Orison Clark Hinman & G.W. Thomas Album From Monona Iowa to Silver City NM

The O. C. Hinman Papers held by the New Mexico Archives consist of two ledgers and numerous invoices which concern the furniture store and undertaker’s business of O. C. Hinman. The first ledger covers his accounts from 1886-1899 while the second ledger contains only an alphabetical listing of accounts. The invoices date from 1900-1905. The 1903 invoices are the most complete. Two funeral director’s magazines contained in the collection have articles about an undertaker’s convention in Las Vegas during 1928. Invoices have been arranged chronologically. None of this is included in this sale. Only the photo album.

O.C. Hinman was bom July 19, 1859, in Monona, Iowa. Hinman learned telegraphy and worked for the railroad for three years before moving to Silver City, New Mexico, in June 1883. There Him-nan served as Deputy Postmaster for one year. In 1884, Hinman married Minnie Stanley. The couple had two children, Ruth and Gifford Thomas. Hinman operated a fruit store in 1885 and in 1886 he opened his furniture store. He became the leading dealer of furniture and undertaking goods in Silver City and the surrounding area. Hinman later served as the town coroner.

Additionally, O.C. Hinman captured the essence of Silver City through his lens. The five photos he took showcase the town, including some depicting flooding. His contributions provide a glimpse into the past and the vibrant history of this New Mexico community. Those photos are held by The New Mexico Archives.

O.C. Hinman was in Silver City, NM at the same time Billy The Kid, Geronimo, The Hall Gang and Butch Cassidy and His Wild Bunch were there.

Excerpt from Ephemeral Treasures by Bob Ingraham

The historical record about the young man we know as Billy the Kid is less than clear. He was apparently born Henry McCarty in New York City in 1859, to Catherine McCarty. In 1870, following the death of Henry’s father, Catherine to Indianapolis, where she met William Henry Harrison Antrim. The McCarty family moved with Antrim to Wichita, Kansas in 1870; three years later Catherine married Antrim in Santa Fe, moved to Wichita, Kansas and later took the name William Bonney. He and his mother and new stepfather, moved to Silver City with his mother and new step-father to Silver City as a young boy; his mother was a washerwoman at the Southern Hotel on the northeast corner at the intersection of what are now Hudson and Broadway streets.

Excerpt From Wikipedia

The town’s violent crime rate was substantial during the 1870s. However, Grant County Sheriff Harvey Whitehill was elected in 1874, and gained a sizable reputation for his abilities at controlling trouble. In 1875, Whitehill became the first lawman to arrest Billy the Kid, known at the time under the alias of Henry Antrim. Whitehill arrested him twice, both times for theft in Silver City (Sheriff Whitehill testified to the Justice of the Peace that he believed Henry Antrim did not do the actual stealing the second time arrested, but assisted in the hiding of the property stolen by Sombrero Jack. Whitehill would later claim that the young man was a likeable kid, whose stealing was a result more of necessity than criminality. His mother is buried in the town cemetery. In 1878, the town hired its first town marshal, “Dangerous Dan” Tucker, who had been working as a deputy for Whitehill since 1875. Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch were also reported to frequent the Silver City saloons in the late 1800s.^[8]

Identified Include:

1. Mrs. William Ernest Hinman (Elma Martha Burnham)
2. G. W. Thomas
3. D. C. Thomas
4. John D. Hinman

Includes the Hinman branches that went to New York.