William Nathan Hintzen

August 13, 1938 - February 27, 2016

Author and historian, William Nathan Hintzen, 77, of Freetown, Indiana, passed away February 27, 2016, at his home. He was the author of “Border Wars of the Upper Ohio Valley, 1769-1795,” and “The Heroic Age: Tales of Wheeling’s Frontier Era.” He was born in Indianapolis and raised in Richmond and Freetown, Indiana.

He attended school in Richmond then in 1951, he and his family moved to a farm two miles west of Freetown, Indiana. After graduating from Freetown High School in 1956, he attended Indiana University in Bloomington receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology in 1960. Three years of military service in the U.S. Army’s Security Agency included a year at the Army Language School in Monterey, California, where he qualified as a Russian interpreter. This was followed by a 1-1/2 year tour of duty in Japan.

He was always interested in education, and he began his career as a teacher in 1967 teaching German and Psychology at Flora High School in Flora, Illinois. In 1971, he returned to Indiana University to obtain his Master’s degree. He then accepted a position at Tell City High School in Perry County in 1975 where he taught German, Psychology, and Sociology. In 1990, he returned to the family home at Freetown.

Because of his expertise in the Revolutionary War era, he was commissioned to write a major work on the Eastern Woodland Indian Wars; the result was “Border Wars” which was published in 1990. Immediately following that, he completed “The Heroic Age” in conjunction with Joe Roxby of Wheeling which concentrated specifically on the events surrounding Fort Henry during the 1770’s and early 1780’s. Since 1997, he wrote and published a historical journal, The True Wetzelian, and he was recently working on a major biographical work on the quintessential Indian fighter, Lewis Wetzel.

Hintzen was a member of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, a Life Member of the American Single Shot Rifle Association, and an Endowment Member of the National Rifle Association. In between the writing and the historical research, he built muzzle loading rifles, along with the occasional knife, powder horn, and tomahawk.

He is survived by his brother, Martin Hintzen, of Granbury, Texas.

A graveside service will be conducted on April 20th, 2016, at 2:00 pm at Riverview Cemetery with full military graveside rites conducted by the VFW Post 1925, American Legion Post 89, Disabled Veterans 47, Korean and Vietnam Veterans, all of Seymour.

Arrangements were made through Voss & Sons Funeral Service, Seymour, Indiana.

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Thanks to Bill we now know so much more about the early frontier history of America. I am a descendent of John and his son Martin Wetzel who was a brother of Lewis Wetzel. We truly enjoyed our time at a Wetzel Rendezvous and experiencing firsthand the expertise that Bill had of the Wetzel family. In behalf of the Wetzel family we pay tribute and honor to Bill Hintzen.

Bill Hintzen was an expert on the history of the Ohio Valley in the years of the late 18th Century, and especially on the lives of the Wetzel family. In doing research for my novel, "Wetzel", I exchanged more than 50 letters with Bill and numerous phone calls. He was the spirit behind the group whose members called themselves "True Wetzelians." He will be greatly missed. Richard J. Fleming

Please accept our deepest condolences for your family's loss.