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It was a motley group of over 250 principals and alternates who reported at West Point on 6 June 1899. They came from nearly every state for this was the exceptional year when no March examinations were held at military posts. All assembled at the Point on that date.</div>
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Candidate Carl Sandburg wrote, “at 20 I was a soldier in Puerto Rico, at 21 I was at West Point for two weeks, a classmate of Douglas MacArthur and Ulysses S. Grant. I passed in Geography, History, and Spelling but failed in Grammar and Arithmetic.”</div>
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Others were more successful: Boughton, Bowman, Gimperling, and Hinkle also had been called to service in the Spanish-American War and were to put on cadet gray. Most of us hardly knew our hay foot from our straw foot, but West point is a great leveller and after the three strenuous weeks of Beast Barracks all were ready to take their places in the Corps.</div>
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<em>Francis Maurice Hinkle</em>, known to his classmates as “Mike”, after his short service in the National Guard of Indiana,</div>
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‘Atlantic Monthly, became interested in a military career and was among the successful ones who marched out on the Plain to take the oath on 13 June 1899.</div>
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He was born on 14 February 1879, in Boyleston, Clinton County, Indiana. His father was an engineer with a bridge building company and was away from his home in Cutler much of the time. Mike attended Grammar School in Cutler but the father, in order to give his children better school advantages, moved his family to Muncie which was the headquarters of his company. Here Mike attended High School but continued, however, to spend his summers on his grandfather’s farm near Cutler.</div>
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Appointed to West Point from the South Bend district of Indiana, he became one of us in the long, hard battle which brought us to graduation on June 11, 1903. Football was his sport and Clifford Jones has a distinct recollection of him coming out of a game, sweat streaming down his face, and a sweater thrown over his shoulders.</div>
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Prior to graduation he was a most interested guesser in the game, “What branch of the service?” Being in the middle of the class, whether or not he could get the Coast Artillery would depend upon how many above him would take the Cavalry and Infantry. He won out and was the last man in the class to be assigned to the Coast Artillery. This fitted handsomely into his plans for he was among the few considering early matrimony. A happy choice for it resulted in Eastern stations and promotions ahead of many of his classmates.</div>
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He was married on graduation leave, August 25, 1903, at Albany, New York, to Marion Ethel Hamilton. He took his bride to Fort Hamilton, New York, for his first four year’s of service.</div>
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Promoted to 1st Lieutenant January 25, 1907, he served two years at Fort Warren, Mass., and was at the Artillery School, Fort Monroe, 1909-1910. For his next service, he jumped to the Pacific Coast where he was stationed at Fort Rosecrans, for two years until his promotion to Captain on December 6, 1911. This was of importance for it gave them the chance to pick out a future home which ultimately was made necessary by an early retirement.</div>
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The year 1912, was spent in Oregon and Washington and next came the first foreign service. Fort Armstrong in Honolulu Harbor was their delightful station for the following two years. Then came the uncertainties of war preparation with service at Fort Winfield Scott, training camps at Monterey, Fort Douglas and Fort Baker.</div>
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As a Major of Infantry, National Army, August 5, 1917, and Lieutenant Colonel June 13, 1918, he was Adjutant, 30th Infantry (Old Hickory) Division from September, 1917, serving on the Mexican border and in Belgium, until relieved by reason of illness in August, 1918. With this Division composed of regiments from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, he participated in the Ypres campaign but missed the glorious windup in the operations at the St. Quentin Tunnel, September 29 and beyond. He attended the Heavy Artillery School in France and served until after the Armistice with the Railroad Artillery in the Argonne campaign. He served in the A.E.F. a total of seven months and 20 days.</div>
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Returning to the States he was detailed in the Q.M. Corps and served as Supply Officer at Camp Eustis, Virginia and at Camp Kearney, California. His last active duty was at San Diego Barracks and at Camp Lewis, Washington. Here ill health compelled his retirement for disability contracted in line of duty, as a Major October 10, 1921. He was promoted Lieutenant Colonel, Retired, June 21, 1930.</div>
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On retirement he and his wife made their home in San Diego in the familiar surroundings of their previous assignment. A double lot was bought and on one half a very handsome Dutch Colonial house was built which was to be their house for nearly forty years. On the other half a grove of avocados was planted which for a number of years was a source of pleasure and profit, the fruit being marketed in a small way. When he could no longer do the work himself and labor was unattainable, the grove was reverted to its original appearance of a city lot.</div>
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For many years both he and his wife were officials in a family owned manufacturing business in Albany, New York, the Jared Holt Co.</div>
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The Hinkles entered into the social life of the San Diego community. Both played golf and bridge. They were members of the Army and Navy Social Club, composed largely of retired service families.</div>
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Mrs. Hinkle was a poet of national reputation who wrote under her maiden name, Marion Ethel Hamilton. Her published collections are: WILD GINGER ULTIMATE LOVER, BIRDS AT NIGHT and WISCONSIN WOODCUTS. Her poems frequently appeared in such magazines as: <em>Munsey, Cavalier, Commonweal, Argosy, Forum, Harper’s Weekly</em>, and others devoted especially to poetry.</div>
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One of her poems “Children on a Hill” was set to music for voice and piano and won the W. W. Kimble Prize, 1951-1952. Unfortunately a war poem, “To Francis” (Off to Battle), could not be located.</div>
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She was a member of the San Diego Poetry Club which appreciated greatly her interest and her talent. She was a connoisseur of historical furniture of which she had some handsome pieces.</div>
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Even though the Hinkles were confined to their home much of the time by illness during their last years (he was a sufferer from arthritis) they kept up an interest in current affairs and were delighted to receive their friends and talk over old times and present problems. Colonel Samuel Frankenberger, Class of ]902, was a frequent visitor at their home.</div>
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The sad tragedy of their lives was the loss of two children at birth—a boy and a girl. They lived for each other and were not long separated. Mrs. Hinkle died December 14, 1959, and he followed her on February 27, 1960. Their niece and nephew, Mrs. Charles H. Core of Missouri and Mr. John Francis Stokley of Illinois, are the near relatives left to moum the loss of their beloved uncle and aunt to whom they were deeply devoted.</div>
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We bid adieu to our friend and comrade by quoting from Mrs. Hinkle’s poem “Cries.”</div>
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“What is Life, but the flight of a bird through a garden?</div>
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A flutter, a flash of wings, a paeon to the sun.</div>
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What is Death, but a song that grows sleepy at evening?</div>
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A hush, that follows folding of wings when day is done.”</div>
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(Marion Ethel Hamilton)</div>
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<em>-R. M. L.</em></div>
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