Thomas Spottswood Hinde (April 19, 1785 – February 9, 1846) was an American newspaper editor, opponent of slavery, writer, historian, real estate investor, Methodist minister and a founder of the city of Mount Carmel, Illinois. Members of the Hinde family were prominent in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. His sons Charles T. Hinde became a shipping magnate and Edmund C. Hinde an adventurer. He was the father-in-law of judge Charles H. Constable. Hinde was an active businessman, pursuing real estate, construction, and publishing opportunities in Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois. In his early years, Hinde publicly opposed slavery. He also used his newspaper, The Fredonian, in Chillicothe, Ohio between 1806 and 1808, to highlight issues about Indian treaties and the conspiracy of Aaron Burr. He served in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. In later years he was a pioneer in the settlement of Indiana and Illinois, and the expansion of the Methodist Episcopal Church in these areas. He contributed to the Madoc Tradition and was a noted historian and biographer. Hinde cofounded the Wabash Navigation Company, which engaged in real estate speculation and dam construction. The company dammed the Wabash River next to Hinde's property, creating the Grand Rapids Dam. The dam was abandoned by the Federal government in 1931. Hinde was an ordained Methodist minister and traveled extensively to advance the interests of the church. He was a pioneering circuit rider in the early 1800s in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Hinde wrote and published religious articles in many leading publications. Francis Asbury, one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, considered Hinde important to the church. He frequently met with him and mentioned him in his journals. Historian Lyman Draper spent more than twenty years collecting documents by and about the Hinde family, along with papers of other important figures of the Trans-Allegheny West. The Draper Manuscript Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society holds 47 volumes of Hinde's personal papers, donated by his family after his death.
Early years Thomas S. Hinde was born April 19, 1785, in Hanover County, Virginia, to Thomas Hinde (1737–1828) and Mary Todd Hubbard (1734–1830), as the seventh of eight children. His father was an English doctor who served as a physician to Patrick Henry and General James Wolfe. Little is known about Hinde's early years except that the family moved from Virginia to Newport, Kentucky, in 1797 when his father was awarded a land grant of 10,000 acres (40 km2) for his services in the American Revolutionary War. In a letter to President James Madison many years later, Hinde related that while walking to school in the wilderness of Kentucky, he once successfully fought off a wolf and a panther. Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton were neighbors of the Hinde family while they lived in Kentucky, and the three men grew up as colleagues. One of Hinde's sisters married Richard Southgate; his nephews William Wright Southgate and William Taylor became prominent lawyers and politicians. After a conversion by his mother Mary and older sister Susannah in 1798, all of Hinde's family, including his father, converted to Christianity as Methodists. Thomas delayed a while. Shortly afterward the younger Hinde became close friends with Francis Asbury, who became a prominent bishop in the church. Hinde later described the conversion of his youngest sister, Martha Harrison Hinde, in an 1827 article published in the Methodist Review under his pen name, Theophilus Arminius. Hinde recounted Bishop Asbury visiting his father's home in 1803 and telling Martha that she had better find God, because before he could meet her again she would be dead. The bishop's prophecy came true when Martha died in 1811 without having seen Asbury again. Hinde said she had converted before her death and tried to convert the nonbelievers in the room while on her deathbed. He shared a letter in which his sister had tried to convert her close friends. Hinde named his first daughter after his late sister Martha. Hinde did not immediately convert but attended Methodist camp meetings of the period. During his life, he frequently wrote about the importance of the camp meeting in bringing Christianity and democracy to the west. In 1801, Hinde got a job as deputy clerk for the Kentucky Court of Appeals. William Kavanaugh, the husband of Hinde's older sister Hannah, assigned him to Achilles Sneed of Frankfort. He received a good legal education with Sneed, who was Clerk of the Court of Appeals. During this time, Hinde became acquainted with many of the state's leading men, and acquired a knowledge of the law. He also developed a reputation as one of Kentucky's most efficient businessmen. Hinde wrote to Henry Clay that he was the first lawyer whom Hinde heard address a court. Hinde resided in a boarding house, shared with many of the leading judges and politicians of the day, where he strengthened his personal and political contacts.
Newspaper publisher From an early age, Hinde opposed slavery. Although their parents owned slaves, he and his siblings repudiated slavery on religious grounds. Hinde's opposition increased and eventually he and other friends became outspoken critics of the institution in Kentucky, where slavery was commonplace in the middle and western parts of the state. In the Great Awakening, Methodists were prominent among those who opposed slavery, although they also converted slaves and welcomed them into congregations. In Kentucky Hinde joined other Methodist ministers in the abolitionist movement. In a letter to President Madison, Hinde attributed his opposition to slavery to the influence of his mother. He wrote:
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