How did Hinkletown, Pennsylvania get it’s name? This page provides a brief history about the naming of Hinkletown, Pennsylvania, the people who settled it, and the industry rising within it.
Village in central northern Plumstead Township between Plumsteadville and Wismer at the intersection of Durham Road (Route 656) and Stump Road. Land on which Hinkletown was built was patented January 18, 1737, to James Poke, a non-resident, who sold it April 12, 1759, to Robert McFarland, who in turn December 16, 1766, disposed of 153 acres and 53 perches for 479 £ 5s to Philip Hinkle, described in the deed as from “the township of Cresham Alias Germantown, Blacksmith.” Philip Hinkle bought other tracts of land in and near the village, including a lot of 2 acres and 123 perches from Henry Stover, yeoman, November 17, 1772, and another of 514 acres, June 19, 1793, the deed, as set forth in the recital, being from “William McCalla, of Abington Township, Montgomery County, innkeeper, to Philip Hinkle, innkeeper, of Plumstead,” for 26 “gold or silver.” Either McCalla or Hinkle established Hinkletown hotel some time before 1793. On the parchment deed from McCalla to Hinkle is a small draft of Hinkletown showing its location at the crossroads, both Durham and Stump Roads being named. Five buildings are figured, but none on the innkeeper’s lot on the northwest side of Stump Road, sold by McCalla to Hinkle. This lot was a part of 106 acres which McCalla had purchased from Benjamin and Rebecca Fell, March 6, 1782. Hinkle’s other land seems to have been on the opposite side of Stump Road.
The village took its name from Philip Hinkle, who besides being a farmer and innkeeper during the Revolutionary period, had a great reputation as a vendue crier or auctioneer. He was a descendant of Rev. Gerhard Henkel, who emigrated from Germany in 1740. He appears to have been an implacable foe of the Doan outlaws. When Moses Doan, leader of the band, was shot and killed by Captain Robert Gibson at the Halsey cabin along Tohickon Creek, it was Philip Hinkle who picked up the body, threw it across his horse in front of the saddle, and carried it to Moses’ home near Plumsteadville. Philip left many descendants, one of whom, Philip, son of Anthony and Elizabeth Hinkle, of Hinkletown, born October 24, 1811, went to New Orleans after learning the carpenter trade with Samuel Kachline in Doylestown. Soon thereafter he went by steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati, where he landed May 20, 1832, an entire stranger. He became a master builder and contractor in the Queen City of the West, forming partnerships with some of the city’s leading business men. Following a fire which destroyed his $100,000 uninsured factory on October 14, 1855, he began business anew, manufacturing on an extensive scale portable houses that were popular in the South and West and brought him a fortune. He died October 26, 1880, mourned by the entire city, eulogized by the press, and memorialized by various educational and charitable institutions of which he had been a liberal benefactor. His brother, Anthony Hughes Hinkle, followed him to Cincinnati, became an expert bookbinder, and joint proprietor of a bindery that ranked with the best in the country. In the early part of his career, he worked with the firm that published the first school books in the West, and bound some of the first editions of McGuffey’s First, Second, Third, and Fourth Readers, today regarded as a choice collector’s prize.