BIO: L. V. Hinman, Tillard Pen Pictures, 1911, Blair County, PA Contributed April 2003 for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _________________________________________ Pen Pictures of Friends and Reminiscent Sketches by J. N. Tillard Altoona, PA: William F. Gable & Co., Mirror Press, 1911 A Pioneer of The Produce Business L. V. HINMAN, One of The First Men to Bring The Product of Southern Climes to Altoona in Large Quantities CCONDITIONS change so gradually in any community that those who see them pass under their eyes are scarcely conscious that they are taking place and a large industry can be built up and be taken as a matter of course, the people after a year or two feeling that it had been always there. Old residents even scarcely remember that fifteen years ago Altoona had no wholesale district and the big jobbing and produce houses that now line Eleventh and Green Avenues were not in existance. The grocer bought his staples from Philadelphia or Pittsburg direct, and what green stuff he did not buy from the Bedford County hucksters and occasional farmers who came into town from the surrounding country, he got from the little market car that ran semi-weekly between this city and Harrisburg. His oysters and watermelons he had shipped occasionally from Baltimore or Philadelphia, the practice being for a number of small dealers to club together in the purchase. Peaches were sometimes shipped in by the car load by some eastern grower who came along to sell them out at the siding, and for berries and other small fruit the community depended upon the wild crops of the neighboring mountains, most of the consumers doing their own picking. This was of course before the days of the development of the refrigerator or heated car and the shipment of perishable goods in all weathers was not practicable. Along in the 'nineties, every once in a while some individual with a hazy idea of the possibilities that might be developed in the produce business would try his hand in shipping in stuff from the south, but the venture was usually sporadic and ended in failure. Now the town would not know how to get along without its well established produce houses that make it possible for the small dealer to have fresh goods every day in any quantity he may desire and the consumer can utilize the gardens of the country at all seasons from Tampa, Florida, to Kalamazoo, Michigan. No matter what the weather may be like in the intermediate points, the specially prepared cars carry all sorts of products for thousands of miles in as good condition as when they started and we realize the size and possibilities of the country when we look upon the diversified food stuffs that are brought to our doors at all seasons of the year. The genii of Aladdin's lamp never worked greater miracles than the bringing in of strawberries while the earth is icebound and the north winds scream over the land. But to bring this about, organization, energy and brains are required. Goods cannot be either manufactured or grown, transported over long distances to consumers unless the process is commercially profitable, and to make it profitable, some man who can grasp the situation and follow out all its ramifications while it is in process of development, is essential to the game. The man who successfully made the business of regularly shipping produce grown in other localities into Altoona is L. F. Hinman. There had been a few individuals before him who had made some more or less successful experiments in this direction but they were not able to build up a permanent and profitable business. Mr. Hinman did not come to Altoona for the specific purpose of opening up a produce business, but his mission was to collect, if possible, several thousand dollars that he had loaned to a resident on insufficient security. He did not find it possible to collect the debt, but he was the sort of man who was always looking out for possibilities of all sorts and was able to see them when they existed. He came here on July 4, 1895, and as he walked about the town he saw a thriving village with a lot of go-in-it, and though it looked as if he had just dropped two thousand dollars by not looking closer into the securities offered by the natives, he thought he saw an opening for a good wholesale produce business, and that was his line. There were several small dealers, mostly on commission, who have since grown into husky competitors, but at that time no one seemed to think of branching out beyond where they were in the matter of importing "garden sass." Mr. Hinman had been born in the "Old Dominion" in 1851 and after the war had engaged in the hard and laborious, but exciting and profitable business of oyster dredging in the Chesapeake Bay. For fifteen years he had sailed up and down the stormy water in all weathers as the captain and owner of several schooners and knew the oyster business down to the beds. He then engaged in general merchandising in Parksley, Va., for ten years and no man was in a better position to know the resources of the middle south in the way of buying and handling the lines of produce that he saw a market for in the Pennsylvania town, and he was quick to take advantage of the situation. He rented a place on lower Eleventh Avenue that suited his purposes and began buying and bringing in the product of the Virginia fields and waters on his own account. The local retail trade at once saw the advantage of having some one else do the worrying of getting the right stuff at the right time and instead of taking the chances themselves, they at once began to buy from Mr. Hinman and his business prospered from the start. His years of experience as an oysterman enabled him to secure the best that there was in the fish and oyster market, and Altoona began to get prime goods instead of seconds or worse. The old days of canned oysters were past and the vegetable gardens of the south supplemented the short seasons of the Pennsylvania mountains at no greater cost than if the produce were raised at home. In the early 'nineties it had been difficult to get even celery at any other season than the few fall months when it was dug out of the local trenches, and a local shortage in potatoes or cabbage was hard to overcome. Things were different now, for anything in the produce line could be procured at any day if it were grown between the lakes and the gulf, for Mr. Hinman knew where to buy it at the best possible advantage for his customers. In 1900, the firm was L. F. Hinman & Sons and one of the boys set up a branch store in Baltimore, so as to have the advantage of a man on the ground and for a time they thought they would discontinue the local store, but they are here yet, and the business has grown to such proportions that four years ago they moved into a new building on Eleventh Avenue which is one of the best adapted places to the conduct of a wholesale produce business in the country. From the carload shipments of fifteen years ago, the daily imports, when business is brisk, is from six to eight cars daily of the products of field, garden, orchard, river and ocean, and from the lonely little produce house of fourteen years ago, there has grown up a long line of similar houses, all doing a good business. As the years have gone by Mr. Hinman has became interested in many things beside the produce business. He is a director in a local bank, president and director in a fire insurance company and has large real estate interests in his native town in Virginia. He some time ago announced that he would retire from active participation in the business he has built up here, but most days he can be seen about the place giving the benefit of his sage council and ripe experience to the younger men. He has made many friends in Altoona and become an integral part of the community. His health is good and he bids fair to live many years to enjoy the fruits of his labors. #