My Genealogy Hound

Robert S. Hynes is a son of William M. and Mary (Russell) Hynes, and was born in Canada in 1845. The father was born in Dublin in 1793, and received a classical education from England. In 1820 he immigrated to Canada, where he taught in the Lower Canada College at Montreal, and was superintendent of public schools for many years in Leeds County. He died in 1866. The mother was born at Old Johnston, N. Y., in 1812, and died in 1880. She was the mother of ten children, six of whom grew to maturity and four of whom are living. Robert S. was educated at Lower Canada College, and in 1864 came to the United States, passing the years until 1871 in various cities, and then locating in Bentonville, Ark. He then started the Advance, a successful paper, which he sold in 1877. He then bought the Reynolds Tobacco Factory. In 1879 he came to Van Buren, continuing the same business, but in 1884 sold his business and purchased the Crawford County Bank. In 1886 Hon. Jesse Turner and D. W. Moore joined him in making the bank a stock company with a capital of $50,000, and he was elected cashier. He was one of the original incorporators of the Van Buren Canning Company and the Van Buren Ice and Coal Company, is a stockholder in each and treasurer of the former. Mr. Hynes is an enterprising man, and has been closely identified with many of the chief movements which have made Van Buren what it is. He was one of the active spirits in securing the San Francisco Railroad to this town. In 1873 he married Kate Riley, daughter of Dr. Willshire Riley, a senator from Little Rock District and a man of prominence. She is also the granddaughter of Capt. James Riley, author and traveler. Her place of nativity was Toledo, Ohio, and she has three children: Willshire, Linzee and Robert S., Jr. Mr. Hynes owns a plantation of 800 acres of bottom land on the Arkansas River, which is considered one of the best in the county. In politics he is a Democrat, and himself and wife belong to the Presbyterian Church, of which he has been a ruling elder eight years.