Maine History Online

Since colonial days, Americans viewed the care of poor or otherwise needy persons as the responsibility of towns.

By the 1830s, due largely to the effects of the Second Great Awakening, religious impulses drove individuals and governments to provide care for needy children, for persons with mental or physical disabilities or illnesses.

Many private, religious and state-funded institutions began in the early 1800s, and many more came along at the end of the nineteenth century.

Hinckley, like others, had a religious underpinning to his institution, although its expression was non-denominational.