkins served in the Wisconsin Territorial House of Representatives in 1843 and 1844.{{cite book|title=The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin|chapter=Territorial Legislatures| place=Madison| publisher=Wisconsin Secretary of State |year=1889 |page=121 |chapter-url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=goto&id=WI.WIBlueBk1889&isize=M&submit=Go+to+page&page=121 |access-date=March 9, 2014}} He was also a delegate to the first state constitutional convention, held in 1846.{{cite book |title=The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin |chapter=Constitutional Conventions |place=Madison |publisher=Wisconsin Secretary of State |year=1889 |page=125 |chapter-url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=goto&id=WI.WIBlueBk1889&isize=M&submit=Go+to+page&page=125 |access-date=March 9, 2014}}

Hunkins was a federal Indian agent for the Green Bay Agency from 1855 to 1857.{{cite web |title=Term: Indian agents |work=Dictionary of Wisconsin History |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society |url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=250&keyword=Green+Bay |access-date=8 February 2014}} He mainly worked with the Menominee tribe, trying to align the United States Government's goals with theirs. Hunkins believed he had made headway in "civilizing the tribe", and called for them to abstain from alcohol.{{cite book |last=Beck |first=David |title=The Struggle for Self-determination: History of the Menominee Indians Since 1854 |year=2005 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=9780803213470 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7TjT40nwkhwC&q=hunkins&pg=PA201 |access-date=30 August 2014}} One of his compatriots in this task was Solomon Juneau, founder of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Juneau died in the arms of Hunkins while visiting the Menominee tribe. During Juneau's decline, Hunkins had acted as his "faithful friend and constant nurse".{{cite book |title=Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 41, number 2, winter, 1957-1958 |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society |url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/wmh/id/44329/show/44293/rec/19 |access-date=31 August 2014}} He also worked with other Native American tribes, including the Stockbridge, Munsee and Oneida tribes. Hunkins was paid $1,000 per year for the position.{{cite book |last=Dorrance |first=James F. |title=The Menominee Indians, 1848-1858: The Making of the Menominee Reservation |date=1955 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hA4zAAAAMAAJ&q=waukesha+hunkins |access-date=2 September 2014}}

In 1860 Hunkins was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly for a one-year term.{{cite book |last=Keane |first=Michael J. |title=State of Wisconsin 2007-2008 Blue Book |chapter=Those Who Served: Wisconsin Legislators 1848-2007 |place=Madison |publisher=Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau |year=2007 |page=148 |chapter-url=http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lrb/bb/07bb/pdf/99-191.pdf |access-date=March 9, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902082357/http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lrb/bb/07bb/pdf/99-191.pdf |archive-date=September 2, 2012 }} He was on the Swamp Land Committee, whose responsibility was to reimburse the general fund from the Swamp Land Fund.{{cite book |title=Journal of the Assembly of Wisconsin: Annual Session, A. D. 1860 |place=Madison |publisher=James Ross |year=1860 |page=1098 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EEUwAQAAMAAJ&q=Assembly+of+Wisconsin+annual+session+1860 |access-date=March 9, 2014}} He was considered to be "a gentleman of decided force and marked ability - strong in mind, clear in judgment, logical in conclusion, and admirably fitted to have taken, under favorable surroundings, a prominent part in public affairs".{{cite book |last1=Horace |first1=Addison Tenney |last2=Atwood |first2=David |title=Memorial Record of the Fathers of Wisconsin: Containing Sketches of the Lives and Careers of the Members of the Constitutional Conventions of 1846 and 1847-8. With a History of Early Settlement in Wisconsin |place=Madison |publisher=Atwood |year=1880 |page=97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ryYuAAAAYAAJ&q=Memorial+Record+of+the+Fathers+of+Wisconsin |access-date=March 9, 2014}}

In 1860 upon hearing that Sherman Booth had been recaptured by federal marshals, Hunkins, who admired Booth, introduced a resolution in the Assembly that the Governor of the State should "declare war against the United States", but the speaker ruled it unconstitutional and it went no further.{{cite book |last=Current |first=Richard N. |title=The Civil War Era, 1848-1873: History of Wisconsin |date=2013 |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society |page=277 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50h5zWNW8YsC&q=wisconsin+hunkins&pg=PA277 |access-date=30 August 2014|isbn=9780870206290 }}

Hunkins was unanimously nominated as State Senator and then was nominated as Secretary of State, but he declined the offers.{{cite news |title=Political Movements: Wisconsin|newspaper=The National Era |page=159 |date=October 4, 1849 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2297&dat=18491004&id=DtYmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ywIGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4050,6020178 |access-date=8 February 2014}}

After leaving state politics, Hunkins relocated to Beaver Crossing in Nebraska. At the age of 88, Hunkins "retain[ed] his mental vigor and occupi[ed] a high place in the estimation of his large circle of friends in Seward County". He died aged 90 on April 27, 1900.{{cite book |last=Waterman |first=John Henry |year=1916 |title=General History of Seward County, Nebraska |page=[https://archive.org/stream/generalhistoryof01wate#page/200/mode/1up 200] }}

On February 11, 1843, Hunkins married Sophrona Hollister.{{cite web |title=Marriages, Births, Confirmations, Baptisms Milwaukee County Wisconsin Genealogy |url=http://linkstothepast.com/milwaukee/mkemarH.php |website=Milwaukee County Online Genealogy and Family History Library |access-date=29 August 2014}} They had children.{{sfn|Waterman|1916|p=200}} Their daughter Carrie Arvilla Hunkins married the politician Eugene W. Chafin.

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{{tree chart|border=0|boxstyle=background:#dfd;| | | | | FOO|y|BAR| | | |FOO= Captain Robert Hunkins |BAR=Lydia Chamerlain}}

{{tree chart|border=0|boxstyle=background:#dfd;| | | | | | | |!| |}}

{{tree chart|border=0|boxstyle=background:#dfd;| | | | | | | FOO |y| BAR | | | | | | | |FOO= Robert Hastings Hunkins|BAR= Hannah Emerson}}

{{tree chart|border=0|boxstyle=background:#dfd;| | | | | | | |,|-|^|-|.| | }}

{{tree chart|border=0|boxstyle=background:#dfd;| | |BOO|y|BART | |FOO|y|SOPH| | | | | |BOO= Eugene W. Chafin |FOO= Benjamin Hunkins|BART = Carrie Arvilla Hunkins |SOPH = Sophrona Hollister}}

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The town of Hunkins, Nebraska was named for Hunkins in recognition of his service. It was eventually renamed Cordova because of issues at the post office.{{cite book |title=Memorial and Biographical Record and Illustrated Compendium of Biography |place=Chicago |publisher=Geo. A. Ogle |year=1899 |page=[https://archive.org/details/memorialbiograph01ogle/page/1101 1101] |url=https://archive.org/details/memorialbiograph01ogle |quote=memorial and biographical record and illustrated compendium of biography. |access-date=March 9, 2014}}

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{{s-bef|before = Charles T. Deissner }}

{{s-ttl|title = {{nowrap|Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly}} {{nowrap|from the Waukesha 4th district}} |years= January 2, 1860{{spnd}}January 7, 1861 }}

{{s-aft|after = Myron Gilbert }}

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Category:1810 births

Category:1900 deaths

Category:People from Orleans County, Vermont

Category:People from Seward County, Nebraska

Category:People from New Berlin, Wisconsin

Category:Politicians from Waukesha County, Wisconsin

Category:Members of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature

Category:Democratic Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly

Category:United States Indian agents

Category:Wisconsin pioneers

Category:19th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature

Category:19th-century mayors of places in Wisconsin