WILLIAM W. HINSEY

Sacramento County

Biographies

WILLIAM W. HINSEY

WILLIAM W. HINSEY.--The name of W. W. Hinsey is well-known throughout the Sacramento Valley in connection with the fruit industry, and his progressive spirit and executive powers have had a stimulating effect upon business activity and growth in general. A native of Iowa, he was born at Dahlonega in 1862. His opportunities for attending school were very limited, as he early began providing for his own livelihood. As a boy he worked for the Ottumwa Starch Company, and won promotion to the position of shipping clerk, leaving their employ to accept a more advantageous offer from the general mercantile firm of W. A. Jordan & Sons. Twelve months later he started for the Pacific Coast, California being his destination. He arrived in Elsinore, San Diego County, at a time when the entire West was suffering from business depression, many industries being closed down; and in search of an opening he drifted up to northern California. He came to the Fair Oaks colony in 1898, about two years after it was established, and has since been identified with its development, with the exception of four seasons which he spent in Placer County with George D. Kellogg, of Newcastle. He has operated a number of small ranches in Fair Oaks, and in 1910 completed a beautiful home, which is situated on a tract of one and a half acres. His attention, however, has been chiefly given to his duties as secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Fair Oaks Fruit Company, which he has made one of the leading concerns of the kind in the state, displaying initiative, enterprise, keen sagacity and notable executive ability in directing its affairs. Mr. Hinsey has made a close study of the business in which he is engaged, and has contributed many interesting and valuable articles on horticulture and fruit-raising to local papers and farm journals, being recognized as an authority in this field.

Transcribed by Elaine Sturdevant.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 599. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.