Sarah Jane (Hinkle) Downing (1852 - 1924)

Born 1 Apr 1852 in Hardin, Tennessee, United States

Wife of Peter Patterson Downing — married 5 Feb 1873 in Hardin, Tennessee, United States

Died 20 Dec 1924 at age 72 in Hardin, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

Sarah Jane Hinkle was born 1 Apr 1852 and died 20 Dec 1924. ^[1]

"Sarah is my 2nd Great Grandmother. We are not 100% sure that she is buried here, but according to family story we are fairly confident she is. My husband and I searched the cemetery in 2011 but only a few grave markers were found, 1 being Sarah's sister-in-law Sarah Downing Beckham. We believe Sarah and her husband, Peter Patterson Downing, are in an unmarked graves."

It is a bit of a mystery who Sarah Jane's parents were. The information on her death certificate was supplied by her son Thomas Jefferson Downing, and it says that her parents were Jesse Hinkle and Sarah Gifford and that she was born April 1, 1852. It also says that she was born in Tennessee, although she said five times in the census that she was born in Arkansas. The 1900 census says that she was born in January, 1852. She is not findable in the 1860 census, and in 1870 she was living in Hardin Co., Tennessee with Peter Patterson and his wife Zebil, whose maiden name was Hinkle.

Sarah Gifford was a daughter of Sylvanus Gifford, who in 1840 was living close to Jonathan Hinkle and whose son Jesse Gifford married Catharine Hinkle (daughter of Jonathan's brother Baltis). The Gifford family and the Hinkle family were certainly acquainted. Sarah was the second wife of David Greeson, whose first wife died in childbirth February 23, 1852. Their first child was born March 2, 1854, and Sarah died December 14, 1857.

Jesse Hinkle was the eldest son of Jonathan's brother William. He married his second wife in 1846 in Tennessee, and in the winter of 1850 they left Tennessee and moved to Izard Co., Arkansas, where some of his siblings and his father had already settled. Jesse returned to Tennessee in the fall of 1852 to testify in the trial of Daniel G. McCarn, who was accused of being an accessory before the fact for an assault and battery with intent to commit murder. The assault occurred in July 1850 in Hardin Co., and the trial was moved to Wayne Co. on a change of venue. See http://www.tngenweb.org/wayne/circuit13.htm for information concerning reimbursement to witnesses for their travel and http://www.tngenweb.org/wayne/circuit7.htm for general information about the trial. Search for "Daniel G. McCarn".

The following is conjectural, but plausible. Jesse Hinkle returned to Tennessee in the spring or summer of 1851, possibly in conjunction with the trial or possibly for some other reason. He had a sexual relationship with Sarah Gifford, then an unmarried woman, and she became pregnant. Her child was born April 1, 1852 or in January. On February 23, 1852 David Greeson has a newborn baby which needs a mother. Sarah Gifford will soon give birth and have milk, or she may already have given birth. She is available, and David Greeson marries her. Neither are in a position to be choosy. Sarah dies in 1857 after having had 2 more children. After the death of his wife, David's enthusiam for taking care of another man's child wanes, and by 1860 Sarah Jane Hinkle is no longer in David Greeson's household. She is probably in the household of some of her Hinkle kinfolk, possibly in Arkansas. Sarah Jane's fivefold statement that she was born in Arkansas may mean that she remembered having lived there as a small child. By 1870 she has returned to Tennessee and is living with Zebil Hinkle, who is her great-aunt if Jesse Hinkle is her father.

Sources

1. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #104899778