Miller HINKLEY (21 Nov 1765-13 May 1828) +
Rachel WHITNEY (25 Apr 1761-19 Apr 1850)

John (1787-????)

Samuel (17 Jan 1789-15 Oct 1839) — m. Abbie Dunham on 22 Apr 1811

Mercy (23 Mar 1790-~1828) — m. Timothy Pelton on 28 Dec 1812

Abraham W. (29 Jan 1792-7 Jun 1840) — m. Roxellana Thomas in 181x

Reliance (29 Dec 1793-16 Oct 1876) — m. James M. Whitney around 1815

Ebenezer (17 Apr 1796-1 Oct 1868) — m. Betsey Sterling Humphrey on 4 Mar 1820; m. Sophronia Butler on 25 Mar 1838

Ephraim (1798-????) — m. Jane Humphrey about 1818; m. Olive Dowse/Douse on 27 Jun 1836

Hannah (?1800 or 1804-????)

Oliver (5 Apr 1802-1 Jan 1887) — m. Sarah Hinckley on 16 Mar 1828; m. Hannah D. Kennison on 17 Feb 1871

Rebecca (~1806-????)

Miller, sixth of ten children to Captain John Hinkley (11 Sep 1733-28 Jul 1779) and Hannah Oliver (11 Dec 1736-23 Jul 1810), was born in Georgetown, Sagadahoc County, Maine, and presumably named for his grandmother Sarah Miller’s family. His father John served in the Revolutionary War as Captain, 1st Regiment, Lincoln County, and died while on an expedition against the British near what’s now Castine, Maine.

Rachel, daughter of Benjamin Whitney (22 May 1725-8 Nov 1797) and Mercy Hinckley (7 Oct 1734-13 Nov 1814), came from Topsham just above Brunswick on the mainland, a few miles northwest of Georgetown as the crow flies. She and Miller were second cousins, as they were both great-grandchildren of Samuel Hinckley II (24 Sep 1684-Jan 1760) and Mary Freeman (13 Mar 1688-????) from Massachusetts.

The couple published an intention to marry on 3 Sep 1785, and married on 17 or 19 Sep 1785 in Georgetown. They must have moved inland to Phillips, Franklin County, Maine soon after, since records indicate that all their children were born there.

The 1790 and 1800 censuses listed Miller Hinkley in Lincoln County. According to a local history, Miller was among the original settlers of the town of Phillips in 1807-1808. At the time, the area was part of Lincoln County, Massachusetts. The 1820 census listed him in Township 1, Oxford County, near several of his married children. He and Rachel still had at home a boy age 10-16 and two young women between 16 and 25; these could have been Hannah, Oliver, and Rebecca.

Miller died in 1828. He’s buried in Dunham Cemetery (a.k.a. Dunham Burial Ground), Reed’s Mill Road, Madrid, a few miles west of Phillips.

Rachel was probably the woman in her sixties living with son Ephraim in the 1830 census for Oxford County, and the woman in her alleged eighties living with him in 1840. She died in 1850, and is buried with Miller in Dunham Cemetery. Some of their descendants and kin are there too. There are three small, undated stones next to their grave, labeled just A.H., S.H., and M.H. These are probably children, possibly grandchildren. Without dates, it’s hard to say.

Reed’s Mill Road sprawls all over the place, squiggling around to the east of Phillips to run into Toothaker Pond Road. The cemetery is not nearly so far, though. From Route 4 passing through Madrid, turn onto the one small bridge north across the Sandy River. This is Reed’s Mill Road. Follow it for maybe two miles. The cemetery is on the left at the junction with Winslow Pond Road.

The First Baptist Cemetery in Georgetown, Sagadahoc County where Miller’s parents are buried takes some getting to. From Bath in Sagadahoc County, Maine, take Route 1 east across the Kennebec River, then turn south onto Route 127 (Tallman Road, also Arrowsic Road and 5 Islands Road). After about 11 miles, you reach Georgetown. Turn right onto Bay Point Road. The cemetery, quite a large one for the area, is at the junction with West Georgetown Road.

Children

John Hinkley (1787-????)

Too common a name – no verifiable records found. The John Hinckley (1787-1856) buried in Georgetown was the son of Miller’s older brother Samuel Hinkley.

Samuel Hinkley (1789-1839)

Samuel has his own entry in the family tree.

Mercy Hinkley (1790-~1828)

Mercy, named for her grandmother, married Timothy Pelton (26 Jan 1792-182x) on 28 Dec 1812. Timothy was a farmer. The best-guess listing of their children:

Mercy or Mary Ann (5 Nov 1813-????) — m. Mark W. Beedy on 30 Aug 1835

Elizabeth (5 Dec 1815-11 Nov 1861) — m. John Bennett Snowman on 31 Jan 1840

Rebecca Miriam (5 May 1818-????)

Joel Whipple (19 Jan 1820-26 Sep 1857) — m. Harriet Grace Gay on 24 Mar 1844; m. Mary Ann G. Coombs on 16 Dec 1849

Timothy C. (16 Oct 1822-1823)

Nancy (25 Dec 1823-2 Sep 1833)

John Cotter, Sr. (27 Jan 1826-5 Mar 1911) — m. Amanda Malvina Ray on 24 Apr 1849; m. Margaretha Sass

The 1820 census showed Timothy Pelton in Township 1, Oxford County as a man age 26-45 with a wife in the same age range and three children: two girls and a boy, all under age 10.

The 1830 census listed a Mercy Pelton household in Berlin, Oxford County, but it consisted of a girl in her late teens, a boy and girl in their early teens, and a boy and girl under 5. Immediately adjacent households were those of Abraham Hinkley, Oliver Hinkley, Ephraim Hinkley, and Ebenezer Hinkley. I conclude that Mercy and Timothy had died, and this was Mercy’s namesake eldest daughter raising her orphaned siblings with the support of her uncles.

However, the census listing only approximately agrees with the list of children above. In particular, the woman who married Mark Beedy is recorded as Mary Ann in every census thereafter, so her identification with the 1830 census’s Mercy Pelton is shaky.

Two of the surviving children moved to Massachusetts, and one (John) to San Francisco.

Abraham W. Hinkley (1792-1840)

Abraham married Roxellana Thomas (~1793-8 Aug 1877). An incomplete list of their children:

unnamed girl (~1814)

unnamed boy (~1817)

Rachel (1823-1848) — m. Joseph Vandrite Smith in 1844

Roxellana (1829-16 Jun 1888) — m. Barkley Halsey on 23 Feb 1851

unnamed boy (~1827)

Abner S. (1835-22 Oct 1863)

The 1820 and 1830 censuses showed Abraham in Township 1 (later Berlin), Oxford County, near his brothers Oliver, Ephraim, and Ebenezer. In the late 1830s he moved his family to Chester, Meigs County, Ohio, where he died in 1840 and was buried in Chester Cemetery. The 1850 census showed his widow Roxellana still there, with daughter Roxellana Jr., son Abner, and two grand-daughters by her late daughter Rachel. (The census claimed, incorrectly, that the grand-daughters were born in Maine.) Roxellana died in 1877, and is buried with Abraham.

Son Abner joined the 33rd Ohio Infantry, Company I, and reached the rank of first sergeant. He was wounded and captured during the Battle of Chickamauga, and died in a Confederate prison camp. There’s a gravestone for him in Chester Cemetery, but he’s buried in the Marietta National Cemetery, Marietta, Georgia.

Reliance Hinkley (1793-1876)

Reliance married James M. Whitney (9 Oct 1790-????), son of Jacob Whitney and Hannah or Joanna Mills, around 1815. They lived in Phillips, Franklin County, where James was born. A tentative list of their children:

Abram H. (1 Apr 1817-8 Nov 1851) — m. Mary Wilbur on 11 Apr 1845

Hannah M. (3 Oct 1819-after 1870) — m. William L. Dennis on 10 Dec 1848

Jacob (~1823-????) — poss. m. Mary E. in 185x

Isaac (~1826-27 Nov 1899) — m. Amanda M. Jones on 12 Sep 1850

Henry James (31 Dec 1831-1 Jun 1889) — m. Jane ?Flint? on ?26 Jul 1855?; m. Elizabeth Steele Allen on 21 Oct 1869

The 1850 census showed them still in Phillips with children Jacob (27) and James (19), grand-daughter Rebecca Whitney (7, daughter of Hannah), and someone named Andrew Goodwin (50). Can’t find them in 1860, but the family must have moved at some point to Pennsylvania, as James died, date unknown, in Wrightsville, York County, Pennsylvania, and is buried in Fairview Cemetery there.

At least three of their children headed west. The 1860 census showed daughter Hannah and husband William Dennis (both 41) with their son Charles (6) and month-old twins Isaiah and Anna in Kankakee, Illinois. Son Henry James Whitney, wife Jane from Ireland, and two children were in Wisconsin.

The 1870 census found Reliance (76) and daughter Hannah (51) living with a family headed by Charles Ellis (61) in Wrightstown, Brown County, Wisconsin. The woman of the house, Rebecca Ellis (28), was Hannah’s daughter, although I doubt that William Dennis was her father, since she was born years before the marriage and lived with her grandparents instead of with her mother. Reliance died in 1876, and is buried back in Pennsylvania with James.

Ebenezer Hinkley (1796-1868)

Ebenezer has his own entry in the family tree.

Ephraim Hinkley (1798-????)

The 1820 census, which showed several of the Hinkley brothers in Township 1, Oxford County, listed Ephraim by himself. He married Jane Humphrey probably about 1820. In the 1830 census, he and his wife had no children, but did have a woman in her sixties living with them – likely Ephraim’s mother Rachel, by then a widow.

Ephraim married Olive Douse (1 Jan 1798-????) from Massachusetts on 27 Jun 1836. In the 1840, 1850, and 1860 censuses, they were living in Madrid. The 1840 census showed the household including a woman in her eighties – possibly Rachel exaggerating her age a bit, as she would have been 79 at the time – and an unidentified boy age 5-9. The 1850 census listed two children named Perkins with them, but I find no definite evidence that Ephraim ever had children. I can’t find him or Olive after 1860.

Hannah Hinkley (?1800 or 1804-????)

No information. Common name.

Oliver Hinkley (1802-1887)

Oliver married Sarah Pillsbury Hinckley (12 Jan 1798-?185x?) on 16 Mar 1828. Known children:

Samantha (5 Feb 1829-10 Sep 1896) — m. Robert N. Nickerson on 1 Apr 1850; m. James Brackett Nile (Hoar) on 5 Apr 1854

Selina Amelia (22 Dec 1831-????)

Josiah (28 Aug 1834-????)

Juliette (~1836-????)

Enoch R. (~1838-????) — not the one who married Elizabeth Fuller

Sarah E. (12 Jan 1843-5 Nov 1884) — m. Benjamin M. Kennerson on 10 Jul 1864

The 1830 census showed them in Berlin, Oxford County near Oliver’s older brothers, with one child, undoubtedly Samantha. By the 1850 census, they were in Gardiner, Kennebec County with children Enoch (11) and Sarah (8), plus an unexplained girl named Mary Tugwith (10).

I don’t know for certain when Sarah died or where Oliver was in 1860. There was an Oliver Hinkley of the right age, from Maine, in the 1860 census for Washington County, Missouri, working as a laborer for a lumberman. Well, maybe that was him, but why was he there? Oliver was also in the Union army during the Civil War. He enlisted as a private in Company F, 32nd Maine Infantry in 1865, right at the end.

The 1870 census showed Oliver living with Samuel & Olive Norris of Livermore Falls. Don’t know who they were to him. He married Hannah D. Kennison/Kenniston (Nov 1836-21 Apr 1902) on 17 Feb 1871 in Chesterville. Despite his age, he and Hannah had a daughter:

Iva Etta (6 Apr 1878-1955) — m. Elmer Eugene Wing on 19 Apr 1896

The 1880 census showed the family in Chesterville. Oliver reportedly died in 1887, but there are no records. Hannah died of a uterine carcinoma in 1902.

Rebecca Hinkley (~1806-????)

No information.

Links

Going Further Back

Miller’s family name traced back to England:

John Hinkley (11 Sep 1733-28 Jul 1779) and Hannah Oliver (11 Dec 1736-23 Jul 1810)

Samuel Hinckley III (12 Feb 1710-18 Jun 1767) and Sarah Miller (~1715-????)

Samuel Hinckley II (24 Sep 1684-Jan 1760) and Mary Freeman (13 Mar 1688-????)

Samuel Hinckley I (14 Feb 1652/1653-19 Mar 1697/1698) and Sarah Jenny Pope (14 Feb 1657/1658-5 Jul 1727)

Thomas Hinckley (19 Mar 1618-25 Apr 1706) and Mary Richards (~1620-24 Jun 1659)

Samuel Hinckley (25 May 1589-31 Oct 1662) and Sarah Soole (8 Jun 1600-18 Aug 1652)

The first New-World Hinkleys, Samuel Hinckley and Sarah Soole, were from Tenterden, Kent in England. They arrived in New England in 1634, and settled in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Their son Thomas came later. He became a freeman of Massachusetts colony in 1637, and was governor of the Plymouth colony from 1680 to 1692.

Mary Freeman’s lineage goes back to the Mayflower:

Edmund Freeman (1655-11 Feb 1718) and Sarah Mayo (1660-1746)

John Freeman (1622-1719) and Mercy Prence (~1630-28 Feb 1711)

Thomas Prence (~1601-29 Mar 1673) and Patience Brewster (~1600-12 Dec 1634)

William Brewster III (~1568-10 Apr 1644) and Mary ???

Earlier Links

Huh?