George Lehman Hines, an ex-slave, was born July 6, 1851, in Warren County, Kentucky and died in Sweet Home, Arkansas, February 11, 1943. His father, George Lehman, was an entrepreneur, buying and selling property in Bowling Green, Kentucky. George Lehman, born in 1812, came to the United States when he was sixteen from Alsace Lorraine, France. Lehman fought with Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War and then settled in Bowling Green, Kentucky. George Lehman Hines' mother, Mary Jane, was from India or the Caribbean, and her father was a British soldier. She was George Lehman's slave mistress. Mary Jane later was sold to the Pleasant Hines estate where she had three more children, Cate, Mary, and Ester Hines. Her son, George Lehman, was also given the Hines name. After the Civil War and Mary Jane's emancipation, she married Jordan Donaldson and they had one son Charlie.
During the 1870s, George Lehman Hines worked for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, until he was twenty-seven. He then left Bowling Green to attend Wilberforce College, the nation's oldest private, African American university, founded in 1856 by the Methodist Episcopal Church. While at Wilberforce getting a teaching degree, George Hines met Hattie Elizabeth Guy, a fellow student. Hattie Guy was an African American, born a free woman on July 5, 1861, in Rushsylvania, Logan County, Ohio. They married on October 4, 1883, and taught in Tennessee before moving to Arkansas. George and Hattie Hines had eight children: Ida Hines Mattison, Florence Hines Mattison, Hattie Hines, Guy Lehman Hines Jr., George Milton Hines, Maude Hines, Emma Hines, and Virgie Hines.
This collection contains correspondence, legal documents, photographs, and printed materials belonging to the George Lehman Hines family. Miscellaneous papers contain research materials collected by Carla Hines Coleman.
- I. Scrapbook: George Lehman and Hattie E. Hines certificates, deeds, letters, and photographs, 1883-1945 (Reel MG00081)
- II. Scrapbook: Hines and Guy families photographs; letters of Hattie E. Hines, and birth certificate, 1880-1952
- III. Scrapbook: Preston and Florence Hines Mattison letters, photographs, and legal documents, 1916-1940
- IV. Scrapbook: Florence Hines Mattison and Preston Mattison, 1913-1983
- V. Miscellaneous family materials, undated (Reel MG00082)
