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1670. MOSES SHINN (6).--CLEMENT (5), LEVI (4),
CLEMENT (3), JAMES (2), JOHN (1). Moses, eighth and youngest child of Clement and Mary (Thompson) Shinn, was born at Shinnston, Va.,
9/25/1817; spent his early life on the farm with his father, who was a prominent and successful stock raiser; was a great fisher, hunter and trapper; married, 11/30/1838, his first cousin, Mary, daughter of Isaiah and Nancy (Robey) Shinn; his father gave the young couple a farm opposite Shinnston on the west fork of the Monongahela; followed farming and rafting timber until the spring of 1850; removed to Adams County, Illinois, going the entire distance by water; from Shinnston on his own farm he started on a flatboat down the Monongahela River and remained on it until he reached the head water of steamboat navigation, when he transferred to a steamboat; down the Ohio to its mouth and up the Mississippi to Quincy, where he disembarked; the steamboats then were little palaces, and a trip like that was an event of a lifetime; purchased a farm in Hancock County, twelve miles north of Carthage, the county seat, in 1851; in 1852 returned to Virginia for a team of thoroughbred mares; took back to Illinois a beautiful span of bays that was the pride of Hancock County for years; opened a dairy for the manufacture of butter and cheese, which was successful; to Pike's Peak with a team in 1860 during the gold excitement of that date; located claims which gave evidence of value; returned to Hancock County with the intention of going to Pike's Peak the next year to perfect his claims; attacked in the spring of 1861 with typhoid fever and lost his claim; in 1862 went with a party, his daughter Carrie and her husband being of the number, overland to Oregon; the journey with ox teams required five months and two weeks; the hardships were grievous, and the dangers many and imminent, yet the trip was made without loss; remained three years on Puget Sound and in various parts of Oregon, and desired to remain in Washington; but letters from the good wife in Illinois, who thought she could never go so far, induced him to return to Illinois; went back by way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York City to Hancock County; in 1866 rented their Illinois property and went to Iowa for a year; bought 300 acres in Pottawattomie County; sold the farm in Illinois and with all his stock removed to Iowa in 1867; developed his farm for eleven years; entered a joint stock company for the erection of a flouring mill and grain elevator, which ruined him; he furnished money and other men the experience; in a short time he had all the experience, but no money. Such schemes are called "progressive civilization"; "swindling" would be a truer name. Not disheartened, but with a brave heart, he set out for Osborne County, Kansas, where he homesteaded a farm and began in his old age to rebuild his fortunes. He built a sod house and made an heroic struggle against grasshoppers and drouth; but it was a losing one. His daughter from Washington visited him in 1886, and seeing the seams of care upon his face, induced him to leave Kansas for Washington. He drove from Osborne County to Huntingdon, Ore., in a light wagon in sixty days. Remained in Grant County during the winter; crossed the Cascades in the spring of 1888 and set down at Portland one year. In the summer of 1889 he reached Seattle; visited Olympia, Shelton Roads and other places; finally chose a spot for a home and drove down his stakes for the last effort of his life. La grippe seized him in 1892 and on July 25, 1893, the messenger of death called the wanderer home. Thus ended a long and honorable and most useful life. For more than seventy-five years he had lived a life of happiness and love; always a good citizen, a devoted husband and father; intelligent, cosmopolitan, broad in view and courteous in manner, he had hosts of friends and was generally respected and loved. His wife is still alive in her 83d year, calmly waiting to rejoin the companion of her life. (See engraving of Moses Shinn and wife, Luther Shinn and son, and Silas W. Bernethy, p. 337.) The children were:
1. Henrietta Shinn, born in Shinnston, Va., October 6, 1839; married at Carthage, Ill., March 27, 1856, Columbus Franklin Hildreth, son of Aquila and Elizabeth Bartlett Hildreth. His mother was a descendant of Joshua Hildreth, one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence. Columbus F. was born in Pike County, Illinois, September 5, 1834. Died at Salida, Col., May 18, 1896. He was a Union Democrat, did not belong to any church, but was not an infidel, and held faith in a
supreme being; farmer and miner. In 1869, she had a severe attack of typhoid pneumonia which settled in her side and hip, leaving her a cripple for life; she has since gone about on crutches. In 1877, left Iowa and
moved to Jewell County, Kansas, locating at Mankato, where she opened a dress-making shop, and educated her youngest daughters, while her husband was engaged in farming. She is a member of the German Baptist Church,
uniting with them March 5, 1871, and has been an active Sunday School worker for more than eight years. To Columbus and Henrietta six children were born, four of whom are living. 1. George Kirkpatrick Hildreth; b., at LaHarpe, Ill., 1/20/1857; m. Mary Anna Kinzie, (b.
Lawrence, Kan., 11/17/1871) July 31, 1892, at Bur Oak, Kan., and had:
1. Bernice Henrietta Hildreth; b. May 7, 1893.
2. Beulah May Hildreth; b. Sept. 11, 1894.
3. Anna Mary Hildreth; b. April 22, 1897.
4. Nettie Leona Hildreth; b. September 14, 1900.
2. Minnie Hildreth; b., in Durham Township, Hancock County, Ill., January 28, 1859; m.
Lawrence A. Saunders, September 5, 1881, at Mankato, Kan.; graduated from
Kentucky School of Medicine and the Louisville Medical College in 1876; afterwards
located at Mankato, Kan., where he was engaged as a physician and druggist for
twenty-five years; moved, in 1899, to Denver, Col., where he now resides. Their children
were:
1. James Clyde Saunders; b. October 31, 1882, Mankato, Kan.
2. Ida Myrtle Saunders; b. April 13, 1888.
3. Lauretta Marie Saunders; b. October 6, 1893.
4. Lenawee Gail Saunders; b. December 27, 1897.
3. Emery Alvin Hildreth; b., in Hancock County, Ill., December 8, 1861; o. s. p.
4. Florence Elva Hildreth; b., La Harpe, Ill., August 9, 1864; m., 6/8/1881, Thomas S.
Kirkpatrick, who was then clerk of the District Court of Jewell County; in 1882
re-elected, and again in 1884; in 1885 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1893 to the bar
of the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas; Republican; an active participant in all
elections. Children:
1. Imogene May Kirkpatrick, b. 5/7/1883. 2. Cameron Thomas Kirkpatrick, b.
9/28/1886.
3. Roscoe Conkling Kirkpatrick; b. 4/4/1888.
5. Anna Mary Hildreth was b. 5/8/1867 in Pottawattomie County, Iowa; m. Dr. Franklin
Jennings at Mankato, Kan., 12/24/1884. One child was the result of this union--Helen
Claire Jennings--b., at Bunn Oak, Kan., 5/25/1886; d. 5/10/1887. Dr. Jennings died at
Topeka, 2/22/1894, and his wife remarried, November 24, 1900, at Mankato, Kan., to
John P. Hainen, agent for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, which position he
has held for fifteen years.
6. Emma Louisa Hildreth; b. Pottawattomie County, Iowa, November 3, 1869; d.
November 5, 1879.
2. Louisa Shinn, born 12/17/1840, in Harrison County, Virginia; married in September, 1866,
at Carthage, Ill., William K. Spencer; farmer in Illinois and Iowa; moved to Walnut, Iowa,
where he took charge of the Walnut school building; children:
1. 2. Died in infancy.
3. Noel W. Spencer; enlisted in the Union Army and was with Sherman in his famous march
to the sea; is now a physician at Montrose, S. D.
3. Lavina Shinn, born 9/5/1842; married, 9/5/1861, Jacob Phillips; farmer and stock raiser in
Illinois and Iowa; moved to Osborne County, Kansas, where three sons died of diphtheria
in three successive days. His wife died in May, 1894, a member of the Adventist Church.
There were nine children born, of whom one daughter and two sons survive; the eldest son,
George Ulysses Phillips, resides at Lead City, S. D.; another Luther Phillips is a farmer in
Osborne County, Kansas.
4. Thomas Shinn, born 1845; ob sine proli.
5. Carolina Shinn, born, 2/2/1846, in Harrison County, Virginia; married, 1862, Alvin
Bernethy, in Hancock County, Illinois. Took a wedding trip in a wagon drawn by oxen to
The Dalles, Ore.; remained there three years and returned to Illinois by way of Panama.
Wealth may enable its possessors to cross the ocean and see the glories of the Old World;
the pioneers of the West, without great wealth, saw the equally great glories of the New
World, with a trip across the isthmus and on two oceans. After several years of farm life
removed to Cass County, Missouri, and settled on a farm given by the father of Mr.
Bernethy. Speculation soon caused this farm to pass into other hands, when the couple
removed to Iowa. There the wife procured a divorce, the court giving her the custody of her
two children. She then returned to her childhood home in Illinois and became a dressmaker;
remarried, 1889, L. B. Berry, son of Captain Thomas Berry, of the War of 1812. His
mother was a niece of a long line of Cherokee chiefs. This marriage was a happy one, and
the couple now reside at Seattle, Wash., where the husband holds a responsible position in a
leading dry goods house of that place. Mrs. Berry is a dignified Christian woman, devoted to
her family, and a believer of the doctrines of the Universalist Church. By her first marriage
there were four children, two of whom died in infancy. Of the others:
1. Silas William Bernethy; b., La Harpe, Ill., 8/2/1865; went to the Sweet Home Valley,
Ore., and became a "typical cowboy;" on 4/13/1898 enlisted in Co. A. 1st Idaho
Regiment, U. S. Vol.; was at battles of Manila Bay, 8/13/1898; Santa Ana, 2/5/1899;
Caloocan, 2/10/1899; Walaloon, 2/11/1899; Laguna de Bay expedition, April 8th to
17th, 1899, and Santa Cruz, April 9th and 10th, 1899; was never wounded, and
honorably discharged 9/25/1899. In politics he is a Democrat. Is now engaged at North
Star Mill, Boise, Idaho. (See group engraving of Moses Shinn, p. 337.)
2. Henry A. Bernethy was a National Guard boy three years at Carthage, Ill.; has traveled
and worked in twenty-seven States of the American Union.
6. Marion Shinn, born 1848; ob. sine proli.
7. Isaiah Shinn, born, 1849, in West Virginia; farmer at eighteen; miner in the Black Hills, 1876;
hunter and trapper for many years; farmer for the last ten years near Spearfish, South
Dakota. Unmarried.
8. Mahlon Shinn, born, 12/8/1851, in Hancock County, Illinois; engineer; married Harriet
Lloyd, who soon eloped with another man. This so grieved Mr. Shinn that he gave up his
position, and began a roaming life; in Honolulu awhile; then having charge of the construction
engine of a railroad in Mexico; from East to West over all the continent he traveled, never at
rest; in a wreck on the B. M. R. R. which almost cost him his life; finally his head was split
open by a circular saw, and on 4/25/1885 he died, after two weeks of agony in St. Joseph's
Hospital, Denver, Col. Kind-hearted, generous to a fault, loved by all his companions.
9. Luther Shinn, born 7/7/1854; plasterer; married at Council Bluffs, Iowa, 7/18/1883, Ida
Virginia Gilbert; moved to Los Angeles, Cal., in 1887, where he attained eminence in his
trade; has acquired property there; member in good standing in the A. O. F. M. and
represented his lodge as a delegate to the Grand Lodge at San Francisco in 1902; a
Democrat and a believer in the "Golden Rule." (See engraving of Moses Shinn for Luther
and his son, Norman Gilbert, p. 337.) Four children were born, two of whom died in
infancy; the others are:
1. Nellie Gertrude Shinn; b. 6/9/1891.
2. Norman Gilbert Shinn; b. 9/27/1897.
10. Moses Shinn, born 9/18/1858; to the Black Hills in early manhood, where he laid the
foundation for the life of a mechanic; finished this work in the machine shops of Chicago, Ill.;
to Algiers, La.; thence to British Honduras; thence to Brownville, Texas, where he took
charge of the government water works and ice plant; married there in 1884 Ellen Cockes;
to Alaska in 1898 prospecting and mining on the Yukon, where he yet remains; Socialist
and Atheist. |
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