Oscar Smith Hinckley

Oscar Smith Hinckley (sometimes Hinkley) was born 1839/1840, from Holliston, Massachusetts. He may have been born April 18.

He probably had lived in Indiana for a time; he was in Illinois before the Civil War in 1862. Nothing so far other than this is known about him in his early life. For example his schooling, when he married, if the couple had children, all these are unknown.

He volunteered for the War, joining the Illinois Volunteers 127th Regiment, Company D, as a private. Company D is listed as enrolling from Grundy County, southwest of Chicago, but he had lived in Broughton, IL, in the farther south. Though there are other Hinckley's mentioned, none are from Broughton so it is not clear any close relations of his also joined in. He was a farmer. He served all through the War from the mustering of the unit in September 1862 through it's return home in June 1865 - a service of 33 months. He is listed mustering out separately a month early from the regiment. He was wounded severely enough to be on federal disability benefits later in life. One member of his company was honored - 1st Sergeant Theodore Hyatt earned a Medal of Honor for action at Vicksburg, May 22, 1863.

The 127th served across the western South and moved towards the east and north before returning to DC and then home to Illinois. It was organized at Camp Douglas, Ill., and mustered in September 6, 1862. At first they guarded prisoners and then moved to Memphis, Tenn., joining General Grant’s campaign from November through into December 1862. Then they joined the Yazoo Expedition, and various battles in Tennessee/Mississippi/Arkansas through to May, 1864. Then they moved east through to Atlanta and its surrender, then Savanah, then north through the Carolinas in January to April, 1865, before returning north to Washington, D. C. and mustered out June 4 before being discharged at Chicago, Ill., June 17, 1865. The regiment lost 2 officers and 47 enlisted men to fighting, and 1 officer and 168 enlisted men by disease for a total 218 died. The regiment would hold reunions, but Hinckley would never be named attending.

He received a boost in his pension in 1889. He filed for divorce because of abandonment in 1890, but was listed as a widower and engineer, and lived on Loomis St as a roomer of the John Francis family in 1900.

Hinckley became friends with John Osenbaught who went among religions until hearing of the Bahá'í Faith which had been established in America in 1894. Before 1897 they joined the Faith. In 1901 he was invited to join the new House of Spirituality, and in 1902 Hinckley was elected in a by-election to that precursor of the Bahá'í Assembly in Chicago, along with Albert R. Windust. A 1903 tablet from `Abdu'l-Baha specifically lists him among the recipients. It says in part:

O ye who are attracted! 0 ye who are firm! 0 ye who are zealous in the service of the Cause of God and are sacrificers of possessions and lives for the promotion of the Word of God!… Blessings be upon ye for having thought to do so (raise a Mashrek-el-Azacar) and intended to erect such an edifice, advancing all in devoting your wealth in this great purpose and in this splendid work. … The people shall hasten to worship in that heavenly temple, the fragrance of God will be elevated, the Divine Teachings will be established ln the hearts like the establishment of the Spirit in mankind, the people will then stand firm in the Cause of your Lord, the Merciful. knowing Thou art the Helper, and in that Help GOD makes us strong!

In February 1905 Hinckley may have had a pension increase, and joined in an April letter expressing thanks for a tablet written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. But nearing the age of 70 in September he had a stroke and could not speak, and He moved to San Diego, CA, by 1908. He wrote a letter to the assembly in Chicago in December 1908 that he spent much of the time reading tablets and studying the religion's scriptures and the topic of the after-life was on his mind. By spring 1910 was going blind. Accompanied by another Bahá'í, he traveled to Los Angeles in September 1910.

In November 1915, at the age of 76, he was admitted to the Sawtelle Veterans Home, then Pacific branch of the "National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers". His pension was $30/mth in 1916. He died after 1917, before or about 1920, and his place of burial unknown but could be onsite at Sawtelle.