Frederick M. Hawkins was born in Tennessee December 6, 1811, son of William T. Hawkins and Sarah Foster. Shortly after his birth, the family returned to Greenville County, S.C., their former home. Hawkins attended the academy of Rev. J.G. Landrum in Spartanburg in 1832, but after six months returned to Greenville to teach school.  Hawkins was baptized into the membership of the Bethuel Baptist Church in 1833, and licensed to preach the same year. He attended the Furman Institute in the High Hills beginning in January 1834, but left in the fall of the same year. Hawkins was ordained by Bethuel in 1835. He moved to Forsyth County, Ga. in 1836 and organized the Friendship Baptist Church in Cumming in 1840, serving as pastor for thirty years. Hawkins died in Cumming on August 26, 1891.