About Hinkle Chair Company

Since 1834, six generations of the Hinkle family have been making quality hardwood furniture at the same location in Springfield, Tennessee, just north of Nashville. The Rev. Anthony Jacob Henckel immigrated from Germany in 1717 with his wife Mary Elizabeth and their eight children, settling in Germantown, PA near Philadelphia. The spelling of their last name was changed from Henckel to Hinkle in 1797. In 1803, Rev. Henckel’s great grandson Anthony and his wife Catherine Nancy Frey moved their family to Robertson County in northern middle Tennessee. The last of their eight children, Andrew Hinkle, was born in 1815 and is recognized as the founder of Hinkle Chair Company. Andrew Hinkle was a farmer, but he and his family supplemented their income by making ladder back chairs. During the hot summer months the family would hand carve chair frames out of oak, hickory and beech. During the winter months when the crops had been harvested and the fields were laid by, the family worked indoors weaving the seats using hand cut strips of various hardwoods and assembling the finished chairs. Andrew and his wife Catherine had twelve children; among them was Henry Ywell who was born in 1860. Henry Hinkle continued in his father’s footsteps, farming during the growing season and producing ladder back chairs during the cold winter months to help support the family. Henry and his wife Eva had five children, including Willie Bell who was born in 1896. Willie Bell Hinkle wedRead their story