Isaac Hinckley (1815-1888) was a president of the

Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad, headquartered in Philadelphia, that operated in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland from 1836 to 1902. It was part of an 1838 merger of four state-chartered railr ...

and the founder of

Ridley Park, Pennsylvania Ridley Park is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 7,002 at the 2010 census. Ridley Park is the home of Boeing's CH-47 Chinook helicopter division. History Native American The Lenape inhabited the ...

. Hinckley was born on Oct. 28, 1815, in

Hingham, Massachusetts Hingham ( ) is a town in northern Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Part of the Greater Boston region, it is located on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore of Massachusetts. At the 2020 ...

, a son of Isaac Hinckley (1793-1818), who had gone to sea at a young age and rose to command three ships: the brig ''Reaper'' (1809–10), which he sailed on a trading voyage from Boston to Aden and Calcutta; the ship ''Tartar'' (1812–13), on another voyage to Calcutta; and finally the ship ''Canton'' (1815–18) for three voyages from Boston to

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, China. He died while homebound on the third of these. The shipmaster left a widow in Hingham and six children, aged 2 to 11, including three-year-old Isaac. The younger Isaac Hinckley graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1834. He took his first railroad job in 1846, as Superintendent of Transportation for the

Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the Rail transportation in the United States, fir ...

and worked there until January 1848. He then took other railroad jobs and on April 1, 1865, was appointed president of the PW&B. He was also president of the Junction Railroad, the short line built to connect the PW&B and three other railroads in West Philadelphia. In 1880 and 1881, Hinckley helped the PRR take control of the PW&B, a move that ultimately forced the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

to build a costly new southwest approach to Philadelphia. On Dec. 12, 1887, Hinckley chartered Ridley Park, a borough to the southwest of Philadelphia, in an effort to create an analog to the

Philadelphia Main Line The Philadelphia Main Line, known simply as the Main Line, is an informally delineated historical and Social class in the United States, social region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lying along the former Pennsylvania Railroad's onc ...

string of suburbs founded and served, lucratively, by the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

. Hinckley died in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, still the president of the PW&B, on March 28, 1888.

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* 1815 births 1888 deaths 19th-century American railroad executives American city founders People from Hingham, Massachusetts Harvard University alumni {{US-rail-transport-bio-stub