Baltis Hinkle and Melly Cole

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Husband Baltis Hinkle

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           Born: Abt 1825 - Alabama (Madison Co.)
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1853
         Buried: 

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         Father: William Hinkle (1792-1867) 1 2
         Mother: Sarah "Sally" Downing (Abt 1790-1840/1850)

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       Marriage: Abt 1846

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Wife Melly Cole

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           Born: Abt 1829 - Tennessee
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1853
         Buried: 

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Children

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1 F Catharine Hinkle

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           Born: Abt 1847 - Tennessee
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1878
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Felix O. Pitman (1840-      )

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2 M William H. Hinkle

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           Born: Abt 1849 - Arkansas (Izard Co.)
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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General Notes: Husband - Baltis Hinkle

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CENSUS:

<pre>1850 Izard Co., Arkansas, Syllamore Township; Sept 17; pg 12
84/84
Baltis Hinkle 25 MW Al $0 farmer
Melly " 21 FW Tn
Catharine " 3 FW Tn
William H. " 1 MW Ar </pre>

He is not in the Slave Schedule. His first cousin John lives at 81/81.

By 1860 Baltis and his wife have presumably died. They are not in the census, and Catharine is living with her grandfather William Hinkle. William H. is not in the 1860 census, but in 1870 he is living in the household of his aunt Mary Hinkle and her husband Tinsley Martin. He is a farm laborer.

ARRIVAL IN ARKANSAS:

The birthplaces of his children suggest that they left Tennessee and came to Arkansas between 1847 and 1849. He appears once on the Izard Co. tax roll -- in 1848. He is absent in 1847 and in 1853. The rolls for 1849-1852 are missing. Melly never appears. One presumes that they died before 1853.

EVIDENCE THAT BALTIS IS WILLIAM'S SON:

Stephen Dow Beckham is a professor of history at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He has extensively studied various related families who came from Tennessee to Izard Co., Arkansas around 1850. The following is from an e-mail message (24 Jul 2007):

"I interviewed Caldonia Meridia (Hinkle) Lancaster numerous times between 1957 and her death at the age of 95 years in Myrtle Point, OR. She was the daughter of William Riley Hinkle (b. 1828) and Frances Melissa (Majors) Hinkle, his second sife. She was born on the 5 February 1871 on upper Rocky Bayou east of Mountain View, AR. She recalled when the Emerson "cousins" came from Wayne County, Tennessee, and for a time when she was a child in the 1870s, lived with her father and stepmother. She had tintype portraits of two of the Emerson brothers in her album that passed to her daughter, Cuma Ruby (Lancaster) Russell who died in April, 2006, the last grandchild of William Riley Hinkle (born in 1828).

"Caldonia married the brother of my great grandmother Rhoda E. (Lancaster) Beckham. She was the first cousin of my great grandfather, Elihu C. Beckham, husband of Rhoda. She had an excellent memory and identifed the following as her aunts and uncles. She died in August, 1967."

A brief description of all 9 children follows and I include here only the description of Baltis:

"6. Baltis "Balty" Hinkle (b. ca. 1825) married Melly Cole. Caldonia consistently referred to him as "Uncle Balty." Baltis and Melly (Cole) Hinkle had two children:

"Catharine Hinkle (b. 1847, TN.) who married Felix O. Pittman
William H. Hinkle (b. 1849, Izard County, AR.).

"In 1870 William H. Hinkle resided in the household of Tinsley D. and Mary (Hinkle) Martin, Blue Mountain Township, Izard County, AR. (later Stone County)."

Some researchers think that this Baltis Hinkle is the same person as the Baltis D. Hinkle who is living in Dent Co., Missouri in 1860, in Izard Co., Arkansas in 1870, and in Ellis Co., Texas in 1880. They are in fact distinct persons. There were 3 separate and distinct Baltis Hinkles born in the 1820's.

In another e-mail (19 Jan 2008) Professor Beckham states,

"In addition to my great grand Aunt, Caldonia (Hinkle) Lancaster, telling me about her Uncle Baltis Hinkle, brother of her father William Riley Hinkle (1828-1901), I have further verification of his existence in the family tree drafted ca. 1940 by Dr. Charles G. Hinkle of Batesville, AR. Dr. Hinkle, who I interviewed in 1961 and 1962, was the grandson of Jesse Hinkle, eldest son of William and Sarah (Downing) Hinkle. His family tree, of which I have a copy, identified all of the children of William and Sarah--each a limb on the tree--with a number of their descendants. He pointed out that Jesse Hinkle, Baltis Hinkle, and Sarena Hinkle each married a Cole from Wayne County."

In a third e-mail (7 Mar 2008) Professor Beckham states,

"Finley, Generah Catharine (Beckham). Letter of 17 April 1944, Coquille, OR., to T[homas] H[arris] Linn, Little Rock, AR. [T.H. Linn was the son of Mary Jane (Beckham) Linn of Izard County, AR., and was Genarah's nephew. She wrote extensively about Beckham family history but near the end of her letter noted:

" 'Say, do you have Balty Hinkle on your list? He was a brother of Uncle Bill [William Riley Hinkle (1828-1906)] and Uncle Andrew (Andy) [Andrew J. Hinkle] [sons of William and Sarah (Downing) Hinkle.] I think he was next to the youngest if not the youngest. I have forgotten whom he married but he had two children, Henderson and Catherine. Henderson [Hinkle] married a Connar and had one child and he died and I think his wife died. I think the Connars raised the baby but I am not sure if it lived. Catherine married Felix Pittman and they had three girls--Lizzie, Fannie and Jeanette.'

"Genarah was a great store of information and a source I tapped in the 1950s."

1 Shirley Drury Patterson, Hinkle/Patterson Families of Hardin Co., Tennessee, Hardin County Historian, Vol 1, No 3, July-Dec 1997, pg 40. Repository: Clayton Library, Houston, Texas.

2 Edgar D. Byler III, "Modified Register for Jesse Hinkle," unpublished.