Herbert T. Hineman

HERBERT T. HINEMAN. One of the best known stock farms in Kansas, or in the West, is that owned by Herbert T. Hineman in Lane County, Kansas, and known as Fairview Stock Farm. Mr. Hineman, who is a farmer, ranchman and breeder of horses and jacks, as well as the owner of the champion jack of the world, is one of the early settlers in Lane County, having entered his homestead here in 1885 and settled permanently in 1886.

Mr. Hineman is a contribution to Kansas from Gallia County, Ohio, where he was born January 14, 1865. His environment as a boy was rural in its character, his education was of the country school order, and before he was twenty-one years of age he had married and come to Kansas. While still a resident of his native state he had taken up farming as a vocation, and brought that experience to the new country when he came.

In August, 1885, with his young wife, Herbert T. Hineman came to Stafford County, Kansas, and moved from there to Lane County with an ox-wagon in the spring of 1886. In Stafford County he had sown a crop of wheat, but the chinch bug and dry weather attacked and ruined it and he never made an attempt to harvest it.

In addition to his oxen he possessed a wagon, two cows and $7.50 in cash, and with this capital he began life cheerfully in Lane County, entering the northwest quarter of section 23, township 20, range 29. On this tract he proved up and there he resided for five years, years which were full of hardships but were also years crowded with compensations for things accomplished and obstacles overcome. His sod house consisted of two rooms and compared favorably with any other of the houses of a similar character at the time, being equipped with homely comforts and plastered with plaster made from the native lime. His first child was born in that primitive little prairie home and on that claim he achieved enough success as a farmer to keep his family.

In November, 1890, Mr. Hineman came to his present home. He bought a relinquishment of a timber claim and proved it up and once again resumed his residence in a sod huose.[sic] After a year in it he moved a 14 by 20 feet frame house from Dighton, and it was the nucleus of his present commodious and comfortable home and one of the few modern residences of the county which has the distinction of being a model country dwelling. His Delco electric lighting system furnishes current for his barn as well as his residence, and the laundry work, churning and separating are lifted from human shoulders by electric power. On this farm he first devoted himself to the raising of grain and feed, and in the meantime began building up a herd of livestock. Horses then attracted his attention particularly and this industry has proved profitable even then. The range was open and good and a horse could be produced almost without cost. He marketed them at home or to buyers in search of such animals, and raised the grade Percheron, a strain to which he always has confined himself. He is now raising the pedigreed Percheron, and its effect upon the horse-flesh of the community is marked.

Notwithstanding his success with horses Mr. Hineman's greatest fame has come as a raiser of jacks. He came to the conclusion that the environment and climate of Lane County was better adapted to the raising of jacks than that of either Kentucky or Missouri, and that with his experience in the horse business he could successfully grow the jack. In 1904 he began this business by purchasing "Mammouth Jumbo," of the best blood possible of the American Mammouth jack, and with this individual his line of noted jacks started. He now owns "Pharaoh," champion of Tennessee, 1910, champion of Kansas, 1913, and champion in the American Breeder picture show. His "Kansas Chief," world champion jack, won the championship of Kansas in 1914, was first in the yearling class in 1911, first in the three-year-old class in 1913, and first in the age class, four years old and over, and grand chainpion of Kansas in 1914. "Kansas Chief" won the world's championship at San Francisco Exposition in 1915. Mr. Hineman exhibited eleven head of jacks and jennets there and won twenty-eight ribbons with them.

As a stock breeder Mr. Hineman is vice president of the Standard Jack and Jennet Registry of America and a member of the Percheron Association. He still continues to breed Percheron horses and has a string of registered animals, his chief being "Sampson." Mr. Hineman has never shown this stock for prizes. For the past three years he has held public sales of jacks and jennets, with buyers attending from various states near and far.

Mr. Hineman has a ranch of twenty-five quarter-sections of land, all fenced and cross-fenced, and is using 1,800 acres of it for farming. He has come to be a large grower of wheat, some 1,600 acres being devoted to that grain, and, even eliminating the successful years of 1914, 1915 and 1916, he regards wheat as having made him money in its growing. Mr. Hineman is one of the directors of the First National Bank of Dighton, is president of the Farmers Elevator Company, and is one of the stockholders in the new Dighton Hotel. He has encouraged education in his district and has served on the board in district No. 4. As a public official of Lane County he was elected sheriff of Lane County in 1902, as the successor of Robert Rayl, and served in that capacity four years, during which time there were but four juries empaneled and only one murder case tried. There was no jail at that time and no apparent need for one. Mr. Hineman also served as trustee of Dighton Township.

Mr. Hineman was married in his native county to Miss Dora Phillips, whose people came from Canada. To this union there were born the following children: George is associated with his father and his chief aid in the jack business. Albert married Miss Mary Murphy, now deceased, and is yet with the family home. George took a short course in the stock department of the Kansas State Agricultural College, while Albert received his education in the public schools. Mr. Hineman's only fraternal connection is with the Modern Woodmen of America. He belongs to the Methodist Church and is a member of the official board thereof.