The
community was shocked and grieved by the sudden death of M. E. Hinkley
on last Friday evening. Mr. Hinkley had been in his usual health and
had conversed with friends up town just a few hours before his death.
He had gone to the basement to fix the furnace fire and on his return
to the living room remarked about not feeling well. A physician was
called, who pronounced his death caused by acute dilation of the heart.
In the passing of Myron Edward Hinkley we lose sight of a great and good man whose work is done and well done.
He
was the youngest child of Lucius and Laura (Waterman) Hinkley, born at
Troy, N.Y., on February 15, 1846. He died at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, December
13, 1929.
The family moved early to Wisconsin and he grew up on a farm near Plainfield, |  |
completing
his formal education at an academy at Stevens Point. In 1869, he came
to Cherokee County, Iowa, and took up a homestead near Marcus. On
January 1, 1874, he was united in marriage to Ann Williams
Brigs. Their loving companionship continued until she
preceded him in death five and one-half years ago. In early manhood he
joined the Methodist Episcopal church in which he has always been a
staunch and loyal worker.
In those early pioneer days in
Northwest Iowa he contributed much to building up the industrial moral
and educational growth of what became a great people. He established
one of the early nurseries in Cherokee county. He was always proud of
having introduced into the prairie states the Black Hills Spruce.
In
1895 he was elected president of the State Horticultural Society.
In 1925 he read a paper before the meeting of this society at Waterloo
on the men who had been prominent in horticulture in his prime. He was
among the few survivors.
In 1895 he was elected president of the
State Horticultural Society. In 1925 he read a paper before the meeting
of this society at Waterloo on the men who had been prominent in
horticulture in his prime. He was among the few survivors.
In
1898 he established a horticultural monthly, “The Fruitman”, which he
published and edited for ten years and continued to edit for a long
period. He was later horticultural editor of the Iowa Homestead and a
contributing editor to various other periodicals. He published
“Reminiscences of an Iowa Homestead” in the Sioux City Journal, and
“Snap Shots at our Past”, a history of Linn county, in the Mount Vernon
Hawkeye. In addition he wrote a great deal of fiction and verse for his
own satisfaction and the pleasure and profit of his friends. He was an
omnivorous reader, a devoted Christian and a friend to everyone.
He
moved to Mount Vernon in 1899 and has lived here for thirty years with
one interval of two years at Waukon, Iowa. He is survived by four
children, Laura and Mrs. Blanche Howe of Mount Vernon, Mary of Chicago,
and Vern of Honolulu, Hawaii, and two grandchildren, Alden Howe of Mt.
Vernon and Louise of Honolulu.
The funeral services were held
Monday t two o’clock from the home, Dr. H. C. Culver preaching the
sermon. Fred Blaine sang two of Mr. Hinkley’s favorite hymns. Interment
was beside his wife in the Mount Vernon cemetery.
As a husband
and father his devotion to his family was strong and beautiful.
He was a lover of beauty. No effort and expense was too great to give
to his gardens. He led the community in constantly adoring the altars
of the church and the homes of the sick with splendid floral gifts.
He
stood valiantly for righteousness, advocating educational progress,
civic honor, prohibition and world peace. He led others in practical
sympathy for the orphans. One he helped much flashed a message across
sea and land: “I can never forget what he did for me.”
With the
infirmities of advancing age his intellectual and spiritual powers
mounted higher. His ever eager spirit sought new truths in
addition to the old. This year he read a leading new work on the
development of philosophy. He taught the largest adult class in the
Sunday School up to his last Sunday on earth.
Faithful on earth
he welcomed heaven as heaven now welcomes him. In an excellent poem
written last February, “Reflections on my Eighty-Third Birthday”, he
said:
My days are quite enough for
Labor, pain and dearth.
With tranquil joy and peace
I wait my glad release,
For disappointments cease
When summoned home from testing time on earth.
Then finding death no bane
I’ll realization gain
For which – and not in vain
I long have hoped and prayed,
Aspired and dreamed.
I’ll reach –
Perfected and afar
Where God and angels are
And Jesus and the hosts of his redeemed.
His
home, the church, communities have been more beautiful by his pressence
for eighty-three years and now heaven is made more beautiful by his
presence there.
(Source: The Mount Vernon Hawkeye – Record and the Lisbon Herald, Mount Verno, IA, Thurs., Dec. 19, 1929, pg. 1)
(Photo source: Cherokee Chief, Cherokee, Thurs. Dec. 19, 1929, pg. 8) |
