An Unexpected Strength

        Hannah was still in shock, but her young children were crying, so she had no time to consider herself right now. As she tried to comfort them, she recalled the events from just a few hours earlier. 

She had been inside the cabin with the younger children. It was noisy outside, but that was always the way it was at the saltworks. But suddenly the noise changed. The workmen were shouting. Something was wrong. She rushed outside the cabin to the area of the salt well where the men were gathered. She heard one of them yell:

     “It's the Captain! He’s gone under! Get a rope!”

But it was too late. Capt. John Hinch had gone into the water at the salt well to free up some timbers that had slipped and were blocking the intake of the wooden pumps. The workers were unable to rescue him in the heavy, dark, briny waters. John Hinch had drowned. He was only 41 years old, and he died without a will.

That day, July 6, 1786 at Saltsburg (close to Bullitt’s Lick, Kentucky) Hannah Hinch’s world changed forever. In that split second she became a widow, with 6 children to care for. She realized in that moment that she would need to try to keep the saltworks going, not only for the security of her family, but for the workers as well. And somehow that is just what she managed to do. 

        The word of Capt. John Hinch’s death travelled quickly from the saltworks to Louisville, where Annie Christian lived with her own children. Annie herself had become a widow just three months before, when her husband Col. William Christian was killed in an Indian attack. William was the owner of the saltworks, and when he was killed, the job of running the saltworks fell to Annie. 

Example of note to Hannah Hinch from Annie Christian
"Madam, Please to let John Davies have 9 bushells & 1/6 of a bushell of salt. Madam, your humble servant - to Mrs. Hinch, signed Annie Christian"

Within a few days Annie Christian and Hannah Hinch were able to work together and develop a plan to keep the saltworks operating. They sent written notes back and forth to each other through couriers (about 20 miles distance) with instructions on all that was needed to run the operation.

Hannah and her children continued to live at the cabin at Saltsburg (it was really a fort). Then almost one year later she married a man by the name of Robert Elder. She was only 31 years old.  And Annie Christian then hired another person to manage the saltworks.

Women in this time period had few legal rights, particularly if their spouse died without a will. Their children were not even really theirs. Courts could appoint a guardian for them, and they would be sent to live with others who would teach them a trade. So when Hannah remarried within the next year, her new husband became the head of the house and in charge of the children, but with the exception that any inheritances due the children would not be his. 

It must have been a difficult decision to remarry, or then again maybe not. Knowing her choices were limited, that is what she chose to do. In today’s world, all of this is so hard to even imagine. But I have to give Hannah a lot of credit. She took charge, and dealt with the situations she was faced with.  She lived the rest of her life In Kentucky, passing away at age 75. I wish I could have known her, and have heard her story in her own words. I'm sure she would have much to tell.