This week, I wanted to share a picture of a young man from the early 1900’s. For a long time I was not sure who he was but felt like I had seen him before. I began to compare the portrait to different family pictures with the hopes of finding him in one of them.
I was not able to identify him for a number of years. I shared in one of my Who Am I Wednesday how I was able to compare his portrait to other family photos to determine who this young man was.
As I started to study a number of pictures I was excited to see a familiar face staring back at me.
Walter Willard Hinkley to be exact. Now that I had a name I could begin to research him. He was born in 1885 and died in 1912. He was only 27 years old. For a good while he continued to prove to be a brick wall in my research. I was not able obtain a death certificate and the last trace of him was in the 1900 census.
I did find 1910 census records for a Walter Hinkley in Lincoln Nebraska, California and Iowa. None of them gave any indication that their Walter was the Walter I was searching for. I have found that with brick walls they can prove to be a struggle for a long time then one day the bricks fall away..
So much can be gleaned from newspapers and each month more archives are being digitized. It is through newspaper clippings I was able to gather bits of Walter’s story.
Walter had been an engineer / Fireman for Union Pacific for roughly 11 years. In another article it stated that he was running an engine from North Platte to Sterling. Knowing he was in Nebraska makes the 1910 Census from Lincoln Nebraska a viable record for Walter.
While still no death record has been found an Administrators Bond naming William Hinkley executor of Walters estate was located. Because Walter died Intestate meaning he did not have a will the court had to appoint an executor. In this document it states that Walter lived in Lincoln County Nebraska at the the time of his death. I believe the 1910 census record from Lincoln Nebraska is that for Walter, so many documents point in that direction.
Some information in newspapers may be inaccurate, such as a couple of the articles state that he was 35 at the time of his death. Some newspapers liked to shock its readers, sensationalizing stories while others tried to provide the facts without all the added drama.
Sadly Walter passed away at the age of 27 in what I can only describe as a horrible accident. While working on a lite engine he was struck on the head by a coal chute. One article said he was waving to someone as they where passing through town.Another article said that the impact pulled his body from the train.
The Associated Press picked up the story and ran variations of it in many papers across the mid-west. He was transported back to Kansas City where he was laid to rest in Mt Hope Cemetery.
