Originally published to facebook.com/NorthPlattePL on September 16, 2022.
Welcome back to our Facebook Friday history! Today, we look at another early North Platte resident, Shorter County organizer, businessman, and Native American interpreter, and all around fascinating pioneer, Washington M. Hinman.
Researchers note: Readers, please note that some of the language used in this post is taken directly from the 1920 edition of “An illustrated History of Lincoln County” and in no way, reflects or represents the philosophy of the North Platte Public Library or the City of North Platte.
Washington Mallory Hinman was born September 14, 1819 in Wysox, Pennsylvania to Abner Curtis and Augusta (York) Hinman. Abner and Augusta were pioneer settlers in Pennsylvania, with all of the men in the family doing service in the Indian Wars and in the American Revolution. Beach I. Hinman, brother of Washington Hinman was a pioneer attorney of North Platte and he represented the district in the Nebraska State Legislature.
Washington was the third child out of eleven born to Abner and Augusta. All eleven were born in Wysox, Pennsylvania
- Celinda Miner Hinman (1814-1915);
- Cordelia Rapella Hinman (1817-1835);
- Washington Mallory Hinman (1819-1904). Subject of this post;
- James York Hinman (1822-1876);
- Malvina Amanda Hinman (1824-1852);
- William Cory Hinman (1827-1863). Died at age 34 years. Served three years during the civil war. Fought for the Union. Enlisted as a private, promoted to sergeant and then first sergeant. Killed in action May 3, 1863 at Fredricksburg, Virginia.;
- Beach Isaac Hinman (1827-1905). Another North Platte pioneer and prior subject of a Facebook Friday;
- Augusta “Jessie” Elizabeth Hinman (1831-1901);
- Abner Curtis Hinman (Junior) (1834-1863). Died at age 29 on December 12, 1863 in Vicksburg, Mississippi.;
- Minor Hoyt Hinman (1836-1917). Also an early pioneer in the North Platte area. Served in the Civil War and survived. Died of a stroke.;
- John Frederick Hinman (1840-1922).
In 1849, Washington passed through Shorter County (now Lincoln County) on his way to California. He was a millwright and set up mills in Vancouver, Oregon, and all along the Pacific Coast, receiving sixteen dollars a day building sawmills all over the timber country. This work took him from British Columbia along the Pacific Coast to Panama.
The following paragraphs are from “An Illustrated History of Lincoln County:”
“He was once sent by the United States Government to install a steam sawmill plant at South Pass, Wyoming. He returned from California in 1854 and a few years later located at Cottonwood Springs, near Fort McPherson, where he was later established. On his ranch four miles from the Springs, he opened a general supply store for travelers passing over the California Trail. He installed a steam sawmill and shingle mill and blacksmith shop at the ranch; and many people had employment there.
From 1864 to 1867 M. Hinman was an Indian interpreter at Fort McPherson, attending all the conferences between the Indian chiefs and the government representatives. He had a contract to furnish all the lumber used in the buildings at Fort McPherson, and of furnishing the beef used there. One voucher now in possession of the family is made out for $14,000, showing that Mr. Hinman did a profitable business at the fort. He also supplied wood to the government. In 1864 he lost $1,000 in merchandise through theft by the Sioux Indians under Sitting Bull. Although the government allowed him for this loss, through democratic influences payment has been deferred.
Mr. Hinman was intimate with all of the great Indian chiefs, among whom was Sitting Bull. In 1860 Shorter, now Lincoln, county was organized, with Mr. Hinman as county treasurer, but this organization did not go into effect, and in 1866, the name was changed and Lincoln county was organized properly, with the county seat at North Platte, and Mr. Hinman was elected county commissioner, which position he held for many years. For a long time, he served the community as probate judge, being elected by the republican party.
In the fall of 1867, thousands of Indians met in North Platte where Mr. Hinman resided, having sold his mills in South Pass Wyoming, afterward bringing them back to the Republican Valley, where he had homesteaded and pre-empted 400 acres 2 ½ miles from Indianola. This band of Indians went through North Platte camping at the present intersection of Front and Locust streets, where General Sherman and the peace commissioners met them, and the Redskins promised to remain peaceable and go away in the spring without trouble if the government would give them rations for the winter.
On Sunday, April 7, 1868, there was a great commotion in town when the citizens discovered that the Indians had removed their squaws and all their efforts to the north side of the river, returning in a short time riding through town and shouting into the stores and raising a disturbance generally. Mr. Hinton at once placed the papers relating to civil affairs in Lincoln County into the hands of the military, the saloons were closed and there were squads of soldiers stationed to guard lives and property. The Indians then went southeast of the town, near Fort McPherson in Spells Canyon and on April 8, they attacked seven men who were employed by Mr. Hinman in getting gout wood for his sub-contract in supply Fort A. P. Russell, and the Redskins murdered them, taking all their scalps and one of the horses belonging to them returned home with a scalp tied to it.
The soldiers immediately went in pursuit of the Indians and they found one white man pinned to the ground with arrows through his heart and still alive. He survived two days after they found him. In 1876, Mr. Hinman and his family moved back to North Platte. He had bought land at one time and another until he owned 1,100 acres adjacent to and a portion of it within the corporation of the town. He was senior county commissioner, and since the Union Pacific had paid no taxes into the town corporation, he closed its business and took possession of the roundhouse in North Platte. The taxes were shortly paid and it was quite a sum added to the revenue of the town. In 1879, Mr. Hinman moved out to his farm west of town.”
On September 14, 1863, Washington married Virginia Jeffers in Lincoln County, Nebraska Territory at Fort McPherson. Charles McDonald was the Probate Judge for the proceedings. She and Washington do not have any children and she passed away in 1866.
On March 11, 1867, Washington married Rebecca Franklin Vaughn (1836-1910). They had three children together:
- Vaughn Elias Hinman (1868-1971). Washington was 48 years old when Vaughn was born and Rebecca was 32. Vaughn was the first white child born in North Platte and the second child born in Lincoln County (William McDonald was the first white child born in the county);
- York Abner Hinman Sr (1870-1941).
- Sue Zilla Hinman (1873-1965);
Washington Mallory Hinman died at the age of 84, on January 27, 1904. Washington and Rebecca are buried in the North Platte Cemetery.
Thank you for reading!
