HINCHON, JOHN W.

HINCHON, HASTINGS, MITCHELL, SAUNDERS

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 3/23/2004 at 15:49:34

Biography reproduced from page 722 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

John W. Hinchon, editor of the Algona Courier, has since 1886, been a factor in the upbuilding and development of the town through his advocacy in the columns of his paper of progressive public measures and through his cooperation with many movements which have for their object the general good. He was born in Ireland, June 24, 1846, and while still in his infancy came to America with his parents. The family located for six years in Watertown, Massachusetts, and in 1855 came west, and located in Allamakee county, Iowa. There Mr. Hinchon grew to manhood on a farm, and in 1869 he became the first student from that county to enter the Iowa State University, which he attended three years. When free schools were first established in Texas, in 1872, he went there from Iowa City and taught for six months twenty miles north of Houston. He then went back to his Iowa home, and taught there, holding the principalship of the Lansing schools for three years, and the office of county superintendent two terms, when he bought the Waukon Democrat, and since that time he has been in the newspaper business. He sold the Democrat in 1883, and in 1886 bought the Algona Courier and has continued to edit it since then.

On May 18, 1874, Mr. Hinchon was united in marriage to Miss Jane A. Hastings at Iowa City, where the young lad had been a teacher in the public schools. They made their home in Lansing and later in Waukon, and in the spring of 1886, moved to Algona. In the fall of 1887 Mrs. Hinchon died, leaving with her husband five children, two of whom have since then joined their mother in the land beyond. The living ones are: Eleanor, the wife of W. L. Mitchell of Ventura, Iowa; W. D. Hinchon, editor of the Times-Messenger of Madelia, Minnesota; and Mary, the wife of R. E. Saunders of Seneca township, Kossuth county. The family are members of the Roman Catholic church.

Mr. Hinchon is a democrat in politics, and his paper, the Courier, has been and is yet the only democratic paper in Kossuth county. In 1897 he took into partnership with him, Mr. I. M. Finnell, who worked on the Courier since its establishment, and the partnership still continues.