About The Children of Introduction
Samuel and Emma Kirtland-Hine had 5 children, Samuel Kirtland Hine ("Kirt"), Ellen Louise Hine ("Nell"), Alfred Blakelee Hine ("Alf"), Homer Henry Hine, and Charles Potter Hine ("Charlie"). Homer was my grandfather and the others my great uncles and great aunt. All the children were born and raised in the family home at 441 South Main St. in Poland, OH (today listed on the National Register of Historic Places).
They were all educated in private college preparatory boarding schools on the East Coast and all except for Nell would graduate from well known colleges. They would all become productive members of society. The siblings lived during a period of rapid technological change. When they were born from the mid 1860's through the mid 1870's society had few of the major technological conveniences we take for granted today. During the course of their lives they experienced the transition to the electric light bulb, central home heating, indoor plumbing, the invention of the telephone, affordable photography, the transition from the horse and buggy to the automobile, the advent of the airplane and commercial flight, and broadcast radio became a part of everyday life. Homer and Nell lived long enough to have had televisions in their homes.
Samuel, Emma, and their children were a close knit family and the children remained so long after their parents were gone. With the exception of Homer who moved to Seattle, Washington a few years after college, the siblings all spent their adult lives not far from their childhood home in Poland with Kirt about 10 miles up the road in Girard/Youngstown, Alf in Pittsburgh, PA about 60 miles away, Charlie in Cleveland about 80 miles away, and Nell living her entire life in the Poland home. There is photographic evidence that the siblings periodically held family reunions at the Poland home and elsewhere. Homer, Charlie, and Alf would marry and have children while Kirt married but had no children and Nell would never marry. An observation that my parents would mention occasionally as I grew up: brother's Kirt, Alf, and Charlie would all pass away in 1942 and all from the same condition described only to me as "stomach cancer". My mother used to facetiously say that in 1942 (the year she and my father married) she almost wore out a new black dress attending the funerals of her new husband's uncles. I never met any of the Hine siblings except for my grandfather Homer. Kirt, Alf, and Charlie passed away 3 years before I was born and, while my family was scheduled to visit Nell in Poland in 1955 while on a cross country family vacation from our home in New Jersey to Seattle to visit my grandparents when I was 10 years old, she passed away only a few weeks before we arrived in Poland. The information about the siblings presented below
has come from obituaries, area histories, and information passed down the family
to my generation. The photographs on this page have come mostly from
family sources including those passed down from my father and from a priceless
collection of photos and other materials which I discovered buried in a closet
when visiting my aunt, Ruth Hine Darling, at her Leavenworth, WA home in 2003.
Included in her ancestral photo collection passed on from her parents was a
Cabinet Card photo album containing many formal photos of the Ohio Hines and Kirtlands from around the 1880's.
Below, in birth age order, is the information I have about each of
the 5 Hine siblings.
Samuel Kirtland Hine was the eldest son of Samuel Hine and Emma Kirtland-Hine. The fact that both father and son shared the same first name has at times created some confusion in historical references. Samuel Hine the father didn't have a middle name and likely was know as "Samuel". The son had the middle name Kirtland and was known by the nickname "Kirt". Kirt Hine attended grade school in his hometown of Poland, OH. My father used to say that all of his uncles and his aunt had attended private boarding high schools on the East Coast but I haven't run into anything which suggests what preparatory school Kirt may have attended there. He graduated in 1892 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY), a top engineering college then and now, with a degree in chemical engineering before returning to Ohio. He worked for several companies early in his career but spent the vast majority of his working life as a chemist for, and then General Manager of, the A.M. Byers Co. facility in Girard, OH which is a close-in suburb of Youngstown. The A.M. Byers Co., headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA., was once the county's oldest and largest manufacturer of wrought iron and was famous for developing the Aston Byers Process which revolutionized how iron was made. It had a major facility/subsidiary in Girard (Youngstown) though I've uncovered nothing with indicates whether this facility produced iron or support products used in other facilities.
In 1913 at age 45 Kirt married Alma Steele Paige, age 43, in her hometown of Painesville, OH. The couple would have no children. During the years Kirt worked for A.M. Byers the couple lived at 322 South State St. in Girard then they apparently moved to 1414 Fifth Ave in nearby Youngstown when he retired, probably at around age 65, which would have been around 1932. Kirt was active in civic organizations, served on multiple corporate boards-of-directors, and was a well respected businessman and civic leader. Photographic evidence suggests that Kirt, like his brother Homer, was probably an avid outdoorsman. Kirt was probably closer to his almost generation older
half-brother Cecil D. Hine (1849-1920) than his 4 siblings. Cecil was
Samuel Hine's son from his first marriage to Ellen Montgomery. For
the first few years of Kirt's life in Poland Cecil would have been still living
at home with Samuel and Cecil's then step-mother Emma. This, combined with
the fact that Cecil became a well known and highly successful Youngstown
attorney, suggests that Kirt and Cecil would likely have known each other well
and I wouldn't be supprised if Kirt retained Cecil's law firm to do legal work
for A.M. Byers in Girard.
Samuel Kirtland Hine was my father's favorite uncle (my
father, Edward Kirtland Hine, also having the nickname "Kirt") and, having no
children of his own, my father was Kirt's favorite nephew. While my father
grew up in Seattle, he'd visited his aunts, uncles and cousins in Ohio several
times as a child and when he attended Yale University in Connecticut from 1935 to 1939, his
"Uncle Kirt" (as he was always know in my family and as I will use
here to distinguish him from my father) paid a good portion of
father's college expenses since my grandfather Homer's sand and gravel business
in Seattle was experiencing the financial effects of the Great Depression of the
1930's. Kirt the nephew would always stop in Ohio to visit Kirt the uncle
(and siblings) for a few days on his way to and/or from Connecticut and Seattle several times a
year and the two became very close. When my parents were dating in New
Jersey in 1941, my father took my mother to meet his Uncle Kirt at a resort in
Berkeley Springs, WV where he was apparently vacationing. My parent's
always spoke fondly of Uncle Kirt and talked of his knitting as a hobby and the fact that
in his retirement he spent winters at a resort hotel in Florida to get away from the
cold in Ohio. A surviving letter written by Kirt to my parents shortly
after their February 1942 wedding suggest that Kirt and Alma likely wintered at
the large upscale New Smyrna Beach Hotel located midway down the east coast of
Florida. This letter also provides the only sample of Uncle Kirt's handwriting
that I have and was written only two months before his death in April.
Maintaining the Poland Village Green
Samuel Kirtland Hine passed away in Youngstown on April 24, 1942. Having had a high paying job throughout his career and no children to support Kirt had saved his money and, while perhaps not being wealthy, was reasonably well off financially and lived well in his retirement. With no children to leave his money to Kirt, by the terms of his will, set up a trust whose income was distributed to his widow Alma and his 4 siblings. The trust was to remain in effect until the last of his siblings and his widow had passed away at which time the principle of the trust would be distributed to the children of his siblings with a share going to the Village of Poland, OH to provide perpetual maintenance of the Village Green across the street from which Kirt had grown up in the old Hine home. My father, being Kirt's favorite nephew, was designated in the will as the estate's executor. Kirt's brothers Alf and Charlie also passed away in 1942. Sister Nell died in 1955 and widow Alma in 1957. The last beneficiary of the trust, my grandfather Homer Hine, passed away in 1958 causing the trust to be liquidated and it's assets distributed according to the terms of Uncle Kirt's 1942 will with my father acting as the executor. During the years from Kirt's death in 1942 and 1958 when the trust was distributed the Great Depression had ended, the country had fought and won World War II, and the economy had boomed in the late 1940's and the 1950's. This had the effect of significantly increasing the value of the trust and the estate was by 1958 worth much more than Uncle Kirt could have anticipated when he wrote his will in the early 1940's. My father in a 1977 recorded oral history interview said that one stock in the trust's portfolio, a company named Pittsburgh Metallurgical, had a share value in 1942 of $0.99 and in 1958 was worth $43.00 a share. In the late 1950's when my father was dealing with the distribution of his uncle's estate I was in my early teenage years, just barely old enough to partially remember father talking about some of the estates business over dinner and with friends. My recollection is that according to Uncle Kirt's will, the estate was divided into a number of equal shares with father receiving one share as the executor and another as an heir, then other shares going to my aunt Ruth and each of the 3 children of Uncle Kirt's brother Charles. A final share went to the Village of Poland, OH to be put in trust to fund in perpetuity the maintenance of the Village Green. (Father mentions in his 1977 oral history interview that the children of Uncle Kirt's brother Alfred were not included in the trust nor the will as Uncle Kirt had apparently helped finance his brother's construction business and thus felt he'd already contributed financially to that branch of his family).
The bequest to the Village of Poland created an unanticipated problem for both the estate and Poland, and thus for my father as executor, the final resolution of which father would occasionally talk about over evening cocktails with friends for the rest of his life. According to Kirt's will the share of the estate given to Poland was specifically to be used to set up a fund, the income from which had to be used for the maintenance of the village green. This was intended to included things such as mowing and fertilizing the grass; pruning the bushes and trees; planting flowers, etc. The problem: the 1958 value of Poland's share of the estate was so large that the income from the fund to be set up would be far in excess of the amount needed to maintain the village green as outlined. Poland couldn't possibly responsibly spend all of the fund's income maintaining the village green. There would be many times more money available for village green maintenance than could be prudently used however the terms of the will wouldn't allow the money to be used for anything else.
The solution: I recall father traveling from our New Jersey home along with our family attorney to Poland a couple of times for meetings with Poland's village staff and attorney in 1958 and 1959 along with the probate judge. While I don't recall the exact specifics of the agreement they worked out I do recall that everyone agreed that, given the circumstances, it would likely have been Kirt's intent to spend the money as necessary for the benefit of Poland in general and that if more money was available than was needed for direct maintenance of the village green, principle from the bequest could be used to purchase capital equipment that would be useful to the village. Based on this I recalled hearing that Poland, with approval of the estate and the probate judge, purchased things like, snow plows, street sweepers, and other heavy equipment which was badly needed at the time. One current local contact believes that the Village purchased one or more fire trucks. (Update: In the fall of 2020 the current treasurer of Hine fund committee reports that it has assets of around $750,000 and and annual income of around $35,000. The village green is being well cared for.)
From a Youngstown Vindicator newspaper historical/educational ad published March 19, 2008:
Samuel Kirtland Hine and his wife Alma are buried with
his father, mother, and other Hine relatives in the Riverside Cemetery in
Poland, Ohio. For grave site photos see the bottom of Samuel and Emma
Hine's biography page:
Ellen Louise Hine, who was always known in the family simply as "Nell", was born on February 2, 1869 in her parents home at 441 South Main St. (formerly the Pittsburgh Road) in Poland, OH. 86 years later she would pass away in this same home on June 22, 1955. With the exception of staying elsewhere while away at school as youngster, while traveling during her lifetime, and for at time during World War I, Nell lived in the now historic Kirtland/Hine home for her entire life. From the early 1890's when her father passed away and her brothers left home after college Nell shared the home only with her mother till Emma passed away in 1914, a period of around 20 years. For over 4 decades after her mother's death till her own death in 1955 Nell occupied the large home alone with the possible exception of a live-in servant and in later years likely a care-giver. In the mid 1940's Nell wrote two priceless memoirs (manuscripts) which have survived and which provide glimpses of her life and that of her family and ancestors. In them she wrote: "Two years ago when a family, Mr. and Mrs. Upole, lived over my garage.......... (etc)" This indicates that, at least in the early 1940's, Nell had renters or caregiver/caretakers, perhaps both, living in the barn on the property. Nell never owned a car so she would have needed a vehicle and driver available to take her shopping and on other errands for many decades.
In her memoirs Nell wrote regarding her youth when visiting her nearby grandfather Billius Kirtland "One year Uncle Alf Kirtland brought out fireworks. The thrill I had, perhaps seven years old, racing around swinging Roman Candles above my head and the sparks flying at a lively rate. The only time in my life when I was more venturesome than Kirt but we were very young." Also, "Grandfather had a Maple Sugar camp which children always enjoy. One time Morris Bucklin, Paul Schaeffer from Youngstown with a fine girl and I visited the Camp and being hungry from our walk, sent someone up to Grandfather's for eggs which we boiled in the maple sap. One of my earliest memories was being put on a horse by Henderson, who worked for Grandfather." Nell's education started at Poland's Union School. For high school Nell attended St. Margaret's School for Girls in Waterbury, Connecticut for 3 years (according to her manuscripts) however, like most women of her day, she did not attend college. Nell would never marry and thus had no children. My father used to describe his "Aunt Nell" as "very religious" and she was a member of Poland's Presbyterian church located just across the street from her home and to which her parents belonged. During World War I when she was in her late 40's she volunteered with the YMCA and spent parts of 1918 and 1919 in France where, partly at her own expense, she helped provide support functions for the troops toward the end of and just after the war. In her manuscripts Nell wrote regarding her experience in France: "I was so fortunate as to go to France in 1918-1919
with the Y.M.C.A. I had expected to bear my own expenses but my board was
provided. I hesitated about volunteering to go, feeling our soldiers
should have younger women, but our soldiers were fine to me. One about 18
year old walked home with me at about 10:00 P.M. when the "Y" was closed.
Chaumont, Caraus-Foulletourte and Lemans were my assignments. Chaumont,
general headquarters of our army , was very colorful and interesting. I
was billeted, Thanks be!, in Mme. Boagert's home in the court of the Three
Lions, the oldest part of the City. Mme. B. , a delightful person, kept a
wine shop but her patrons all seemed to know how to carry their drinks.
One room was over the archway to the Court but mine was reached by climbing up
steep stairs to my attic chamber, a single door opening on to an iron balcony
from which you saw buildings more like stage setting than real life. My
next assignment was to Ceraus-Foulletourte where I was billeted in Monsieur Leon
Loriat's house. Monsieur and Madame Loriat and their son Leon were
wonderful to Elizabeth Dana and me, as were M. and Mmes. Batey, the charming
Dronard family, etc. My third assignment was LaMaus, the big
Classification Camp where I did Library work." There is no evidence that Nell ever worked for a living and, since she never married, she most certainly would have supported herself after her mother's death from her share of her parent's estate. I do recall my father mentioning that Nell's 4 brothers allowed her to keep the family home after their mother passed away. These factors probably combined to Nell having lived quite comfortably but not being wealthy as such. The large Poland home would have been reasonably expensive to maintain and Nell would have most certainly have needed the ongoing help of either a live-in servant (several of which her parents had retained as she was growing up) or regular day-help to deal with routine upkeep. When Nell passed away in 1955 I recall hearing that the home was in need of some overdue long term maintenance. When Nell's older brother Kirt passed away in 1942 she became a beneficiary of the trust he set up for his siblings and this would have helped out financially, particularly in her last years when more medical attention apparently became necessary.
The following Youngstown Vindicator newspaper article and obituary tell Nell's story better than I can. The article titled "Around Town" was written by well known local columnist Ester Hamilton. It's undated but is probably from 1949. The Marguerite "Marnie" Hine mentioned was Nell's niece, the daughter of her brother Alf Hine. The "Playhouse" mentioned has always been known in my family as the "Wee Mansion" and, while Ester Hamilton suggests it was built by Nell, photographic evidence show it was built before her mother Emma's death in 1914 suggesting that it was likely built by Emma in the late 1800's or the first decade of the 1900's.
Nell's Youngtown Vindicator obituary from Thursday June 23, 1955, the day after she passed away:
Ellen Louis Hine passed away at her home on June 22,
1955 and is buried with her father, mother, two
of her brothers, and other Hine relatives in the Riverside Cemetery in Poland,
Ohio. For grave site photos see the bottom of Samuel and Emma Hine's
biography page:
According to articles in the Youngstown Vindicator newspaper published after her death Nell's estate was valued at $171,711. (Adjusted for the cost of living increase between 1955 and 2013 as I write this the estate would today be worth around $1,500,000.) Nell made a number of specific bequests in her will to churches and other organizations however the majority of her estate was passed on to her surviving brother (Homer Hine) and her 8 nieces and nephews as well as other relatives. Included in the will was a specific bequest of $110 to each her grandnephews and grandnieces of whom I (the author) was one. I have no specific recollection of receiving this however, having been 10 years old at the time, I suspect my parents used the money for my benefit and perhaps used it to send me to summer camp the following 2 years.
Riverside Review Article About Nell Hine Poland Historian Ted Heineman wrote about Nell Hine in his publication titled the "Riverside Review". It starts on page 30 of my summary.
Alfred Blakelee Hine was born on May 23, 1872 at the Hine home in Poland. The first name Alfred likely came from his uncle Alfred Potter Kirtland. I haven't been able to identify where the middle name Blakelee might have come from. He was known in the family as "Alf". I didn't know where Alf had attended high school till I accidentally noticed that a formal photo of him had been taken by a photographer in Concord, NH. Checking for boarding schools there I found the St. Paul's School and their alumni office confirmed that Alf had graduated in 1891. He then attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy New York (as had is older brother Kirt and his uncle Alfred Potter Kirtland) graduating in 1895 with, I suspect, a degree in civil engineering. In early 1904 Alf and another RPI graduate, William E. McKelvy, formed the McKelvy-Hine Co. in Pittsburgh, PA. The firm was in the business of civil engineering and built large industrial projects such as bridges. I've uncovered nothing that suggests that Alf didn't spend the majority of his career as a partner in this firm. In 1899 at the age of 27 Alf married Margurite Hull Gibson in Pittsburg. The couple would have 3 children, Marguerite ("Marnie"), Alfred, Jr. ("Al"), and Eleanor.
Alf passed away on October
24, 1942 at the age of 70 and is buried in the Homewood Cemetery in his
longtime home of Pittsburgh, PA. A short write-up about Alf
appeared in a St. Paul's School alumni publication which was provided to me
when I inquired as to whether he had been a student there.
Homer Hine was my grandfather. He was born at the family home in Poland, OH in 1874 and passed away in Seattle, WA in 1958 at the age of 84.. He was the last surviving child of Samuel and Emma Kirtland-Hine. For high school he attended the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut (today known as Cheshire Academy) and then earned a degree in electrical engineering from the Case School of Applied Science (today called Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland, OH. A few years after college around 1900 he moved west to Seattle where he spent a number of years as Superintendent of Construction for the Seattle Independent Telephone Co. He married Rose Bell Turner in 1910 at the age of 36. The couple had two children, Ruth Emma Hine and Edward Kirtland Hine (my father). For a couple of years around 1916 Homer owned a Dodge Motorcar dealership in Mt. Vernon, WA and then for many years was a partner in the Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel company in Seattle. I have completed a detailed biography of Homer's life which can be viewed by clicking the following link:
After attending Poland schools while growing up Charles Potter Hine, like his brother Homer, attended the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, a private boarding high school today known as Cheshire Academy. He then attended Yale University earning an undergraduate degree in 1898 and a law degree there in 1901. I note that while childhood formal portrait photos of Charlie's siblings have survived, I don't seem to have one of him.
Charlie would spend his career as an attorney in Cleveland, OH about 80 miles from his childhood home. In 1907 he married Helen Maria Greene and the couple would have three children, Mary, Carolyn, and Helen (Nancy). According to "20th Century History of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio" (1907), Charlie "......first practiced his profession for two years in the office of Brewer, Cook & McGowan, at Cleveland. He then formed a partnership with Mr. Wilbur of Cleveland........". Then, in 1911 Charlie and two other Cleveland attorneys formed the law firm of Thompson, Hine, and Flory which would become well known and respected in the region and where he would spend the rest of his working life. As I write this in 2014 the law firm is known as Thompson Hine (having dropped the name Flory around 2001) and today is one of the nation's largest law firms. According to it's internet site, the firm now employs over 750 including 350 lawyers and has offices in 7 major U.S. cities. I recently contacted Thompson Hine and asked if any of Charlie's descendents may have worked at the firm. They indicated that, to the best of their knowledge, none have. A few weeks after enrolling as a freshman in Yale
University in the fall of 1935 my father received a hand written letter from his
Uncle Charlie in which Charlie talks about attending Yale and having his
grandfather's (Judge Homer Hine's) century old Yale law diploma hanging on the
wall of his Cleveland law office. The letter shows Charlie's home address
at the time as 1561 Mistletoe Drive in Cleveland. This letter is the
only significant sample of Charlie's handwriting that I have.
The following article appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the city's major daily newspaper, shortly after Charlie's death in 1942 and is a testament to his legal skills. I note that it appeared on page 10 as a news story, not as an obituary.
Charlie was apparently quit an amateur poet, an interest he shared with his brother Homer who also wrote poetry in his spare time. In 2003 at my aunt's home in Washington I came upon several apparently self-published volumes of poetry written by Charlie over the course of about 35 years. Copies were apparently distributed to family and friends including my aunt.
Also found at my aunt's in 2003 were several manuscripts written by Charlie's sister Nell in the mid 1940's. One is titled "Charlie and Helen Greene Hine and Family" and is a somewhat rambling but priceless account of Charlie, his family, and other relatives apparently written for Charlie and Helen's daughter Carolyn (Carol) after her parents death.
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