Henry Valentine Hinz was born in Sheyboygan (Sheboygan County) Wisconsin, on October 21, 1854. He was the eldest son of Louis and Anna Hinz, who had come to America from Germany. Trained as a cobbler (shoemaker), Henry was one of the first to check out the townsite of De Smet, Dakota Territory, as a possible business location. In January 1880, Henry traveled west from Volga, finding the Ingalls and Boast families living on the shores of Silver Lake. He returned to the townsite the following month, and was one of the first young men to erect a building. Because the townsite had not yet been surveyed, men had to guess where the lot lines would be. Henry wanted his business to be closest to the railroad tracks, but he missed the mark by two lots, ending up building on what would be designated as Lot 10, Block 1, located on the west side of Calumet Avenue (Main Street). In the photograph at right, the Hinz building is the smallest, sandwiched between the Wilder Feed Store  (left) and Commercial House hotel (right). This is actually the second building on the site. After using the original 16x24 foot structure, it was torn down and this "larger" store was built, one that almost filled the lot's 25-foot width.

Little did the residents of De Smet know, but Henry Hinz didn't open a shoe shop in De Smet, but a billiard hall serving liquor. Hinz and his partner, Henry Hall, went in and out of the liquor business as often as De Smet voted in and out the matter of license. A liquor license cost $400 at the time, and each time they had to stop selling liquor in De Smet, they merely moved their business to a neighboring town for a while. A licence was granted during the Hard Winter of 1880-1881, but business was light, mostly because nobody had any money to spend on liquor. In her handwritten Pioneer Girl manuscript, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that Mr. Hinz's supplies of drink were the only supplies that lasted through the winter. "A man might have taken a drink occasionally but we never saw or heard of anyone drinking and no one got drunk through all the hardships," she wrote. The place was always popular, though; Hinz had put up 500 tons of slough hay prior to the Hard Winter, and loiterers sitting around and twisting hay could keep the stove red hot and themselves fairly warm. Hinz was one of the men who, along with Charles Ingalls, traveled to Volga by handcar to help clear the railroad tracks of snow.

October 22, 1889, Henry married Randi Distad, a hotel waitress and sister of the De Smet creamery manager, Oliver Distad. Randi had been born in Norway in 1865 and came to Dakota in the 1880s. The Hinzes had eight children born in De Smet: Mabel (born 1890; she married Joe Larson); Hazel (born 1892, who died in 1918 during the flu pandemic); Carl (born 1893; he moved to Oregon); Henry, Jr. (born 1895); Lillian (born 1897; married Arthur Hanson); Marion (born 1898); Ruth (born 1903); and Edward (born 1906). In town, the family lived in a house on the south side of Second Avenue; they also had a homestead and preemption claim northeast of De Smet, in Section 19 - Township 119 - Range 55. The sisters all became teachers. Until the mid-1960s, brothers Henry and Edward ran a grocery store in De Smet.

Henry Hinz had several jobs in De Smet. After closing the billiard hall and saloon, he opened a shoe repair shop in 1907, then worked in a stove factory. In 1909, he became a rural mail carrier, first with team and wagon, then by car. He retired after 25 years.

Henry Hinz died April 29, 1938, in De Smet; he was buried in the De Smet Cemetery. His obituary reads:

April 29, 1938: Henry Hinz Erected First Building On Townsite

Henry Hinz, Sr., died at his home here early Monday at the age of 83 and a half years, after an illness of several years. He was laid to rest Wednesday afternoon in the local cemetery.

Mr. Hinz had the distinction of erecting the first building on the townsite of De Smet and being the first to engage in business here. Later he became a rural mail carrier and served through 25 years of travel by team and later by car, to retire a few years ago.

Though in ill health for some years, Mr. Hinz had been able to get down town occasionally through the winter, the last time about four weeks before his death.

Mr. Hinz was born at Sheboygan, Wis., October 21, 1854, and spent his boyhood in that vicinity. He came to this vicinity in 1879, visiting the townsite of De Smet and deciding upon it for a location. He returned early in the spring of 1880 and put up a small building along what was to be the main business street.

Mr. Hinz was married October 22, 1889 to Miss Randi Distad at De Smet.

Surviving are the widows and seven children: Mrs. Joe (Mabel) Larson of Erwin vicinity, Carl of Eugene, Ore., Henry Jr., Mrs. A.M. (Lillian) Hanson and Miss Marion, of De Smet, Ruth of Sioux Falls and Edward of De Smet. Another daughter had preceded her father in death.