Harvey D. Hinman

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Harvey DeForest Hinman (1865-1954) was born in Pitcher, New York. In 1893, Hinman, who had come to Binghamton in 1889, went to work as a clerk for a lawyer named George F. Lyon. Later that same year, Lyon took on another law clerk, Archibald Howard, just out of Lafayette College. In 1894, Thomas B. Kattell went with Lyon as a law clerk. In 1901-1902, the three joined together to form Hinman, Howard & Kattell, an upstate New York law firm that continues under the same name today.

Building on his strong ties to the community, and his considerable political clout, H.D. Hinman ran for and was elected a New York State Senator. During his service as a New York State Senator, he became a key strategist and confidant of Governor Charles Evans Hughes. In 1914, it was former New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt who encouraged him to run for Governor. Although he was defeated in the Republican primary by future New York Governor Charles Whitman, his political connections and influence in New York State only deepened over the years.

Returning to the practice of law full-time, but continuing his call to public service, Senator Hinman was also influential in the establishment in 1949 of Harpur College, which would eventually become Binghamton University, and B.U.’s Hinman College pays respect to his leadership in this regard.