President George Washington appointed Benjamin Hawkins as Principal Temporary Agent for Indian Affairs South of the Ohio River in 1796. From his agency on the Flint River in Georgia, he oversaw the administration of the
federal government’s program of “civilization” aimed at helping the Creeks to become yeoman farmers and thus, it was hoped, more compatible with white society.

Hawkins is buried in Crawford County in a cemetery on Benjamin Hawkins Road, just off State Highway 128 near the site of the Creek Agency. A memorial to him stands in the center of the town of Roberta, Georgia.