"On the Beautiful Kankakee"

S. M. Hawk published the sheet music for his composition, “On The Beautiful Kankakee” in 1911. (Kankakee County Museum Photo Archive)

By Jack Klasey

April 19, 2025

“On the beautiful Kankakee, come and go boating with me. The light of the moon will make for us soon, a path that will rippled be. We will float where the lilies grow, there in the moonlight glow. O come then with me, and together we will be, where we’ll tell our love tenderly.”

In 1911, those words—the chorus of a song entitled “On The Beautiful Kankakee, —were undoubtedly sung to the accompaniment of a piano in many local homes. The song was one of a number of pieces of music composed and published in the early 1900s by Kankakee businessman Sherman M. Hawk.

The sheet music for Hawk’s song was sold for 50 cents, and consisted of three verses and the chorus. The sheet music cover included the song title surrounded by ornate artwork, the price, and a photograph of the river looking westward toward the Illinois Central Railroad bridge and the bridge at Washington Avenue. “Words and Music by S.M. Hawk” was prominently displayed, followed (in smaller type) by “Published by S.M. Hawk, Kankakee, Illinois.”

The first verse of Hawk’s song carried out the “beautiful Kankakee” theme:

“The sun-kissed Kankakee river, while searching for the sea, Caresses shore line splendors and mirrors perfectly,  What e’re appears above her. O come dear heart with me.  There’s pleasure in each moment on the dear old Kankakee.”

Sherman Hawk was born on October 14, 1869, in Pennsylvania. He came to Kankakee in 1895 and took a job as bookkeeper for a company that manufactured church furniture. In 1904, he became the secretary and treasurer of the Kankakee Brick & Tile Company, a position he held until his death in 1932. In Hawk’s obituary, the Kankakee Republican-News noted, “He was an expert accountant and a professional musician. In his early life in Kankakee, he sang at numerous functions and could play several musical instruments expertly. He was also a composer of music.”

The total number of musical compositions created and published by Hawk is unknown, but the titles of at least five have been identified: “On The Beautiful Kankakee,” a separate piece entitled merely “Kankakee,” “Dreamland in My Canoe,” “Chicago, Illinois,” and “William Jennings Bryan, Our Next President.”

The Bryan composition, copyrighted in 1908, was one of Hawk’s more ambitious pieces, consisting of three verses, a lengthy refrain which began, “Billy Bryan is the lion of the hour…” and a separate refrain arranged for a “Male Quartette.”

Although the refrain included the sentiment, “He will lead his host to battle in the fray, and it’s ten to one he will win the day,” William Jennings Bryan was decisively beaten by William Howard Taft in the 1908 election. It was the third and final presidential campaign defeat for the Democrat Bryan, who had run unsuccessfully against Republican William McKinley in 1896 and again in 1900.

On March 14, 1932, readers of the Republican-News were shocked by the headline, “S. M. HAWK SHOOTS MOTHER AND SELF” spread across the top of the newspaper’s front page.  “Sherman M. Hawk, 63, secretary-treasurer of the Kankakee Brick & Tile Company, shot his 83-year-old mother, Mrs. Emma Hawk, and then sent a bullet through his own skull in the infirmary of the Kankakee State Hospital shortly after 11 o’clock this morning,” the newspaper reported.

“Despondency over the loss of profits on investments which he had made in recent years is believed to have deranged the mind of Sherman M. Hawk… and led him to commit suicide after shooting his 83-year-old mother,” the newspaper noted on the day after the businessman’s death.

John W. Kraft, superintendent of the brick and tile plant, told the Republican-News that Hawk “was usually a very jovial and congenial man, but he has not been himself lately. He was very depressed and would pace the floor of his office.” Two days before the murder/suicide, Hawk told Kraft, “I can’t stand this much longer, but I just can’t go without mother. I’ve got to take her with me.”

At a coroner’s inquest held on March 15, a physician from the state hospital stated that Emma Hawk had been admitted in March, 1928, and that she suffered from “a senile medical condition.” The inquest returned a verdict of “suicide while temporarily insane” in Hawk’s case, and ruled that, “his mental condition also drove him to kill his mother for whom he had a wonderful affection.”

Funeral services for Sherman Hawk were held March 17 at the Hertz Funeral Home in Kankakee. Honorary pallbearers were a dozen leading Kankakee businessmen and professionals.

Jack Klasey is a former Journal reporter and a retired publishing executive. He can be contacted at jwklasey@comcast.net.