Over a century of handshakes

Hinton Mills started as a country store in 1918. But the roots go back further, to an orphan boy and a single calf. Our great grandpa Frank had next to nothing to his name, but he had that calf, a strong back, and the belief that hard work could build something. He raised it, bred it, and kept growing the herd until he had enough to trade for a piece of ground of his own.

Frank L. Hinton and his wife Ellora opened the first Hinton Mills store in Goddard in 1918, then moved it a few miles down the road to Plummers Landing in 1923. Frank L. also helped light up the countryside — in 1938 he was one of the founders of Fleming-Mason Energy Cooperative, traveling to Washington, D.C. to advocate for rural electrification.

After World War II, their son Frank O. Hinton and his wife Maxine came back to the family business. Frank O. loved raising livestock, and in 1956 he expanded the general store by adding a feed mill. By 1977, Hinton Mills had grown into Flemingsburg, Ewing and May’s Lick. A sixth location opened in Cynthiana in 2015, and in that same year the family helped start Kentucky Welding Institute in Flemingsburg.

Today the fourth generation is at the helm: Bud Hinton serves as president, and his sons Matt, Adam and Nathan serve as vice presidents. We still run the business the way Frank did — face to face, on a first-name basis, with a handshake that means something. We sum it up in four words: Faith, Family, Friends and Farming.

Local, honest, and here for the long haul

We answer our own phones. We stand behind what we sell. And when the season turns hard — as it always does — we're the neighbor who picks up on the first ring. That's the whole idea, and it hasn't changed in over a hundred years.