The Blue Book

The “Blue Book” is a family nickname for “The Richard Hawes Family of Kentucky”, by Helen Hawes Hudgins. It was privately published in 1986. This monumental research accomplishment by Helen May is a family treasure, dedicated to “all the descendants of Richard and Clary Walker Hawes”. With the kind permission of Helen May’s children, the association has digitized the book to allow family members easier access to their history.

Click on the links to read/download/print the following files:

• “The Richard Hawes Family of Kentucky” Version 2, containing corrections and additions to her book that Helen May distributed in 1986. The Blue Book
• “Preface to the Recollections” Preface to the Recollections
• “The Recollections of Maria Southgate Hawes”.  Maria Southgate was the wife of Gen. James Morrison Hawes; her recollections describe her travels in the south from 1861- 1864, accompanying her husband to his various postings, finishing up in Galveston, TX, where he commanded at the close of the War as Governor. Maria Southgate Recollections
• “Sketch of Simon Bolivar Buckner” published by Helen May in 1983. General Buckner is a relation through the Ayletts, and was Governor of Kentucky from 1887 to 1891. Simon Bolivar Buckner
• “A Toast to our Ladies–The Anne Ayletts”. Anne Ayletts
• “Poems”. Preface and a collection of Helen May’s verse. Preface and Poems
• “Notes by Helen May Hudgins”NotesByHelenMay

When you are viewing the pdf files, the download icon is located at the top right of your screen, click it to download any material you wish to save to your computer.

On page iv of Version 1 entitled “Pictures” there was a list of illustrations. Many of these were Xerox copies, or in some cases, copies of copies, of photos that had been made available to Helen May, and some are of very poor quality by modern graphics standards. Version 2 replaces some of those illustrations with photos that are available on the internet. However, we could not locate all of them.  Your committee would be very grateful for information on where we can locate the originals of these illustrations so they can replace the fuzzy copies in the digital version. We are especially looking for the following:

The Hawes Place, Yelvington, Daviess County, KY
Buknore Farm, Bourbon County, KY
“Xalapa”, Paris, KY
“Braynefield” ,Caroline County, VA
“Will-Ma-Hall” Plantation, DeSoto County, MS
“Wintergreen” ,Nelson County, VA
“Beechwoods”, Daviess County, KY home of Sen. Thomas C. McCreery
Home of Richard² Hawes, 817 Pleasant Street, Paris, KY