Hinsonville is a former municipality in
Chester County, Pennsylvania
Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially referred to as Chesco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in ...
which is now largely replaced by the grounds of
Lincoln University. It was established and mostly populated by free African American residents, with the acres of Hinsonville being first purchased by Edward Walls, a free black man who was born in Maryland, in 1793. The town was named for its first permanent resident, Emory Hinson, another Maryland-born free black man. Located six miles north of the
Mason–Dixon line
The Mason–Dixon line, sometimes referred to as Mason and Dixon's Line, is a demarcation line separating four U.S. states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia. It was Surveying, surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason ...
and at the crossroads of Russellville-Elkdale Road and Oxford-Jennersville Road in the southern tip of
Upper Oxford Township, the agricultural community of Hinsonville became an ideal residence for African Americans escaping slavery in neighboring Maryland from the 1820s to the 1850s. By 1843–1845, when the
Hosanna Meeting House (also known as the Hosanna
A.U.M.P. Church) was established in town, Hinsonville had expanded considerably due to the flight of free black families from the South.
In 1854, James Ralston Amos, a founding trustee of the town, asked Rev.
John Miller Dickey, a
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
minister, and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson, a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
, to start what became the Ashmun Institute in Hinsonville. They named it after
Jehudi Ashmun
Jehudi Ashmun (April 21, 1794 – August 25, 1828) was an American religious leader and social reformer from New England who helped lead efforts by the American Colonization Society to "repatriate" African Americans to a colony in West Africa. I ...
, a religious leader and social reformer. They founded the school for the education of African Americans, who had few opportunities for higher education. The school was supported by local residents to educate the young men of Hosanna Church in Christian religion; the original intent of Amos, in particular, was to help train black men as missionaries to
Liberia
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
. The success of the Ashmun Institute led to its growth into the surrounding town, eventually being renamed Lincoln University in 1866 after
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
's death. Hosanna was used as a station on the
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...
, and at least eighteen congregants served in the
54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantr ...
, the first African American regiment in the
Union Army. Many more Hinsonville residents joined other US Colored Troops (USCT) regiments.
One of the town's most famous residents was
Richard B. Fitzgerald, who, as a child, was relocated by his parents with his family from Delaware to a farm near Hinsonville in order to reduce the risk to their children of being kidnapped by slave catchers and sold into slavery. Later, Fitzgerald would achieve prominence as a bricklayer and businessman.
, the Hosanna A.U.M.P. Church is the only remaining architectural structure from Hinsonville.
Descendants of Hinsonville's early residents still attend the church, as do some Lincoln students. In 2015, a memorial bench was placed near Hosanna in commemoration of the church by members of the Toni Morrison Society as part of their "Bench by the Road" program.
Hosanna Church: The Last building in Hinsonville
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References
{{coord, 39.8062, -75.9281, type:adm3rd_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title
Populated places in Chester County, Pennsylvania
Populated places in Pennsylvania established by African Americans