Isaac Hinckley (1815-1888) was a president of the

Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad that operated independently from 1836 to 1881. It was formed in 1836 by the merger of four state-chartered railroads in three Middle Atlantic states to create a ...

and the founder of

Ridley Park, Pennsylvania Ridley Park is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The population was 7,002 at the 2010 census. Ridley Park is the home of The Boeing Company's CH-47 Chinook helicopter division. History Native American The Lenape inhabited the Del ...

. Hinckley was born on Oct. 28, 1815, in

Hingham, Massachusetts Hingham ( ) is a town in metropolitan Greater Boston on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts in northern Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, t ...

, a son of Isaac Hinckley (1793-1818), who had gone to sea at a young age and rose to command three ships: the brig ''Reaper'' (1809–10), which he sailed on a trading voyage from Boston to Aden and Calcutta; the ship ''Tartar'' (1812–13), on another voyage to Calcutta; and finally the ship ''Canton'' (1815–18) for three voyages from Boston to

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, China. He died while homebound on the third of these. The shipmaster left a widow in Hingham and six children, aged 2 to 11, including three-year-old Isaac. The younger Isaac Hinckley graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1834. He took his first railroad job in 1846, as Superintendent of Transportation for the

Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the first rail lines in the United States - with a ...

and worked there until January 1848. He then took other railroad jobs and on April 1, 1865, was appointed president of the PW&B. He was also president of the Junction Railroad, the short line built to connect the PW&B and three other railroads in West Philadelphia. In 1880 and 1881, Hinckley helped the PRR take control of the PW&B, a move that ultimately forced the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to build a costly new southwest approach to Philadelphia. On Dec. 12, 1887, Hinckley chartered Ridley Park, a borough to the southwest of Philadelphia, in an effort to create an analog to the

Philadelphia Main Line The Philadelphia Main Line, known simply as the Main Line, is an informally delineated historical and social region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lying along the former Pennsylvania Railroad's once prestigious Main Line, it runs ...

string of suburbs founded and served, lucratively, by the Pennsylvania Railroad."A Onetime Resort Is Ready For Centennial," Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 15, 1987.
/ref> Hinckley died in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, still the president of the PW&B, on March 28, 1888.

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* 1815 births 1888 deaths 19th-century American railroad executives American city founders People from Hingham, Massachusetts Harvard University alumni {{US-rail-transport-bio-stub