A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF G. M. HINKLE
By S. J. Hinkle
G. M. Hinkle was born in Kentucky in the year 1802. He was first married also in Kentucky at the age of twenty years, to —— Starkey who was a little older than he and who afterwards taught him to read and write. As to where or when he first heard the gospel preached, or when or by whom he was baptized I can say only that it was sometime prior to the year 1835.
He had five children by his first wife; namely Morgan, Andrew Jackson, George Alma, Lucinda J., and Thomas, all of whom belonged to the church excepting Lucinda J. and Thomas. Thomas was killed in battle during the Civil War, serving as a drummer, he being too young and small to bear arms. The wife died in Mercer County, Illinois, where they had settled on Duncan Prairie after having been driven from Missouri with the rest of the "Mormons."
After the death of his first wife George Hinkle married Mrs. Mary Loman-Hartman, a member of the church, who had three children: George W., Elizabeth, and William Hartman. Two of them, Elizabeth and William, afterwards joined the Reorganization. William lived and died near Lamoni. To this union were born four children, Rebecca, Michael L., Samuel J., and Charles M. Rebecca died when small and Charles M. at Red Fork, Oklahoma, in 1912. The three boys became members of the Reorganization. Michael lives now at Ridgeway, Missouri, and Samuel J. at Breckenridge, Texas. These four children were born at or near Duncans Prairie, Illinois, Michael November 28, 1848, Samuel April 11, 1850, and Charles 1852. Charles was teacher of the Davis City, Iowa, Branch for fifteen years.
My father's attitude towards the church after his expulsion from the church was simply a marvel to all who were acquainted with him and the circumstances. Being persecuted without and condemned within he went right on as best he could and still remained firm to the faith.
When he left Missouri he was destitute so far as personal property was concerned. There he had been reckoned as one of if not the wealthiest of the "Mormons." He lived at Dewitt in Carroll County and owned land as well as mercantile property but lost it all by the expulsion of the Saints, and I am told had to walk out and carry some of the smaller children in his arms, with the Gentiles persecuting him and the Saints shunning him as they had been warned.
Now I ask you where is there another man who would have endured such treatment and still kept the faith? Yet that is just what he did.
After settling over in Illinois and beginning anew we find him preaching the gospel to his neighbors and some few Saints there, such as John Adams, his brother-in-law, and the Epperlies as well as others who were willing to stop and listen to his reasons for his actions at Far West.
When he learned that at Quincy they had proceeded to cut him off from the church he went right on preaching the gospel as before and built the church which was known as "The Bride, the Lamb's Wife," but after working at this for some time and having gathered something like two hundred members he saw his error and quit. Yet all the time he was preaching the restored gospel.
He moved from Mercer County, Illinois, about the year 1852 and stopped awhile in Louisia County, Iowa, but did not remain there for any great length of time. I think he had abandoned the new church idea before he moved to Louisia County. Then he moved to Decatur County, Iowa, about the year 1853, first stopping just below Pleasanton, in the upper edge of Missouri, then purchasing a tract of land two miles north of Pleasanton in Iowa. He finally settled down there on that land and soon after started the first store in Pleasanton, or Pleasant Plains as it was then called. But he had two partners who went to Keokuk to buy goods, taking all the money belonging to the firm, and never returning, which left him to pay it all, and it took all he had and left him broke again.
Then he moved to Fontanelle in Adair County, Iowa, and lived there about two years practicing medicine and keeping a drug store and the Fontanelle post office. Then he moved back down to Decatur County and rented the old farm and was living there when Brethren Blair and Briggs first came through that country. And I think it was on their second trip that there were six baptized, my sister Elizabeth among the number.
Charles Mullen Hinkle and Walter Winfield Hinkle
Information provided by Trudy Hinkle Herendon
Son of George M. Hinkle: Charles Mullen Hinkle, b. 1852, Grandview, Louisa County, Iowa. He died 1913 in Red Fork (Tulsa), Oklahoma. Walter Winfield Hinkle is Hinkle's grandson, b. 1886, Davis City, Iowa. He died 1955 in Alvin, Texas.
Photo courtesy of: ----Trudy Hinkle Herendon, Groesbeck, Texas, 2003---
My father never united with the Reorganization though never opposed it. I remember his taking his team at one time and taking Brethren Blair and Briggs to Fontanelle one hundred miles north. You will see the account of this in the reminiscences of Brother Blair, and of Briggs, also an account of the baptism of which I speak.
He lived on the old farm as a rented -home one or two years and then bought forty acres across the Grand River at New Buda.The fall and winter of 1860 George M. Hinkle left his home in New Buda, Iowa, and preached at his old home over in Illinois, having held a debate on the way with a Methodist preacher. He returned home in the spring of 1861 just about the time the war broke out. He was opposed to the war but was a strong union man and when the militia and home guards of southern Iowa and northern Missouri gathered to intercept General Price when he made his raid up through northern Missouri, G. M. Hinkle was chosen colonel to lead the forces. This was in July, 1861. Being caught out in a heavy rainstorm and poorly protected he caught a severe cold which was the cause of his death in the same year.
I have been told by prominent men of Iowa that G. M. Hinkle might have been governor of Iowa had it not been for his religious views. And you see he maintained these views though it cost him that.
During his sickness in the fall of 1861 prominent Saints such as A. W. Moffit, George Morey, Ebenezer Robinson, Robert Booth, and many others stood by and cared for him and one of them preached his funeral sermon.
He always maintained that the leading men of the church had never given him a chance to explain his actions in Missouri and had condemned him on the spot without judge or jury, and having once condemned him they stuck to it and never gave him a chance.
Quoting from Church History, volume 2, page 262, the historian quoted a History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties as saying, "Doubtless this officer was actuated by the noble motive of desiring to save the lives of scores if not hundreds of his brethren in his actions."
Farther, on page 263, "Colonel G. M. Hinkle was a Kentuckian and personally brave and fearless. He did not fear danger for himself but for his brethren and his course it must be admitted was certainly for the best."
So you see the historians of the world are willing to give him the credit for doing the best for his people that could be done under the circumstances.
Now I maintain that had it not been for the action of G. M. Hinkle on that day, the order of General Boggs would have been carried out, and the leaders of the church would have been killed with all their families. Consequently there would have been no Latter Day Saint Church today. And I hold that that was the greatest day's work that has been done since the organization of the church in 1830.
G M. Hinkle rather favored the leadership of Sidney Rigdon after the death of Joseph Smith but was always an ardent opposer of Brigham Young and his reign and polygamy. [S. J. Hinkle, "A Biographical Sketch of G. M. Hinkle: by His Son," Journal of History, 13: 444-448].