Noah Pinkney: Former Slave Became Community Icon
Former Slave Became Soldier, Restaurateur, Civil Rights Activist & Community Icon
Noah Pinkney was a former slave who became a community icon. He left Frederick County, Maryland, most likely, during the Civil War and enlisted in the 127th United States Colored Troops, serving as a corporal in Company G. Noah Pinkney was a Civil Rights activist: major of the Carlisle G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), a politician, and leader in fraternal orders in both Carlisle and Harrisburg, long before he became an icon on the Dickinson campus. He was the 19th century equivalent of a food truck restaurateur who sold “sweetmeats and pastry” to the wealthy students on campus who came to cherish his home-cooked treats. Although he spent many of his later years living in Carlisle, Noah, and many of his descendants are buried in Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery.
Pinkney
Noah Pinkney, for many years a well known colored citizen of Carlisle, died at his home on North West street, Monday midnight, aged 77. He was a prominent member of Pomfret Street A.M.E. Church, a Mason, and Civil War veteran. For many years he was a vendor of sweetmeats and pastry on the campus of Dickinson College and was known to hundreds of alumni of this institution, being pictured at times in the Microcosm and other college publications. He was a man of splendid character and came to Carlisle from Harrisburg. He is survived by his wife by second marriage and a daughter.
Funeral services Friday morning at ten-thirty in Pomfret Street Church; burial in Lincoln cemetery, Harrisburg.
Noah Pinkney may have been remembered as a beloved and respected figure in Carlisle in the 1950s, but he was born enslaved in Frederick, Maryland in the 1840s.
During the Civil War, he came to Harrisburg. In 1863, he helped dig entrenchments during the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania. Before the war ended, he also served in one of the segregated Black regiments in the Union army. His unit was actually present at Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865.
After the war, Pinkney returned to his family in Harrisburg before eventually settling in Carlisle during the 1880s. He and his second wife Carrie Taylor Pinkney then became legends in the local community for selling delicious treats such as pretzels, sandwiches and ice cream both on and off campus for nearly 40 years.
Noah Pinkney was clearly important to the Dickinson College community, but he was also a significant leader in Carlisle, serving as a commander of his local GAR veteran’s post, as a precinct organizer for the Republican Party, and as a committed civil rights activist in town before his death in 1923.
(“Who were those honored on Saturday–Honored From Page A1”, 2021)
Carrie & Noah Pinkney Honored with Campus Dedication
Noah Pinkney and his wife, Carrie were honored by Dickinson College in July 2019, along with other formerly enslaved members of the Dickinson community, with a renaming ceremony.
“Though never an employee of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Noah Pinkney was one of its most famous names for forty years. Known to Dickinson students as “Pink” or “Uncle Noah” for all of that time, Pinkney was born a slave in Frederick County, Maryland on December 31, 1846. During the war he became “contraband” and in 1863, he traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to enlist in the Union Army. He served under General Butler and, according to the Dickinsonian, was present at the Appomattox Court House in April 1865 when General Lee surrendered.
Following the war he made his home in Harrisburg where he lived until he moved to Carlisle in 1884. From the next twenty years, “Pink” sold pretzels, sandwiches, ice cream, cakes, and pies from under the steps of East College and also made nightly rounds of the undergraduate rooms. On the coldest of winter days he would sell his treats from his three room house on West Street. Students would listen for his common line of “Fine as silk, sah. Dickinson sandwitches, fine as silk.” In 1894, he was forbidden to sell his treats on campus, and after a time serving students from outside of the East College gate, he suspended his operations for a few months. By the next spring, though, his catering had once again recommenced from his home on 137 North West Street. The May 1895 issue of the Dickinsonian celebrated the fact that “Once more is heard, the old, familiar cry, ‘Let’s go to Pinkney’s'”.
After suffering for several months after a slight stroke, Noah Pinkney died at his West Street home on August 6, 1923 at the age of 77.“
“Noah Pinkney (1846-1923) | Dickinson College,” accessed September 19, 2021, https://archives.dickinson.edu/people/noah-pinkney-1846-1923.
Learn More About Carrie & Noah Pinkney:
Harrisburg Telegraph. “College Man’s Responsibility Impressed On Dickinsonians.” May 12, 1916. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118000445/college-mans-responsibility-impressed/.
Herald-Mail, AJOYA LONG Special to The. “‘Keystones’ Shines Light on Experience of African-American Veterans.” Herald-Mail Media. Accessed March 12, 2023. https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/story/lifestyle/2018/10/14/keystones-shines-light-on-experience-of-african-american-veterans/116617378/.
The Sentinel. “Honoring Inspiration–Who Were Those Honored Saturday.” November 22, 2021. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118095618/honoring-inspiration-who-were-those/.
The Sentinel. “In Memoriam.” September 12, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120840131/in-memoriam/.
Noah and Carrie Pinkney, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3AFhZ0EFU4.
“Noah H Pinkney (1845-1923) – Find a Grave…” Accessed March 12, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/232244993/noah-h-pinkney.
“Noah Pinkney – Dickinson and Slavery.” Accessed September 19, 2021. https://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/slavery/people/noah-pinkney/.
“Noah Pinkney (1846-1923) | Dickinson College.” Accessed September 19, 2021. https://archives.dickinson.edu/people/noah-pinkney-1846-1923.
Carlisle Evening Herald. “Obituary for CARRIE PINKNEY.” August 20, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118900690/obituary-for-carrie-pinkney/.
Carlisle Evening Herald. “Obituary for CARRIE PINKNEY.” August 20, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118900690/obituary-for-carrie-pinkney/.
The Sentinel. “Pinkney.” August 7, 1923. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117999496/pinkney/.
The Sentinel. “Pinkney- Obituary for Mrs. Carrie Pinkney.” August 20, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120839403/pinkney-obituary-for-mrs-carrie/.
The Sentinel. “Who Were Those Honored on Saturday–Honored From Page A1.” November 22, 2021. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118096283/who-were-those-honored-on/.
