Volume 17 , Issue 1

Ed Hinton Obituary

The name is variously spelled as "Hinton" and "Henton" in the article. This is another one of Dyer's tributes to the passing of an old-timer. Thanks to Joy Sherman for sharing these Tom Dyer writings with the Okie Legacy.

Like the golden leaves of autumn that are falling, one by one to earth, so with my erstwhile friends who are passing down the valley, one by one to the endless shores of eternity.

The last one to answer to the roll call of time was my old time cowboy friend, Ed Henton of Capron. It is something like a half century or more since I first met him. Ed was born and reared in the state of Missouri until he had attained to the age of 14 years. In the fall of 1878, the Henton family left that state and emigrated to Kansas, settled in Barber county in the beautiful valley of Sharon, October, 1878. Here they secured a fine tract of land and built a home.

In the early part of the month of November, 1881, while in the employ of Gregory, Eldred and company, I was making my first trip to Harper City, Kansas, for a load of freight for this company. Harper was the nearest railroad station, and was the terminus of the old Southern Kansas Railroad before it was taken over by the Santa Fe. Gregory, Eldred and company bought their supplies by wholesale, had them shipped to Harper and then freighted to the ranches.

Leaving the headquarters ranch in Barber County, I passed the place known as Last Chance, situated on the banks of the placid waters of the stream called Little Mule Creek. Traveling northeast from this place, I crossed the Medicine River at what was then known as the old Landis ford. Continuing on in the same course, I passed the north edge of the Cedar Hills. Dropping down into the Sharon Valley, I pitched my camp on the bank of a small stream, whose crystal waters were coursing their way down toward the sea. About 100 yards distant from my camp was a farm house, which I learned later was the home of the Henton family.

After unhitching, watering and feeding my four-horse team, I was building a fire on which to cook something to eat, when a young man perhaps 17 years of age came from the nearby house down to my camp. After the usual western greetings, we were soon engaged in conversation as if we had known each other always. He told me his name in answer to my inquiry. I also told him who I was, and for whom I was working, and before we separated, I had promised this young fellow in response to his request to try and secure for him a job with the outfit for whom I was working. This young man was none other than Ed Henton, who was ever after my life long friend.

I made numerous other trips over this same route, and often camped near the Henton home, and was always a welcome visitor in this home. In the course of time, and human events, Ed was hired by this company to work on their Barber County ranch. Some months later he was transferred to the ranch south of the Cimarron River. Here he was furnished with a mount of horses. He participated in the roundups and became a full-fledged cowboy. He was a trusted employee of this company for a number of years, was one of a half dozen of the old boys who helped to drive the last herd of longhorns that were shipped to market from the stockyards here, only a short time before the opening of the Cherokee Strip to settlement.

At the opening of the Cherokee Strip to settlement the Hinton family secured a fine claim one-half mile south and three miles east of the present site of Capron, but at that time it was called Warren. Here the family resided until the death of the father. Some years later the family disposed of the farm, secured property and built a home in Capron. Ed lived with and cared for his mother until her death. Since that time he has resided in this home alone. For 20 years he has served the Capron schools as janitor, and the large concourse of people, relatives, friends, and acquaintances that filled the Methodist Church at that place, to its capacity, attest the esteem in which he was held by the neighbors and folks who knew him best.

He will be missed from his accustomed place by the faculty and students of the school for whom he labored so long and faithfully. He was always on the job. Ed was of a modest and retiring disposition, yet possessed a fund of droll humor that was interesting and instructive. His remains were interred in the Capron cemetery, where repose the remains of his father and mother.

Like many of the old boys with whom he was associated in days long gone by, he has crossed the great divide that separates life and death, and call it what you may, the spirit, soul, or the immortal and invisible mind of man is now traversing new and unknown realms, and on that great day when the last great roundup is staged, our friend Ed will be there, on that day will occur a reunion of these kindred spirits. ~~~ T. J. DYER
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