Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/241

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
HINDMAN
HINMAN
213

at Prairie Grove by Gen. James G. Blunt and Gen. Francis J. Herron. After the battle of Shiloh, where he was promoted major-general, he was transferred to Arkansas, and commanded a brigade under Gen. Leonidas Polk. After the war he re- moved to the city of Mexico, but returned to the United States in 1867, and settled in Helena, Ark. Gen. Hindman's military career had been criticised for its severity in enforcing conscription and maintaining discipline, and he was assassinated by one of his former soldiers in revenge for some act of discipline during the war.


HINDMAN, William, statesman, b. in Dor- chester county, Md., 1 April, 1743: d. in Balti- more, Md., 19 Jan., 1822. His father, Jacob, a wealthy landholder of English descent, was high sheriff of Talbot county, Md., and a vestryman of the parish. William was designed for the bar. en- tered at the Inns of Court, London, where he com- pleted his legal studies, and, returning to the United States, was admitted to the bar in 1765. The next year, on the death of his father, he inher- ited a large landed property, and from the begin- ning of the Revolutionary struggle threw his means and influence on the patriot side. In 1775 he was secretary of the Talbot county " committee of observation," and was selected to carry out the resolves of the council of safety, which was then the supreme power in Maryland. He was also a member of the State convention of that year, and treasurer of the eastern shore of Maryland in 1775-'7. He was elected to the first senate of Maryland in 1777, re-elected in 1781, and served until 1784, when he became a member of the Con- tinental congress till 1788. In 1789-'92 he was one of the executive council. On the resignation of Joshua Seney, Mr. Hindman was elected to complete his unexpired term in the second con- gress. He served from 1793 till 1799, was defeat- ed as a Federalist in the canvass for the next ses- sion, and returned to the state legislature. In De- cember, 1800, he was elected by that body to the U. S. senate, to fill the unexpired term of James Lloyd, who had resigned. He served until Novem- ber, 1801, and then, retiring from public life, en- gttged in agricultural pursuits. A memoir of his fe and services was published bv Samuel A. Harri- son. M. D. (Baltimore, 1880).


HINDS, James, congressman, b. in Hebron, N. Y., 5 Dec., 1833 : d. in Monroe, Ark., 22 Oct., 1868. He was graduated at the Cincinnati law- college in 1856, and then removed to Minnesota, where he practised his profession. He was district attorney and a presiding judge till the beginning of the civil war, when he enlisted on the U. S. government expedition against the Indian tribes on the western frontier. After the war he settled in Little Rock, Ark., was a delegate to the State constitutional convention, and a commissioner to codify the laws of the state. He was elected to fongress and served from June, 1868, till he was inated by a political opponent while can- vassing the state for re-election.


HINKLEY, Holmes, inventor, b. in Hallowell, Me., 24 June, 1793; d. in Boston, Mass., 7 Feb., 1866. His parents were poor, and at fourteen fears of age he was apprenticed to a carpenter. He went to Boston in 1815. became a maker of patterns for machinery in 1823, and in 1826 estab- lished a machine-shop on Boston Neck, where. Without instruction, he began to build steam-en- gines. He built the third stationary engine that was produced in Massachusetts, and in 1840 began to construct locomotives on a new and ingenious plan, that soon made his name favorably known. He established in 1848 the Boston locomotive- works, which failed after his retirement from active control of them in 1857, but during the civil war he retrieved his fortune by making shot and shell for the government, and in 1864 was made president of a new company, the " Hinkley and Williams works." Among Mr. Hinkley's inventions is a locomotive boiler, which is favorably mentioned for its economy of fuel. He was probably the first man in New England to build a locomotive.


HINMAN, Benjamin, soldier, b. in Woodbury, Conn., in 1720; d. in Southbury, Conn., 22 March, 1810. He served in the French war in 1751 as quartermaster of a troop of horse in Gen. Roger Wolcott's command, was commissioned captain in 1755 in Col. Elizur Goodrich's regiment, defended Crown Point and its vicinity, was promoted lieu- tenant-colonel in 1767, and in 1771 colonel of the 13th regiment of horse. He was commissioned captain of the 4th continental regiment in May, 1775, and served at Ticonderoga and various other engagements until failing health compelled his retirement in 1777. He represented Woodbury, Conn., in the legislature during twenty sessions, and after the incorporation of Southbury was its delegate for eight sessions. He was also a member of the State convention that ratified the constitu- tion of the United States. — His nephew, Royal Ralph, scholar, b. in Southbury, Conn., 5 June, 1785; d. in New York city. 15 Oct., 1868, was graduated at Yale in 1820, settled in Southbury in the practice of law, served four sessions in the legislature, and was secretary of state from 1835 till 1842. During this period he was twice chair- man of the committee to revise the laws of Con- necticut, and in 1844 he was appointed collector of customs at New Haven. His latter years were spent in New York city, in the study of the history and antiquities of Connecticut, especially in tracing the genealogies of the original and early settlers in Hartford, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies. He published '* Official Letters between the Kings and Queens of England and the Earlv Governors of Connecticut in 1635-'79" (Hartford, 1836): " Historical Recollections of Connecticut in the American Revolution *' (New York. 1842) ; " Cata- logue of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colonv of Connecticut" (Hartford, 1852-8); "A Family Record of the Descendants of Sergeant Edward Hinman" (1856); and several volumes of statutes and public and private acts. — Benjamin's grandson, Joel, jurist, b. in Southbury, Conn., in 1802 ; d. in Cheshire, Conn., 21 Feb., 1870, received an aca- demic education, was admitted to the bar of New Haven in 1821, and for several years practised law, attaining to no special eminence until his election in 1842 to the bench of the superior court. From this event he steadily rose in public esteem, and his opinions were regarded as models of clearness and common sense. From 1851 till 1861 he was an associate justice of the supreme court of the state, becoming chief justice at the latter date. His judicial opinions extend through twenty vol- umes of Connecticut reports.


HINMAN, Clarke Titus, educator, b. in Kortright, Delaware co., N. Y., 3 Aug., 1817: d. in Troy, N. Y., 21 Oct., 1854. He was graduated at Wesleyan university in 1840, was licensed to preach, and from 1839 till 1846 was principal of Newbury seminary, Vt. He then removed to Albion, Mich., became principal of the Wesleyan seminary, procured an endowment for this institution, and left it in 1853 in a prosperous condition. From this time until his death he was president of the Northwestern Wesleyan university at Evansville, Ill.