The Hinkley Family of Johnson County, Iowa

SAMUEL HINKLEY (Deceased)

The Hinkley family were early settlers of Johnson county, where they have-taken a prominent part in affairs. Samuel Hinkley was born at Brookfield, Madison county, New York, December 20, 1818, son of Luther and Eunice (Burdick) Hinkley. He lived in his native place until 1855, when he and his brother H. L. emigrated to Johnson county, Iowa, and settled on farms nearly adjoining each other, in Fremont township. The brothers helped each other during busy seasons and were very close to each other in their friendship and sympathy. On this farm Samuel Hinkley spent the remainder of his life. He was married on April 22, 1857, to Miss Adeline A. Perkins, also a native of New York. She was born near Skaneateles, and when she was about one year old her parents moved to Pennsylvania and later to Erie county, New York. In May, 1853, the Perkins family removed to Johnson county, Iowa. The parents, Elihu S. and Sarah (Dubois) Perkins, had six children, namely: Mrs. Hinkley, Sarah L., John Thomas, William Gordon, Caroline M., and Lucretia Ann. The only ones of this family now surviving are Mrs. Hinkley and her sister Caroline, Mrs. Palmer, of Corry, Pennsylvania.

Mr. and Mrs. Hinkley had two children, Wiot R., a sketch of whom appears in this work, and Julia Z., Mrs. Jessie Holdeman. They also had an adopted daughter, Jessie, Mrs. Charles Patten, of Fremont township. Mr. Hinkley passed away January 30, 1908, sadly mourned by the entire community where so many years of his life had been spent. He had made his good influence felt in local affairs and had made a large number of friends. Mrs. Hinkley now makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Holdeman, and Mrs. Patten. On April 22, 1907, less than a year before the death of Mr. Hinkley, he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding, a memorable affair, where they were surrounded by their children and grandchildren, friends and neighbors. Mr. Hinkley was always a republican in politics and served some time as school director.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

The New York family of Hinkleys has a worthy descendant in the person of Wiot R., son of Samuel Hinkley and Adaline Perkins, who was born in Johnson county, Iowa, December 14, 1866. Samuel Hinkley was a native of Madison county, New York, and came to Johnson county in 1855 in company with his brother, Henry L., where he settled on a farm in Fremont township. There he lived until his death, January 30, 1908, at the age of eighty-nine years. His wife is still living. (For a more complete account of the ancestry and activities of the Hinkley family, see the biography of Henry Luther Hinkley, published elsewhere in this volume — Editor.)

Two children were born to Samuel Hinkley and wife: Julia, now Mrs. Jesse Holdeman, residing at Lone Tree, and the subject of this sketch. The former is the mother of an interesting family (see biography of Jesse Holdeman), while the latter is the father of six children, five of whom are living.

Following in the footsteps of his progenitors, Wiot R. Hinkley has devoted his energies to farming. On leaving school, he began work upon the old homestead of his parents. His first independent efforts were inaugurated in his twentieth year. When twenty-three he bought his first farm, upon which he lived for four years. On account of the ill health of his parents, he sold this place and moved hack upon the old farm to care for them. After his father's death he purchased the old Alva Hinkley farm, near the old home. This he improved, and sold in Decemher, 1911. He is at present living in Lone Tree, Iowa.

The marriage of Wiot R. Hinkley and Miss Lida Douglas look place in 1886. His wife was born and bred in Johnson county, being a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Douglas. As previously stated, six children have blessed their home. Their names in the order of birth are: Ellen Eunice; Frankie Douglas, who died at the age of five years; Myrtle May; Mary Jane; Hazel Pearle; Harry Samuel.

Mr. Hinkley is a republican. The family have been members of the Christian church for fifteen years. Mr. Hinkley is one of the first members of Lone Tree lodge No. 160, M. B. A., and is active in the work of the order. In his forty-fifth year, he is a sturdy example of the Iowa farmer at his best. It is a write thing to say that he and his kind are the enduring and admirable foundation of the American republic. All thoughtful men will say, "may their like increase."

No further proof of the fact that America affords matchless opportunities for individual success is needed than the experience of some of the foreign-born residents of Johnson county, Iowa. The time-worn epigram that ' ' nothing succeeds like success" is given an explanatory setting in this section of the great western state of Iowa. Undoubtedly individual ability and persistent application are essential factors in financial victories, but it is a further fact that a fruitful field for the exercise of these qualifications enters largely into the final solution. Many wealthy citizens of southeastern Iowa came from sections of the old world where the earnest exercise of individual talents and industry availed small returns after many years of application. Transplanted to the fecund regions of the new world, these same talents and industry accumulated within a generation ample fortunes for their possessors. In the final analysis of the matter the most that can be said as between the individual and the scene of his efforts is that "honors are easy." Nor are the "honors" so inferior thai abundant glory may not be given to both factors. Success, real and honorable, is a fitting crown for any man even in the midst of the congenial conditions of southeastern Iowa. The fact that many fail under seemingly identical advantages only serves to emphasize the worth of the one who succeeds. It may be truly said of Johnson county that its history is glorious with the tales of individual successes, and these, taken in connection with the famous richness of its soil and favorable conditions of its climate, cannot but impress the

EESIl'EXCE OF AXTOX FISHER student of history with the claims of that county to distinction as one of the regions of American prosperity.

Anton Fisher is a Bohemian whose parents wisely brought him to America and to southeastern Iowa when he was young — thirteen years of age, to be exact. Today, at the age of fifty three, after forty years of effort, Anton Fisher is accounted one of the wealthiest men of Lone Tree, esteemed by Ins neighbors and honored by his fellow citizens with positions of public trust and responsibility. But between the Bohemian boy of thirteen and the American citizen of fifty-three there lies a history of earnest, persistent effort which tells the story of success.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

ALVA HENRY HINKLEY

New York state was the home-nest of the Hinkley family of Johnson county, Iowa. The progenitors of this numerous and respected people were pioneers of the Empire Commonwealth. As stated in the biography of Luther Henry Hinkley, published elsewhere in this volume, Wiot Hinkle\r, the founder of the family, emigrated to Madison county, New York, in 1806, from Connecticut. Those were the days when traveling was a hardship and home-building cast on primitive lines. What is now one of the most thickly-settled and best-improved sections of the nation's foremost state was then almost a forest primeval. Ox teams were the dynamos of locomotion and log houses were the places of the gentility. Out of such conditions, however, the student of American history knows that there was developed the brain and the brown of a civilization which has compelled the respect and admiration of the world. The children of the ' ' New York Yankees ' ' have confpassed the continent and written their personality on the sisterhood of states. Iowa has been enriched and blessed by a liberal intersection of this virile stock, as well as by the strains of other commonwealth and nations, and as a consequence is today unique among the American states in its citizenship and development. The Hinkley family, in their day and place, have played an important part in the making of the Hawkeye commonwealth.

Alva Henry Hinkley is a native of Utica, Oneida county, New York. The date of his birth was January 2, 1861.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.