While earlier towns sprang up on rivers, Hebron came about because of the railroad and to the immense effect that the railroad had on this area was added the automobile and improved farm machinery. By the 1920s Hebron was a hub for farming as well as manufacturing with major markets being easily and quickly accessible. In 1927 there were five shirt factories, a flour mill, a canning operation, a lumber mill, and a new high school under construction. There were large poultry and dairy farms joining the profitable farming of peaches, apples, strawberries, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupes, and watermelons. The most prominent of these were the farms of B. Frank Adkins known as Neighbor's Wonder Farm, renowned for its herd of Guernsey cattle, the Oakdale Poultry Farm owned by J.T. Insley, and the farms of James A. Phillips and James Gordy. Notable citizens responsible for the manufacturing aspect of the town were Walter B. Miller and G.A. Bounds, the latter which owned both a lumber mill and canning plant and whose house still stands on Main Street today.