Hinton, Otho

Born: 1802-XX-XX

Died: 1865-XX-XX California

Flourished: 1810-1850 Ohio

About 1810, Hinton moved with his father from Virginia to settle in Delaware, Ohio. He joined the militia and attained the rank of brigadier general and was afterward known as "General Hinton" for much of his life. Around 1830, Hinton became associated with the Ohio Stage Company as an agent, later becoming president of the company. He also operated numerous other stage lines through the Midwest, taking contracts to carry the U.S. mail, and he became very wealthy. In 1850, Hinton was arrested in Cleveland, Ohio and charged in federal court with theft of $17,000 from the mails. After being arraigned and released on bond, Hinton absconded. In May 1851, there were reports that he had been seen in Cuba. By 1855, he was living as a carpenter in Hawaii. In 1857, the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Ohio dismissed their case against Hinton. By 1864, he was living in Santa Rosa, California.

Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 26 May 1851, 3:1; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 11 June 1857, 3:1; Otho Hinton to Abraham Lincoln; Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, 10 March 1855, 158:1; Kenneth E. Colton, "Bringing the Stage Coach to Iowa, 1837-1842," Annals of Iowa 22 (1939), 47, 51; E. F. Wells, "Old Times in Illinois," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 5 (1912-1913), 188-89; Osman Castle Hooper, History of the City of Columbus Ohio (Columbus, OH: Memorial, [1920]), 133; History of Delaware County and Ohio (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1880), 348; Gravestone, Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery, Santa Rosa, CA.