Hankins, New York and the People who Lived There

 I am very lucky to have several letters written by members of the Hankins family dating back to the 1830s. This first letter was written by John Hankins to his wife Susan (Thomas) Hankins in June 1831. John had traveled to Detroit, Michigan, and was writing home to let his wife know he had arrived safely.   I'm not sure where John and Susan were living at the time. In 1830, they were living at Ten Mile River, Lumberland, Sullivan County, New York. This letter is addressed to Susan at Coshecton. He didn't buy the land at what would become Hankins until December 1834.   I don't know why John traveled to Michigan in 1831, who he traveled with, or how long he stayed there. John Hankins and Susan Thomas married on 4 March 1830 in Damascus, Wayne County, Pennsylvania at her parents home. Their first child, Lucas Wurtz Hankins, was born 31 October 1831 at Ten Mile River.  Mrs Susan Hankins Coshecton Sullivan County New York. This With Care and Speede Detroit...

Pages 236-241 of Hamilton Child's Gazetteer and Business Directory of Sullivan County, N.Y. for 1872-3  contains a list of individuals and firms in Fremont, including those with Post Office Address at Hankins. Copies of the Gazetteer  can be downloaded from the Internet Archive and FamilySearch.   Information for each entry was: "1. Name of individual or firm. 2. Post office address in parenthesis. 3. Business or occupation." For farmers, the number after their occupation was the number of acres owned or leased. Names of subscribers to the directory were in capital letters. [1] Page 236 Albert, Frederick W. (Hankins) lumberman and farmer 130.  Battlemash, Anna Mrs. (Hankins) famer 150.  Bauer, Michael. (Hankins) farmer 63. Bear, John, (Hankins) shoemaker and farmer 60  Brant, Church (Hankins) farmer 72.  Page 237  Brown, M.S., (Hankins) farmer 115. Buestman, Chas., (Hankins) town clerk and carpenter. Claus, Martin Jr. (Hankins) farmer 100. CORR, ...

 Welcome to my blog - Hankins, New York and the People who Lived There.  This blog will be where I share information I find about the hamlet of Hankins in Fremont, Sullivan County, New York. It's the start of a one-place study of Hankins. For more about one-place studies, visit the Society for One-Place Studies.    Why Hankins?  Hankins is named after John Hankins, my great great great grandfather. He was one of the early landowners in the area, first buying land in the area in 1834. [1] In the 1860's, John's widow and children sold some of the land to Benjamin Tyler and John Ross Kellam.[2] Tyler was my great great grandmother's half brother, while Kellam was my great great grandfather. So when you look at the 1875 map of Hankins, you can see, I'm related to several of the families in town. [3] Growing up, I heard stories from my father, about how when his father was a child, he would visit his Hankins grandparents in Equinunk, Wayne County, Pennsylvania and t...