William Bartley “Bill” Hinson (1830-1904)

William Bartley “Bill” Hinson

Birth

10 May 1830

Death

22 Oct 1904 (aged 74)

Burial

Hinson Cemetery

New Salem, Union County, North Carolina, USA Add to Map

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Son of William and Margaret Cook Hinson-Married Marcena Biggers July 22 1852-Married second Martha Ann Austin daughter of William Henderson and Mary Ann Baucom Austin December 21 1896-Martha Ann married second Daniel Preston Hinson.

"William: died of pneumonia. William B. was stout and of high ambition. He settled where Henry Green now lives (1933) on Morgan Mill Road.

By the time William B. was a young man, he had earned the reputation of Being quite a bully. He loved a good fight, and accourding to legend, went out of his way to scrap with any man brave enough to take him on. Thus he earned the nickname of "FIGHTING BILL". One man told us about Fighting Bill spending much of his time at the scrossroads where highyway 218 crossed highway 200. He would wait there for any man to come by and then would challenge him to a fight before he would let his pass on to the river. Bill owned most of the land between the crossroads and the river so apparently thought he had a right to stop anyone going that way.

One day a man came along, in a buggy, with a small boy. Bill challenged the man to get down and fight. The man was almost cripple so he had his cane with him. Instead of getting out of the buggy, he hit Bill several times with his cane and continued on his journey. Fighting Bill never tried to stop him again.

Another man told us of fighting Bill plowing in his field one day when a man stopped at the road and yelled and asked if he was Bill Hinson. When he answered that he was, the man got off his horse and crossed the field to him, explaining that he was a fighter and had come all the way from Charlotte just to fight him.

Bill never missed a chance to fight so he propped the plow lines and they "went at it" right there in the field. After Bill had given him a good whipping, the man got back on his horse and left.

When the Civil War started, Bill became a member of the local Militia unit and he was a "deserter hunter" and we have the reports of him capturing men, sometimes within his own family, and having them returned to the field.

Source: "Kin of Charles Austin and wife Mary" 1997.