Howard Winchester Hawks was born in Goshen, Indiana, the first child of Frank W. Hawks (1865–1950), who made his money making paper, and his wife, Helen (née Howard; 1872–1952), the daughter of a businessman with money. Hawks's family on his father's side were American pioneers and his old family member John Hawks had come from England to Massachusetts in 1630. The family lived in Goshen and by the 1890s was one of the richest families in the Midwest, because the Goshen Milling Company made a lot of money.