Welcome to Hines Family Farms

James S. Hines was born in 1878 to parents who owned a plantation and taught him the fine art of farming as a child. James and his wife, Lula Harper Hines, purchased over 600 acres of land in 1937 after many years of dreaming, praying, and planning. The fertile ground was located approximately 80 miles south of his parents' plantation. Their oasis is known today as "Hinestown."

The beauty was that all agricultural processing happened right on the farm. And if that wasn’t enough to keep the family busy, my great-grandfather constructed a sawmill on the property. Trees were harvested on the land for lumber that the community used to build homes. Hinestown became a "one-stop shop" with all the services and products it offered. James Hines began the farm to provide a self-sustaining homestead for his family, but he accomplished a great deal more. He was the patriarch of the family as well as a preacher. When he wasn't busy on the farm, he fulfilled his ministerial duties as the pastor of Hartsville Primitive Baptist Church until his death in 1952. Today, my uncle serves as pastor, and many family members still attend. Farm production started to slowly decrease in the years following my great-grandfather's death due to his descendants accepting non-agricultural job opportunities in town. Many family members, today, still grow their own individual produce and raise livestock.