Hinkletown's Early Settlers and Business Owners

• William J. Watkins settled at site of Hinkletown in the fall of 1852 (keokuk County side) He may have found a settlement there when he arrived. Watkins established and operated a brick kiln there for fourteen years (1880 History of Keokuk County.)

• A new township was organized in Keokuk County at the solicitation of W. J. Watkins in fall of 1854, and was named "Liberty Township" by him in honor of the township he resided in Henry County, Ohio.

• Early settlers on the Keokuk County side: John J. Whitmore, Thomas Starkweather, William Shaver, E. Corridan, George Disor, Wm. Watkins, James Lockridge and Jeremiah Suitor. Many of them ran businesses in Hinkletown.

• Early settlers on the Iowa County side: Patrick W. Rock, Andrew Rock, Franklin Pettibone, Thomas Starkweather, William Wallace, Henry C. Chapman, Edward Bratton, William Popham, J.F. Baughman, Harmon Henkle, George Washington Henkle, Montgomery Blair, and William Carter.

• Patrick Rock opened a steam-generated saw mill sometime in the 1850's. Harmon Henkle traded his farm for this same saw mill on March 16, 1861.

• Henry C. Chapman, a shoemaker from England, settled near Hinkletown in 1857 and opened up a cobbler's shop near the family's one-room log cabin.

• Land ownership on both sides of the county line soon began to populate heavily with the Irish. By 1874, plat records read like a "who's who" of Irish names: McKenna, Welsh, Rock, Corridan, O'Rourke, McCann, Kelley, Carmichael, Monaghan, McGahan, O'Brien and McGurk.

• Many of the early settlers owned land on both sides of the county line.

• Land transaction records and early plats indicate that parcels near the river were quickly divided into long narrow strips and sold as "woodlots". These provided timber for the source of heat, baking bricks and for lumber for the new saw mill at Hinkletown.

• Several merchandizing stores sprang up in Hinkletown. Rachel Breeden Weimer was the editor of the town newspaper, The Hinkletown Journal.

• The Post Office opened March 10, 1862.

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