The Reverend James Louis Hynes

Before continuing with the Hynes timeline, let’s briefly fast-forward to 1933. After living in Newburgh, Cornwall, Freeport and Brooklyn, New York, great grandparents James and Bessie Hynes moved to Middleborough, Massachusetts where, at age 49, James became the Pastor of the Central Baptist Church, a post he would hold for the next 15 years. My recent discovery of an archive of the Middleboro Gazette sheds light on this chapter of the elder Hynes family of which little was previously known. It provides new details of James’ earlier life, as well as insights to his personality. These will be helpful when we subsequently return to the 1910s to resume the Hynes family story.

James left the Bushwick Avenue Baptist church, in 1933–news accounts cited the Great Depression as the major factor responsible for the decline of the Brooklyn church. He was welcomed to his new post with a reception in Middleboro on October 4, 1933. An Oct 6 Gazette article provides details of the reception and James’ background.

We learn that James attended Crozer Theological Institute and New York University. The timeline of James’ theological education remains confusing. Crozer’s 1918 catalog listing all alumni to-date does not list James Hynes (there is no such catalog for later years that I can find). James moved from Newburgh to Cornwall in 1910 and from Cornwall to Brooklyn sometime between 1918 and 1920.

My working theory is that James bootstrapped his early career, working as a preacher and pursuing formal education gradually over time. Most or all of his time in Newburgh he worked as a clerk, so Cornwall must have been his first opportunity in the church. His time in Cornwall was perhaps mostly on-the-job training, supplemented later by formal studies. He must have attended Crozer either late in his tenure in Cornwall or soon after moving to Freeport, then continued his studies at New York University, commuting from nearby Freeport.

For me, a big remaining mystery is the question of when James decided to go into the ministry; was this something he always aspired to or something new; whether this was anywhere in sight in 1905 when he married Bessie. The many incongruities in James’ later life may all trace back to this question.

Crozer, located in Upland, Pennsylvania is also where great grandfather Edward T. Sandford studied, graduating in 1870 or 1872. We now have two instances of ancestors who studied there but did not live there.

The article confirms that of the four Hynes children, only Gilbert (the youngest, then age 23) followed James and Bessie to Middleboro, the others remaining on Long Island.

In 1940 the Gazette published a photo of James, the first I have been able to find. I still don’t have a picture of Bessie.

A 1935 Gazette publication provides one of the first examples of James’ writing I have found. He was a prolific writer, as evidenced by many future, often lengthy, Gazette publications. I’m no expert on religious writing, but my assessment of this and other examples is that they are very heavy with religious language, but short on practical indications of how one might apply them in life. It is difficult to find any indications of James, the person, beyond someone preaching religion for religion’s sake. In none of James’ writings does there appear to be any cause or passion other than the church itself.

Such are the basics of James’ professional life as gleaned from the Middleboro archives. There’s more to the story of James and Bessie’s time in Middleboro, which I’ll discuss in detail when we get to that part of the timeline.