Hinke, William John (1871-1947)

William John Hinke (1871-1947) was born in Dierdorf, Germany in 1871 to Wilhelm Heinrich Christian Hinke and Maria Louisa Haag. The family moved to Elberfeld, Germany in 1879 when Hinke's father was appointed colporteur (distributor) of Christian literature for the German Evangelical Society. Hinke entered public school at age six and became a student at the Gymnasium (high school) at Elberfeld in 1880 remaining there until 1887 when he received a diploma. After receiving an invitation from Reformed Church pastor, Rev. J. H. C. Roentgen, president of Calvin College in Cleveland, Ohio, to attend that school, young Hinke embarked for the United States in October, 1887. Mastering English and completing all other subjects, Hinke graduated from Calvin College in 1890, magna cum laude. He remained at Calvin College from 1890 through 1892 teaching Latin and Greek. In 1892 he enrolled in the Ursinus School of Theology receiving his masters degree in theology in 1893. He spent the year 1894-95 at Princeton Theological Seminary returning to Ursinus in the fall of 1895 as instructor of Hebrew language and literature. He was promoted to professor in 1897 and remained in that position until 1907. Hinke was licensed to preach by the Philadelphia Classis of the Reformed Church in the United States in 1894. He was called as pastor of Trinity Reformed Church at Allentown, PA and was ordained by the Lehigh Classis in 1896. He served as both pastor and professor until 1907 when the Ursinus School of Theology merged with the Theological Seminary at Heidelberg College forming Central Theological Seminary at Dayton, Ohio. In 1907 Hinke was elected assistant professor of Old Testament in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Auburn, New York becoming a full professor in 1909. He studied at the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania receiving the degree Ph.D. in 1906. During the course of his studies and teaching, Hinke mastered at least ten languages. In 1931 he was appointed annual professor at the American School of Archaeology in Jerusalem where he lectured on and studied modern Hebrew. Even though nominally a Presbyterian, Hinke remained committed to the Reformed Church and worked diligently to study and write about its history, particularly the 18th century. In the summers of 1897 and 1898 Hinke, funded by Rev. James I. Good, traveled to Holland and began copying and translating from the Latin, Dutch and German, more than 4,000 pages of documents pertaining to the earliest years of the Reformed Church in the U.S. This work resulted in the publication in 1903 of The Minutes and Letters of the Coetus of the German Reformed Congregations in Pennsylvania, 1747-1792. Hinke also prepared a 39 page bibliography of the Reformed Church which was published in Rev. Joseph Henry Dubb's book The Reformed Church in Pennsylvania (1902). This bibliography contained a complete list of all books, pamphlets, and articles then known relating to the Reformed Church. In 1920 Hinke delivered the annual address at the meeting of the Historical Society of the Reformed Church on "The Sources of Reformed Church History in Pennsylvania" which included numerous sources he discovered after his 1902 bibliography was published. Also interested in early Reformed Church local records and in early Reformed Church pastors, Hinke visited many churches and copied over 12,000 pages of baptisms, marriages and deaths. During his many trips to Europe he visited churches and archives to locate information on Reformed Church pastors and churches. A result of his travels and information gathering was the publication of The Life and Letters of the Rev. John Philip Boehm, Founder of the Reformed Church in Pennsylvania (1916); A History of the Goshenhoppen Reformed Charge, 1727-1819 and A History of the Tohicken Union Church, 1745-1840. Another work commissioned by the Reformed Church resulted in Fathers of the Reformed Church in the Eighteenth Century. Together with Ralph Beaver Strassburger, Hinke, compiled and edited the monumental three volume work Pennsylvania German Pioneers (1934) which was a compilation of all the arrival lists of German immigrants in the port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808. In addition to these books, Hinke also published numerous articles on Reformed Church history and Old Testament subjects, delivered scores of addresses to churches, organizations, and academic audiences. With the gift of his papers and books to the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society as stipulated in his will, the Society has one of the most valuable resources for the study of Reformed Church history in this country.