Celebrating Juneteenth
With more new information about the Hinton family
Juneteenth marks the day federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.1
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Some of the most well-read stories on History Buzz are about the Hinton family of Andover. Today, in honor of Juneteenth, I’ll share the second of two new pieces of information about the family, uncovered over the past few months.
Allen Hinton, born into slavery in North Carolina, came to Andover, married Mary Jane Johnson, and became a highly successful business entrepreneur. You can read more about Allen and Mary here. Allen and Mary’s daughter Alice Hinton to become an entrepreneur herself as the owner operator of Hinton’s Lunch Box. You can read more about Alice here.
Finding “Dinah’s house,” down a research rabbit hole
While researching the Hinton family, I became curious about the house Allen and Mary Hinton rented after their marriage. Allen and Mary lived in that house from 1867 to 1874. In her 1938 remembrance of her parents, Alice referred to that house, where was was born in 1870, as “Dinah’s house.”
Alice wrote that her parents lived in “Mrs. Charles Blunt’s mother’s house on Missionary Lane called ‘Dinah’s house,’ which they rented…”
I went looking for “Dinah’s house.”
My first stop was the 1852 map of Andover shown below.2 The street running to the right of Pine Hill was known as Missionary Lane. It’s now known as Woodland Road.
So Dinah’s house was somewhere along Woodland Road.
On the 1852 map, some of the names on the map were property owners; some were residents living in rental properties. “R. Coburn,” for example, was Rose Coburn, a formerly enslaved woman, who lived in a rental property.3
The next property up, labeled “S.P. Blunt,” was owned by Charles P. Blunt. Looking at deeds and other sources, we know that the Blunt family used it as a rental property.
From Alice’s remembrance, her parents rented Mrs. Charles Blunt’s house on Missionary Lane.
The Blunt property is now known as 40 Woodland Road.
It would appear, then, that the property noted as “S.P. Blunt” could be what is now 40 Woodland Road.
Could Dinah’s house be 40 Woodland Rd?
To test my question and perhaps identify Dinah, I shared my research notes with historian and author Ed Bell.4 (Map5)
Ed identified the Dinah I was seeking as Dinah Simpson who was married to Cesar Simpson. The couple lived on Missionary Lane (also at times referred to as “Dinah’s road”) prior to their deaths in 1809 and 1805, respectively.6
So now I knew the identity of Dinah.
From Ed, I learned that in 1863, the writer Alfred Poore recorded that Dinah and Cesar Simpson “lived where James Brown now resides.”7
The next question was, where did James Brown live in 1863?
With the help of historian Jim Batchelder’s detailed deed research on the Andover Historic Preservation website, I learned that Blunt sold the property that is now 40 Woodland Road to James Brown for $350 on Apr. 26, 1852.8
Ed confirmed my conclusion that “Dinah’s house” is 40 Woodland Road.
In this 1904 photograph of 40 Woodland Road, you can see the little structure between the house and the barn. The large house in the front was added by a later owner.
That small structure is likely “Dinah’s house,” where Allen and Mary Hinton lived and where Alice Hinton was born.
The period image of the Franklin's house in 1904 shows Harriet with daughters, Gertrude age one, in carriage, and Irene age 5 holding her doll. "40 Woodland Road was renumbered c. 1935....(The) oldest part of the house was bought by Kemptour [Kempton] from Joseph Blunt."9
Early images of dwellings lived in by African Americans, freed or enslaved, are rare in New England. If the research and conclusion are correct, the structure in the photograph is of an early residence of formerly enslaved residents of Andover.
Dinah Simpson, for whom the road was named, is estimated to have been born in 1731, her husband Cesar Simpson in 1723. Both were born long before slavery was abolished in Massachusetts in 1783. If they were enslaved in the earlier years, they lived free for the last 20-25 years of their lives in this house.
In other words, it is “Dinah’s house,” the house rented by Allen and Mary Hinton after their marriage, where Alice Hinton was born.
There is something deeply satisfying about historical research, especially when the result is something with such potential.
Would you like a closer look at the Hinton family’s story? You can join a virtual Close Encounter with the family’s story and artifacts Thursday, June 24th, at 7:00pm ET. Click here for more information and registration.
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Elaine
https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth
https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:0r96fm02s
You can read more about the fascinating history of Rose Coburn in Edward L. Bell’s book, cited in note 2 below. See the Subject Index for multiple references to Rosanna Coburn. Rose Coburn will definitely be the subject of future History Buzz posts.
Edward L. Bell, Persistence of Memories of Slavery and Emancipation in Historical Andover, 2021, published by Shawsheen Press, Boston, Massachusetts. Copies of Persistence of Memories of Slavery and Emancipation in Historical Andover are available by mail for $55.00 (s/h included). Please email shawsheenpress@gmail.com for details.
https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:0r96fm02s
IBID, pages 225-227
IBID, page 182, Alfred Poore, “A Genealogical-Historical Visitation of Andover, Mass., in the Year 1863,” published posthumously in 1912-1919.
Andover Historic Preservation website, 40 Woodland Road, https://preservation.mhl.org/40-woodland-rd.
IBID
Very interesting! I'm not what I enjoyed more---The Hinton Story or your determination to get the facts!!!
This is fascinating and fantastic. Thanks for the journey down that rabbit hole -- and for sharing. I compared the 1904 image to the Google Street View (and Jim Batch's description). Do you have any idea of whether any of the small/original structure still exists, or if it was torn down and later replaced by the addition off the back of the "new" house?