Cicero Stephens Hawks (May 26, 1812 – April 19, 1868) was the first Episcopal bishop of Missouri.

Biography

Hawks was born in

New Bern, North Carolina New Bern, formerly called Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 29,524, which had risen to an estimated 29,994 as of 2019. It is the county seat of Craven County and t ...

. After an education at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

, Hawks began to study the law, but abandoned it in favor of a clerical occupation. He was ordained deacon on December 8, 1834, and priest on July 24, 1836. His first parishes were in Saugerties and

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. His brothers,

Francis Lister Hawks Francis Lister Hawks (June 10, 1798 – September 26, 1866) was an American writer, historian, educator and priest of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Episcopal Church. After practicing law with some distinction (and a brief ...

and William Nassau Hawks, were also Episcopal priests. Hawks married Ann Jones in 1835. He became rector of Christ Church,

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

in 1844, in what was then the Diocese of Missouri and Indiana. After the diocese was divided, Hawks became the bishop of Missouri. He was the 44th bishop in the ECUSA, and was consecrated on October 20, 1844, by Bishops

Philander Chase Philander Chase (December 14, 1775 – September 20, 1852) was an Episcopal Church bishop, educator, and pioneer of the United States western frontier, especially in Ohio and Illinois. Early life and family Born in Cornish, New Hampshire to o ...

Jackson Kemper Jackson Kemper (December 24, 1789 – May 24, 1870) in 1835 became the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Especially known for his work with Native American peoples, he also founded parishes in wha ...

, and Samuel Allen McCoskry. He received a

D.D. A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...

from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

in 1847. During his service as bishop, he continued to be the rector of Christ Church, serving in both positions until 1854, when he relinquished the rectorship. During a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

epidemic in 1849, Hawks ministered to the sick of the city. He became ill in 1867, and asked Bishop Thomas H. Vail of Kansas to assist in his parish visitations. Hawks died the following year, on April 19, 1868, and was buried at

Bellefontaine Cemetery Bellefontaine Cemetery is a nonprofit, non-denominational cemetery and arboretum in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1849 as a rural cemetery, Bellefontaine is home to a number of architecturally significant monuments and mausoleums such as the ...

in St. Louis.

Sources

References

# # ^ Windham, Lane (2018-01-18). "9to5". ''University of North Carolina Press''. doi:10.5149/North carolina/9781469632070.003.0008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawks, Cicero Stephens University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni People from New Bern, North Carolina Episcopal bishops of Missouri 1812 births 1868 deaths 19th-century American Episcopalians 19th-century American clergy