Hinman was born in
Mount Morris, New York in 1864, and graduated from
Hamilton College in New York in 1884. After working at newspapers in
Chicago and
St. Louis, he obtained a master's degree and Ph.D. degree from
Heidelberg University in 1889. He then joined
The Sun in New York, where he remained on the staff for about ten years. Around 1898 he took a position as editor and manager of the
Chicago Inter Ocean, and bought a controlling share in the paper in 1906. He sold the paper to
H. H. Kohlsaat in 1912. From 1913 to 1918, he was President of Marietta College in Ohio, where he started a new literary magazine,
The Olio. He later became publisher of the
Chicago Herald and Examiner. ==Personal==