Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Louis L. Hinnen Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

LOUIS L. HINNEN

(Transcribed by Peggy Luce)

Louis L. Hinnen, successful farmer and stockman and prominent in politics and community advancement affairs was born in Madison County, Illinois, on November 5, 1872. For nearly a half century he has been a resident of Butler County, and for thirty-six years has been a prosperous and prominent farmer. His uprightness in private business and public affairs, his steadfast efforts to advance his community, not only in material things but in character and honor, have made him respected and loved by all.

He came to Kansas in 1885 with his parents and settled with them on the northeast quarter of section 35, of Plum Grove Township, which they purchased from the Santa Fe Railroad. He was educated at the Four Mile School, located three miles east of Potwin. His rural education he supplemented with constant study of many books, of current news through careful reading of newspapers and periodicals, and by keen observation.

Mr. Hinnen has served two terms as township treasurer and has also been a township trustee. He also served three terms, a total of eleven years, on the Board of Education at Potwin, finally resigning. In 1926 he was a candidate for the state legislature on the Democratic ticket and, though he was defeated, the almost unanimous vote of his own precinct and the surrounding country was eloquent proof of the esteem in which he is held by his neighbors. He is a stockholder in the Potwin State Bank and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

On February 26, 1899, Mr. Hinnen married Miss Sophronia Jane Mossman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Mossman of Towanda. Mr. Mossman, a Civil War veteran and a native of Illinois, came to Kansas on January 12, 1891, and was one of the outstandingly successful farmers of the Towanda district for many years. He died in July, 1906, and Mrs. Mossman died in the spring of 1923.

Mr. and Mrs. Hinnen have three sons, Ralph Hinnen, postmaster at Potwin, who married Miss Thelma Stewart; Ray Hinnen of Potwin, who is employed by the Vickers Refinery, and Harold, who is associated with his father on the farm. The two daughters are Mrs. Mildred Volgelman, who was graduated from the University of Kansas and married lewis Vogelman; and Mrs. Grace Houston, who was graduated from Kansas State College, at Manhattan, and there met her future husband, Frank W. Houston, of Jerome, Idaho. The Voglemans have a daughter, Joan, and the Houstons have a son and a daughter, Robert and Patricia.

The Hinnens made the comfort, education and training of their children a prime activity of their entire career.

Mr. Hinnen’s ancestry is Swiss. His father, Lorenz J. Hinnen, was born on March 5, 1840, in Lucerne, Switzerland. When a young man twenty-nine years old, he came to America and settled in St. Jacob, Illinios. While there he met Miss Caroline Gaechter, also a native of Switzerland, who had been born at Berne, but a few miles from his own birthplace. Their common nativity and interest drew them together and on January 30, 1871, they were married at Highland.

Besides their son Louis, they were the parents of six children, Mrs. Rawley (Caroline May Hinnen) Cameron, who lives north of El Dorado; Edwin L. and Lawrence A. Hinnen, both of Potwin; Mrs. Otto (Emma Hinnen) Kemper, living at Augusta; Mrs. James M. (Elizabeth Hinnen) Davis of Emporia, and Dr. Bertha Hinnen Hitchcock of Denver, Colorado.

Though the elder Hinnens were naturalized citizens of the United States and reared their children in the ideal of American patriotism and loyalty, they cherished fond memories of their native land. Mr. Hinnen made two visits to his old home in Switzerland, one in 1906 and the other in 1913. Mrs. Hinnen died on November 23, 1926, and Mr. Hinnen on December 31, 1932, at the age of ninety-two years.