Rebecca Littleton Butts

1800 - Aft 1861  (62 years)

• Name	Rebecca Littleton Butts
  Birth	1800	Georgia
  Gender	Female
  Residence	1838	Blue, Independence, Jackson Co, Missouri
  Death	Aft 1861	California
  Notes	Rebecca, an illiterate mother of five and pregnant with her sixth child, had no choice but to follow her husband, Williamson Hawkins, when he picked up and moved his family west from their Tennessee home in 1830. They traveled by wagon and settled in newly created Jackson County where Hawkins began accumulating land. Within eight years, he retained 1,680 acres of land, including two gristmills and ten slaves. The chain of events that follows took place along the Little Blue River where today stands the Eastland Shopping Center at the confluence of M-291 and I-70 Highways. During this time, Rebecca bore three more children, and the family appeared to be living solid, hardy, pioneer lives. But, under the surface lurked a dirty secret. For nearly 20 years?all her married life?Rebecca Hawkins suffered the physical abuses inflicted by her husband. She was a battered homemaker. It was common knowledge in the small, rural Jackson County community that her husband, under the influence of whiskey, routinely beat and whipped Rebecca, as proved through historical documents by biographer William B. Bundschu, in his book, Abuse and Murder on the Frontier: The Trials and Travels of Rebecca Hawkins: 1800-1860. In 1838, Rebecca sought a home remedy to her desperate situation. She stirred white arsenic ratsbane poison into her husband?s coffee. Her initial attempt to end the attacks by removing the attacker failed (and there?s evidence she may have tried twice). Still, Williamson, ill from the effects of an unknown plague, made out a lengthy Last Will and Testament. Meanwhile, Rebecca resorted to Plan B. She paid $150 to her next-door neighbor, Henry Garster, to administer another form of poison?a lethal dose of lead poisoning by way of a gun. Rebecca assisted Garster by removing a portion of the mud chinking between the logs of her house by the side of the chimney through which Garster took aim with a squirrel rifle and shot Williamson in the heart while he was sitting asleep before the fireplace. Unfortunately for Garster, he was tracked to his house by footprints he left in a light layer of snow, and ultimately paid for his part with his life in the first legal hanging in Jackson County in 1839. Rebecca was arrested at the time of Williamson?s burial and later tried and acquitted on charges of aiding the murder. But, she was convicted on charges of poisoning based on testimony quoting a conversation with her own slave, Mary. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/21791047/person/18032843757/media/1?pgnum=1&pg=0&pgpl=pid%7cpgNum
  Person ID	I30344	Roots
  Last Modified	18 Sep 2012

  
  

  Father	James Henry Thomas Butts,   b. 1774, South Carolina d. 1866, Independence, Jackson Co, Missouri (Age 92 years)
  Mother	(1st wife of Henry) Butts,   b. Abt 1780   d. Aft 1810 (Age ~ 31 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1798	Georgia
  Family ID	F15131	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Williamson Hawkins,   b. 1795, Henry, Henry Co, Tennessee d. Sep 1838, Blue Springs, Jackson Co, Missouri (Age 43 years)
  Marriage	1818	Tennessee
  Children	1. William Henry Hawkins,   b. 28 Feb 1820, Paris, Henry Co, Tennessee d. 26 Jan 1883, Cottonwood, Yavapai Co, Arizona (Age 62 years)   2. James J. Hawkins,   b. 1822, Henry Co, Kentucky d. 10 Jun 1848, Jackson Co, Missouri (Age 26 years)   3. Eli W. Hawkins,   b. 1824, Paris, Henry Co, Tennessee d. Aft 1830 (Age 7 years)   4. Pendleton Biddle Hawkins,   b. 1824, Henry Co, Kentucky d. 1885, Visalia, Tulare Co, California (Age 61 years)   5. Martha Jane Hawkins,   b. 22 Aug 1828, Paris, Henry Co, Tennessee d. Aft 1830 (Age 2 years) + 6. Elizabeth Ann Conduet Hawkins,   b. 27 Nov 1830, Independence, Jackson Co, Missouri d. 4 Jun 1889, Catheys Valley, Mariposa Co, California (Age 58 years)   7. Jesse Andrew Hawkins,   b. 1834, Jackson Co, Missouri d. 7 May 1878, Pope Valley, Napa Co, California (Age 44 years)   8. Dr. Salathiel Hawkins,   b. 1835, Jackson Co, Missouri d. Aft 1870 (Age 36 years)
  Family ID	F15132	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	18 Sep 2012

  
  

• Event Map

  Residence - 1838 - Blue, Independence, Jackson Co, Missouri  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos

  Butts, Rebecca Littleton Watkins