Keeneland, Investing in Racing's Future since 1936.
Issue link: https://keenelandmagazine.epubxp.com/i/681141
KEENELAND.COM K SUMMER 2016 41 farmed Bourbon County since Kentucky's earliest years. Jacob Spears "got run out of Pennsylvania," according to Tom, during the Whiskey Rebellion, a farmers' insurrec- tion brought on by a federal tax on spirits enacted in 1791. Spears, on the lam, took his pot stills to the region that became Kentucky in 1792. He made whiskey, farmed, and bred horses. Once every year — most likely in autumn following the corn harvest and subsequent distilling — he took his whis- key on fatboats down the Licking River to the Ohio River and then to the Mississippi River. He sold the product in New Orleans, where he also ditched the raft he had arrived on. He would buy a horse or two with his profts, enabling him to ride back to Kentucky. The Buckner side of Hinkle's family arrived in Kentucky after the American Revolution. Over the years a lot of land was passed around and divided among Spears and Buck- ner descendants. Buckner Hinkle and his new bride, Sally Spears Hinkle, took up residence on Spears land after they married in 1947. This was the core of what is now Hinkle Farms — and was at one time known as Hidaway Farm. Sally's father had purchased the property in 1926, and it was here he had been growing Bluegrass seed and running cattle. The couple's frst job was to restore the main residence that dated to 1812 when the young United States was at war with England. The original builder was Kinzea Stone, grandfather of the Kinzea Stone who won the 1891 Kentucky Derby with Kingman. The house had been used as a tenant house when the Hinkles took over. "Until we came here in 1947, there were no improve- ments, no plumbing or central heating, only a few elec- tric light cords coming down from the ceilings," Sally Hin- kle once told the Lexington Herald-Leader. One feature of the house is the shutters dat- ing from an era when they might be needed for protec- tion from marauders. The house was called "Hidaway" because it was hidden from North Mid- dletown Road at the farm's main entrance. Until about a dozen years ago, when the name of the operation changed to Hinkle Farms, the farm continued to be called Hidaway. The name had changed, but the commitment to the land had not. The problem with the original name was that few could say or spell Hidaway. People would call the farm by every name but the right one. "They always called it Hideaway," Tom said. "And there are other farms called Hiddenaway, Hid-a-way, and you go to horse sales and nobody knows who Hidaway Farm is. We thought the brand would be better if we just used our name." A different road to success The Hinkles' story in horses cannot be told without the story of the family's business inter- ests, for the income provided by outside interests enabled the acquisition of more land and horses. The senior Hinkle founded Hinkle Contracting Corp. during World War II, when he foresaw the United States and other nations soon requiring construction of more roads and airport runways. The postwar years played out as he had predict- ed. Construction of the Interstate highway sys- tem began. Hinkle was prepared with his high- way construction and aggregates business, with Buckner Hinkle inspired his sons to respect the land that has roots in Kentucky's early history. From left, Buck, Anne Archer, Henry, and Tom are caretaking Hinkle Farms for future generations.