HINMAN PRAIRIE, on which Boone Elledge settled more than a century ago, derived its name from the 1833 settlement
of the Kentucky Hinmans. Here, George Whitefield Hinman, reared in the Kentucky wilds of early Indian days, settled
in 1833, following his removal from his original settlement where Griggsville now is.
The name of Hinman is woven into the fabric of Pike county's early history. It was at his house on the site of
present Griggsville that all the settlers from the east side of the county met for muster at the beginning of the
Black Hawk War in 1832. At his house the settlers of the east side met the main company coming from Atlas. The
muster at Hinman's was pursuant to an order, carried to the settlers' cabins throughout the county by the atlas
blacksmith, Benjamin Barney, issued by "W. Ross, Capt. 1st Rifles, Pike Co." The order was issued by
Captain Ross immediately upon receipt of word from Governor John Reynolds, which reached Atlas on Friday, April
20, 1832. Barney, the "county blacksmith," was engaged at his forge at the time, making a plow, but he
straightway "laid down his hammer and tongs, untied his leathern apron, left his fire to smolder and die,
and started immediately upon his mission." Thus did Pike county's early Paul Revere carry the news of muster
throughout the county.
At sunrise, on the morning of April 23 (Monday) every man (with four or five exceptions, and they lived along the
Illinois river) was at Hinman's The Hinman house stood on the southwest quarter of Section 14, now Griggsville
township, in what is the northeast part of the present town. There was then no town there. It was 18 years before
Griggsville township was erected. The location of Hinman's house was described in Captain Ross's order as "about
four miles this side of Philips Ferry." Each man at the Hinman house that morning was equipped with "a
good horse, rifle, powderhorn, half pound of powder, and one hundred balls, with three days' provisions."
This equipment was pursuant to the Captain's order, carried by Barney. Leaving Hinman's shortly after sun-up, the
company went to Beardstown, the appointed rendezvous for troops in this part of the state. Lewis Allen and Jonathan
Boone Allen (grandsons of Jonathan Boone) were among these troopers.
The founder of the Hinman family in America was Sergeant Edward Hinman, reputed Sergeant-at-Arms to the first of
the Stuart kings, King Charles I. He, like many others in that troubled period in English history, became an "exile
to an alien shore" to escape the vengeance of Oliver Cromwell, who was firm in condemning to death the supporters
of Charles Stuart. This is evidence that the English Hinmans were loyalist gentlemen held in high esteem at the
English court, as from no other class would have been selected one to act as bodyguard of the king.
Sergeant Edward Hinman emigrated from his native country and settled at Stratford, Connecticut, between 1650 and
1652. Soon afterward he married Hannah, daughter of Francis and Mary Stiles of Windsor, Connecticut. Their first
child was named Sarah, born at Stratford in 1652. Sergeant Hinman was an extensive farmer, engaged in the buying
and selling of land, and owned and operated a mill. He died at Stratford in 1681, leaving a family of four sons
and four daughters.
Edward Hinman, Jr., the youngest son, was born at Stratford in 1672. He married Hannah Jennings and they had twelve
children. Jonas Hinman, the eldest son, was born at Stratford in the year 1700. As a youth he went to live at Newark,
New Jersey, and there married Elizabeth Crane. They had ten children. Mary Hinman, their youngest child, married
Asahel Hinman, a son of James Hinman, who was a grandson of Sergeant Edward. After the close of the Revolutionary
War, Asahel Hinman and his family became pioneers in the wilds of Kentucky, locating in what is now Bullitt county.
Next to the youngest child in Asahel Hinman's family was George W. Hinman, first of the family to come to Pike
county, Illinois. He was born in Bullitt county, Kentucky, in April, 1791. This was in a period of terrible Indian
atrocity in Kentucky. Nearly 1500 whites are said to have perished by savage hands on Kentucky soil in two years
during this period.
When George W. was eight years old, his father and family removed to what is now Ohio county, Kentucky. Here, on
March 2, 1813, he married Miss Nancy Stewart, a native of Ohio county. She was born August 18, 1796. She died in
Pike county, Illinois, September 12, 1853, and is buried in Hinman cemetery.
Three children were born to the Hinmans in Ohio county, Kentucky, namely, Maria, Samuel and Asahel. Maria, born
May 29, 1814, married George Yates in Pike county, December 6, 1832, with Justice Andrew Philips performing the
ceremony. She died in Pike county October 17, 1868. Samuel, born June 24, 1815, died when six days old. Asahel,
born January 19, 1817, married Sarah McClain in Pike county, December 23, 1838. She was born in Adair county, Kentucky,
in 1816, a daughter of John and Mary McClain, some of whose children were early emigrants from Kentucky to Pike
county, Illinois, and who were the original owners of the land on which Boone Elledge settled in 1836. Boone Elledge's
first wife, who died in Kentucky, is believed to have been a sister of Sarah McClain's father. The Elledges and
McClains appear to have been otherwise closely related, as we find one of Benjamin Elledge's sons bearing the name
of James McClain Elledge. The Hinman family also was further intermarried with the McClains; Eliza Ann Hinman,
a sister of George W.'s son Asahel, having married Daniel McClain, a brother of Asahel's wife Sarah, their wedding
being the day before that of Asahel and Sarah, with Justice William H. Hooper performing both ceremonies.
In 1819, George W. Hinman and his family moved to Indiana and there they first fell in with the Boone descendants,
Boone and Benjamin Elledge and their families. The family friendships there begun were destined to endure in the
Illinois country, and here in the new land Boone found a final resting place in the cemetery which Hinman founded.
Three more children were born to the George W. Hinmans in Indiana, namely, Eliza Ann, Elizabeth Jane and Sarah
Phoebe. Eliza Ann, born October 17, 1821, married Daniel C. McClain in Pike county, December 24, 1838. They settled
in McLennan county, Texas. She died January 21, 1868. Elizabeth Jane, born September 3, 1826, died August 25, 1827.
Sarah, born May 14, 1829, married Anderson Kinman in Pike county, June 30, 1847. She was a infant in arms when
the family came to Illinois in the fall of 1829. She and her husband located in Knox county, Missouri. Mr. Kinman's
first wife had been Anna M. Elledge, whom he had married February 2, 1843, with the Rev. Jesse Elledge officiating.
In the fall of 1829, George W. Hinman headed west with his family for the Illinois country, being another of the
long line of pioneers who, migrating from Kentucky, settled in Indiana, coming thence at a later date to Illinois.
On October 14, 1829, he crossed the Illinois river by the old Philips Ferry and drove out to the foot of the mound
where Griggsville now stands. There he stopped with Henry Bateman, who had come there in the latter part of 1825,
giving to the knoll, formerly known as Sackett's Harbor, the name of Bateman's Gap. Bateman had laid claim to the
southwest quarter of Section 14 (in now Griggsville township) and had made some improvement thereon, but had not
entered the land from the government. Hinman a little later bought out Bateman and occupied the premises, which
included all of that part of present Griggsville lying north of Quincy Avenue and east of Federal (Church) Street,
on which are Jones and Purkitt's and Hatch's Additions. Hinman also acquired a part of the northwest quarter of
Section 23, including that section of the present town lying south of Quincy Avenue and east of Federal.
Mr. Hinman formally entered the Bateman claim from the U. S. government on October 7, 1830. He sold this 160 acres,
on which a considerable portion of Griggsville now stands, on October 22, 1833, to John Preston of Boston, Massachusetts,
for $830. The deed was executed before Justice Andrew Philips and signed, sealed and delivered in the presence
of John King, Benjamin Bates and Thomas T. Beatty. Hinman moved immediately to a point four and a half miles northwest,
locating on Section 6 in the northwest corner of the township, where he had built a log house, the one which still
stands just north of Hinman cemetery.
At Griggsville, another daughter, Mary Jane, was born to the Hinmans, September 15, 1833. She married Lucius Foote,
February 4, 1851. He died within a short time and on October 24, 1855, she again married, her second husband being
Jehuda A. Hammond. Mrs. Fred Smith, now 86 and living at Camarillo, California, is a daughter of Jane Hinman and
Lucius Foote and was born in a log cabin south of Hinman Chapel cemetery.
On Hinman Prairie, George Benton Hinman, eighth and last child of the George W. Hinmans, was born December 18,
1839. He married Arabella Lindsey in Pike county April 9, 1863.
The first preaching on the present site of Griggsville was held in the Hinman house in the fall of 1830, by a Methodist
minister named hunter, whose circuit or mission covered all the territory south of Rushville and Warsaw, lying
between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. He went around this circuit once in four weeks, on horseback.
In September, 1832, George W. Hinman was elected a member of the Pike County Commissioners' Court, an office which
he held until September, 1836. He was one of the three county commissioners in 1833, when Special Commissioners
Samuel Alexander, Earl Peirce and John W. Sterne, appointed by the state legislature of 1832-33 to re-locate the
seat of justice, selected the southeast quarter of Section 24 (in now Pittsfield township) "as the county-seat
of the county of Pike, said county-seat to be known and designated by the name of Pittsfield."
Mr. Hinman's associate commissioners at this time were Benjamin Barney (the old "county blacksmith")
and Hawkins Judd. They platted the town of Pittsfield, held sales of town lots, executed the first deeds to town
sites, paid William Ross (who had been given the privilege of naming the new seat of justice after his old Massachusetts
home) the $200 they had borrowed from him to enter the 160 acres on which the town stands, and paid Alexander,
Peirce and Sterne $36 each for their services in locating the justice seat. On Tuesday, June 4, 1833, these commissioners
let a contract to Israel N. Burt to build a courthouse to cost $1,095. This building was erected on the north side
of the Pittsfield public square, where the Heck store now stands.
From September, 1834 to September, 1836, Mr. Hinman's associate commissioners were Benjamin Barney and Andrew Philips,
son of Nimrod and long owner and proprietor of Philips Ferry, left to him by Nimrod's will.
George W. Hinman died at his home on Hinman Prairie, December 8, 1854. His wife, Nancy Stewart, had died September
12, 1853. George W. had made his will November 18, 1854, wherein he appointed Lewis H. Baldwin (who had married
Boone Elledge's daughter, Maria Jane) and his son, Asahel Hinman, as executors. Lewis H. Baldwin, however, acted
as sole executor in settling the estate. The will was witnessed by John Darrah and Lemuel Parker. Bondsmen for
Baldwin as executor were George Yates (a son-in-law of the deceased) and John W. Rush. Mr. and Mrs. Hinman are
both buried in Hinman cemetery.
Asahel Hinman, long identified with the county's history, took up the work of his pioneer father. Marrying Sarah
McClain late in 1838, in the spring of 1839 he built a hewed log cabin 18 feet square on his land on Hinman Prairie.
This house still stands, immediately to the rear of the house occupied by Walter Ranft, on the Hinman Strother
lands near Hinman cemetery. This house stood originally where the Ranft residence now is and was moved back to
make way for the present house, being used at one time for a chicken house. It was a story-and-a- half house and
contained two rooms. Here Asahel Hinman and his family lived for 28 years. Meanwhile, his holdings grew until he
had around him 600 acres of fine land, highly improved. He also operated a large flouring mill at Perry, known
as "Hinman's Mill," and which was carried on by his sons, George W. and Asahel Albert in company with
himself. He was one of the original stockholders in organizing the Fifth National Bank of Chicago; also the Griggsville
National Bank, of which he was a director. He was one of the organizers of the old Farmers' Insurance Company of
Griggsville, and was chosen its president. In his later years he resided in the town of Perry.
George W. Hinman, Asahel's son and grandson of the first George W., attended Chicago Law School, graduating in
1871. He began the practice of law in Missouri, subsequently moving to Perry in Pike county, where he practiced
eight years, later becoming a partner in the Hinman milling business. He died at Perry.
Asahel Albert Hinman, brother of George W., was born in Pike county in 1859, attended Wesleyan University at Bloomington,
married Miss Ella Oat in 1878 and by her had two children, Asahel J. A. Hinman and Roy Hinman. The latter is now
cashier in the First National Bank of Canon City, Colorado.
Katherine Hinman married Charles Bonnell and they resided at Pana, Illinois, where she died. Frances Hinman married
Charles F. Capelle. They lived for some time at Joliet, Illinois. She died on the Hinman farm in Pike county. Nancy
Jane Hinman died of smallpox on Hinman Prairie May 13, 1853, aged eight years old. Her aunt Mary Jane Foote's son
Oliver died of the disease about the same time. Neighbors dug the graves in Hinman Chapel cemetery and their fathers,
Asahel Hinman and Lucius Foote, buried them alone. John H., a brother of Jane, also died young and was buried at
Hinman Chapel.
Mary (Mayme) Hinman, a daughter of Asahel and Sarah McClain Hinman, born April 25, 1861, married S. K. Strother
at Perry, December 17, 1884, in a double wedding ceremony, her sister Frances becoming the bride of Charles F.
Capelle at this ceremony, which was performed at the home of the brides' parents with the Rev. S. M. Wilcox officiating.
Mrs. Strother died at her home in Pittsfield February 8, 1921, leaving her husband and one son, Hinman F. Strother.
The death of S. K. Strother occurred at Taylorville December 24, 1934.
Asahel Hinman died at Perry August 30, 1898, leaving an estate valued at $40,000 in real and $16,000 in personal
property. His wife, Sarah McClain, died May 11, 1903. They are buried in Hinman cemetery, not far from the spot
where they began housekeeping in the spring of 1839.
Another stalwart of early Hinman Prairie was George Yates, who married George W. Hinman's daughter, Maria S. Both
Kentucky born, they were married in Pike county December 6, 1832, and settled near her father's house on Hinman
Prairie. He was born in Barren county, Kentucky, January 17, 1807, the second son of Samuel Yates, a native of
Virginia who emigrated in an early day to Kentucky. His mother, Nancy Boyd, was also a native of Virginia. George
Yates came to Illinois in 1823, spent one year in Washington county, then settled in Morgan county, near Naples,
in what is now Scott county. In the spring of 1833 he crossed the river into Pike county and settled on Section
6 in Griggsville township. When 18, starting out to make his own living, he hired to one Thomas Smith at $8 per
month, one-half to be taken in trade.
Mr. and Mrs. Yates had twelve children, one of whom was the late Colonel Edward Yates of Pittsfield, who married
Mary S. Sharpe. He was a prominent member of the Pike County Bar, associated at one time with the late Judge Jefferson
Orr, who married his sister, Ellen M. Yates, their marriage being celebrated on November 7, 1878. Another daughter,
sister of Ellen M., was Nancy Catherine, who on October 12, 1852, married Jerome W. Rush of Fairmount township,
who was born in Ross county, Ohio, in 1827, a son of John W. and Sarah (Brown) Rush, the former a native of Virginia
and of German descent, the latter of Maryland and of English descent. He came to Pike county in 1837 and located
on Section 36 (southeast corner of present Fairmount township), adjacent to the Hinman and Elledge settlements.
He engaged in stock-raising on a large scale on his 400 acres of land, all but 80 of which was prairie. He at one
time kept a deer park, in which there were sometimes as many as 20 deer.
Other children of George and Maria Yates included Martha F. and Emma. The latter married J. Wesley Fisher on December
26, 1865 and they went to Chillicothe, Missouri, where he was president of the Chillicothe Savings Bank. William
H. Yates and his brother Monroe owned the old Yates homestead following their father's death, which occurred at
Griggsville August 13, 1878. William H., died September 16, 1902, aged 65; Monroe, May 12, 1907, aged 67. The elder
Yates accumulated considerable property, owning at one time about 1,300 acres of land under a high state of cultivation.
He was a trustee and pillar of the little Hinman Chapel, wherein his funeral was held, attended by a large concourse
of friends, the sermon being delivered by Elder James P. Dimmitt. He was buried in Hinman cemetery beside his wife
who died October 17, 1868.
In a land peopled by pioneers such as those here briefly glimpsed, Boone Elledge set up his household goods 101
years ago and amid these people he went to his enduring rest in 1841.
On October 2, 1836, less than six months after the Elledge family's arrival in the new land, the only daughter,
Maria Jane, married Lewis H. Baldwin, with the bride's uncle, the Rev. Jesse Elledge, performing the ceremony.
The Elledges and Baldwins had known each other in Indiana, where the Baldwins had already intermarried with the
Boones. Lewis H. had preceded Maria to Pike county, having come in 1835. In the log house of George W. Hinman,
at the pioneer meetings of the little Methodist society, they renewed their Indiana acquaintance.
Maria Jane Elledge was born in Boone township, in Harrison county, Indiana, November 14, 1815. She was 20 when
her father brought her to Pike county, Illinois.
Lewis H. Baldwin was born in Connecticut, November 21, 1811, a son of John and Sarah Ann (Hawkins) Baldwin. His
father was a native of Connecticut, and of English descent. In early life, Lewis H. following blacksmithing as
a trade, later turning his attention to farming. After his marriage he worked out for $8 per month, but in time
accumulated 500 acres of good land in Pike county, he and one of his sons owning about the same amount in Missouri,
and an acre within the corporation of Perry. He was an old-line Whig in early days, later attaching himself to
the party of Lincoln. He was a school director for 25 years, and a school trustee, these being the only public
offices he would ever accept. He adhered to the Baptist faith.
Lewis H. Baldwin and Maria Jane Elledge had nine children, namely, John Boone, Charles Wesley, Rebecca (Rebeckah)
Jane, Sarah Ann, James Lewis, Elizabeth Julia, Grace Abigail, Thomas Henry and David Samuel whose stories will
be related in a succeeding chapter.