Joseph Anatole Hincks, 1841-1923
Continued from entry on list of correspondents
….
Still, Hincks clearly had other qualifications going for him besides his relationship to JLN. In addition to serving as secretary of the insurance company, he was one of 33 incorporators of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, known also as the Senses Hospital, and served as its secretary from its inception in 1889 until his retirement in 1922. Both JLN and Mr. Callender made donations to this hospital designed to serve low income patients during their lifetimes. During the Civil War, Hincks served as special messenger to P.G.T. Beauregard and remained active in veteran organizations throughout his lifetime. He also was active in the political life of the city, though these accomplishments would not have been known to JLN. Under Mayor Paul Capdevielle (1900-1904), Hincks served as a member of the Civil Service Commission, and under Martin Behrman’s (1904-1920, and 1925-26) first eight years as mayor, served as one of four Police Commissioners.
There is no doubt that JLN was quite partial to Hincks and considered him an important ally. In addition to recommending him to the Tulane Board, she intervened on his behalf in at least two other ways. In March 1900, she requested that the Board raise his salary to $5,000 (a purchasing power of $151,000 in 2017). She also requested of the Board in a letter dated December 8th 1895, that J.A. Hincks, B.V.B. Dixon, Miss Alice Bowman, and Mr. Buhler [the gardener] be retained in the College “unless through inefficiency or by their voluntary resigning of their several positions…” Her request was honored and acknowledged in a letter to her from the president of the Board, Charles E. Fenner. JLN also gave to Hincks a number of expensive gifts including her silverware valued at $4,000 which “she had when keeping house,” $10,000 in cash, and $2,000 to purchase a summer home in Covington, Louisiana, that the family had been renting. In 1893, she offered him a house on Esplanade Avenue at Broad, which he declined because he wished to continue living in the home where one of his children had died of yellow fever. JLN then donated the house to the Tulane Board. But somewhat ironically, Hincks, his wife, four daughters, and one son would eventually move to a 6-bedroom raised cottage on Esplanade Avenue where he died in 1923. His obituary in the Times-Picayune titles him a “…civil war veteran and prominent business man whose death removes a figure prominent in New Orleans life for more than a half century.”