USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Biographical memoirs of Blackford County, Ind. : to which is appended a comprehensive compendium of national biography embellished with portraits of many well known residents of Blackford County, Indiana > Part 35
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he became very ill and died. He was a man of considerable intellectual force, greatly en- .joyed argument and debate, and was an ad- mirer of the noted infidel, Thomas Paine, and of his book entitled "The Age of Rea- son." He had a large family, nine sons and four daughters, all of whom except the second daughter lived to become heads of families. All are now dead except Darius Shinn, the seventh in order of birth, now a retired farmer living, at the age of eighty- four, in the city of Montpelier, this state.
Hyman Shinn, son of Daniel and father of Benjamin G., was born March 10, 1817, in Harrison county, West Virginia, and ac- companied the family to its various places of residence in that state and Indiana. In 1838 he purchased from the government eighty acres of land in Harrison township, Blackford county, which is still in possession of his descendants, and here he made his home for forty-five years, laboring indus- triously in developing a farm out of the un- broken forests and assisting actively in ad -. vancing the material and religious interests of the country. Prior to locating upon his land, Mr. Shinn was for some time en- gaged in the manufacture of brick in the town of Dublin, Wayne county, and about the year 1839 went to his father's farm in Rush county, where he made his home until removing to his purchase above mentioned in 1841.
On the 24th of December, 1837, Hyman Shinn married Ann VanBuskirk, who was born on Patterson's creek, Hampshire coun- ty, West Virginia, November 11, 1810. She was a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Welch) Van Buskirk, natives respectively of Maryland and Virginia, the father being for many years a farmer and millwright. Her grandfather, Isaac Welch, was a sol-
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dier in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Shinn came to Indiana in 1836 in company with her oldest brother, William VanBuskirk, and ' at the time of her marriage was living in the town of Dublin, Wayne county, where she first became acquainted with the man she afterwards married. Mr. and Mrs. Shinn lived upon the home place in Harrison town- ship, four miles cast of Montpelier, until November, 1886, when, by reason of advanc- ing age and infirmities incident thereto, they retired from active life and removed to Hart- ford City, where his death occurred on the 12th day of November, 1890. His faithful and devoted wife, with whom he had trodden life's pathway for three years in excess of a half century, did not long survive ; she an- swered the summons which must finally come to all on September 14th, of the following year, and side by side with her husband in the beautiful I. O. O. F. cemetery at Mont- pelier she peacefully sleeps, awaiting the resurrection of the just.
To Mr. and Mrs. Shinn were born six children, namely : William Henry, who died at the age of twenty-one months ; James Lafayette, a soldier in Company K, Seventy- fifth Indiana Regiment, who died January 29, 1878, leaving a wife, two sons and one daughter surviving, and who was the effi- cient and popular postmaster at Montpelier for a few years preceding his death; John Marion, a soldier in the same company with his brother, who died April 24, 1863, of disease contracted in the service; Oliver Whitfield, a retired farmer living in Mont- pelier; Thomas Sylvester, who died in Hart- ford City, August 27, 1888, and Benjamin Granville, who was first in order of birth.
Of the life and character of Hyman Shinn and the influence he exerted for good during his long period of residence in Black-
ford county, much might be said and written. " In the language of Holy Writ "He was a good man and a just." and against his pri- vate character or career as citizen and neigh- bor no breath of suspicion was ever known to have been uttered. Accustomed from his youth to revere sacred things, he early united with the Methodist Episcopal church and religion with him was a tangible fact, the controlling influence of his life and the solace of his dying hour. For many years he served his church as class-leader and trustee. Hc was the leading spirit in building the beauti- ful temple of worship four miles east of Montpelier, named in his honor Shinn's Chapel, and other congregations found in him a zealous helper and liberal patron. He was an active and influential supporter of the Republican party in his neighborhood and always had at heart the best interests of the people, and if the opposition party, in his judgment, presented a better man as a candidate than his party did he did not besi- tate to disregard party ties and vote for the best man.
In the matter of scholastic training his advantages were limited, but this defect he supplied in a measure in after years by be- coming acquainted with the works of some of the best authors and by special study along certain lines, notably natural philosophy and astronomy, in both of which he was well informed, quite as much by careful study and the application of his vigorous reason- ing powers as by reading the views of others. He also had a well defined knowledge of several other natural sciences as well as of some departments of moral science and theol- ogy. He was a great admirer of the emi- nent Scotch philosopher, Dr. Thomas Dick, whose writings he perused with studious care, and the ideas of that renowned scholar
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were as familiar to him as the common things of life with which he came in daily contact.
The wholesome influence he exerted in the home bore rich fruitage in the lives of his children, all of whom became respect- able members of society, and his admoni- tions to manly living and the example of his blameless conduct they looked upon as a priceless heritage to be handed down to gen- crations yet to be.
Benjamin Granville Shinn was born Oc- tober 20, 1838, in the town of Dublin, Wayne county, Indiana, and when nearly three years old was brought by his parents to the county of Blackford. He grew up a farmer's boy on the home place in Harri- son township and early met the full require- ment of the command that man shall eat his bread in the sweat of his face. The home of his childhood was a round-log cabin, 20x22 feet in size, with a large fire- place in the west end, built outside the house to the height of six or aron feet, the out- side being made of puncheons, inside of which were the back wall and jambs made of dry earth, and the structure topped out with a chimney made of lath rived out of oak bolts and laid up in a mud mortar, plas- tered over inside so as not to take fire. The roof was made of clapboards, held in place by weight poles; the floor was made of boards called puncheons, split out of logs with the maul and wedges and smoothed on one side with the ax or broad ax and then laid smooth side up on log sleepers. There was a single dor on the south side and a single small window in the north side containing six 8xIo panes of glass. This single room supplied all the purposes of parlor, sitting room, sleeping room, dining room, and kitchen. When this pioncer family began life there their cabin was the only one
that had been built on that section of land and one or two acres of land adjacent had been partially cleared off. Here, in February, 1842, William Henry, the baby boy, the youngest of the two children of the family, sickened and died, and the funeral procession of six or seven persons wended their way on horseback through the almost continuous forest to the burying ground at Camden, in Jay county, one of the party car - rying the coffin containing the little one in front of him on the horse he rode the entire distance of seven or eight miles. The sub- ject of this sketch, though but little past three years of age, distinctly remembers this funeral journey.
While a small boy Mr. Shinn spent many days alone in the wild woods near the home, amusing himself by cutting or hacking down small bushes with his father's ax. During the winter seasons when he was five and six years of age he spent his time studying the elementary spelling book and playing with and taking care of his baby brother, James L., while his mother wove flannel or linsey cloth on an old-fashioned hand loom. As he grew in years and strength his youthful days were given to the ceaseless round of toil that attends life in a country new and undeveloped and in assisting his father in clearing away the heavy growth of timber and in planting and cultivating the crops among the stumps and roots of newly cleared ground. The winter after he was seven years old he attended his first school in a log school house a mile and a half from his home, taught by Oscar B. Boon, a young and well educated Yankee, who had recently come from the state of Massachusetts. Mr. Boon afterwards became and continued for many years the leading merchant of Mont- pelier, and in that community was the lead-
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ing spirit in Republican politics and in the temperance reform. As long as he lived a liquor saloon could not be successfully main- tained in Montpelier. Until his nineteenth year our subject attended the common schools of his neighborhood during the win- ter seasons, the terms ranging in length from two and one-half to three months, and then, with a thirst for knowledge almost akin to passion, he entered Liber College, near Portland, Indiana, where he pursued the higher branches of learning for one term of sixteen weeks. The training thus re- ceived was supplemented by a two-years course in Indiana Asbury, now DePauw, University, which he entered in September, 1859, and this ended his scholastic work, though by no mans his intellectual pursuits.
At the age of eighteen years Mr. Shinn taught a term of school two miles west of' the town of Montpelier, having several pupils who were older than himself. From 1856 to 1871 he taught twelve terms of school, four in Blackford and eight in Wells county, securing as high a grade of license as was held by any of the district school teachers of those counties. While at Greencastle, in April, 1861, he joined a company made up princi- pally of the students of the university, and known as the Asbury Guards, and tendered his services to the government. The com- pany went to Camp Morton, Indianapolis, where it remained for eight days, and not being received into the three-months service on account of the state's quota being filled before it was reached it was sent back to Greencastle. Mr. Shinn then went home and assisted his father on the farm until the latter part of the summer. In August of this year he again enlisted, joining Com- pany B, Thirty-fourth Indiana Volunteer In- fantry, upon the organization of which he
was elected second lieutenant. By reason of protracted and serious sickness during the autumn months he was compelled to resign his position early in November, getting no farther with his regiment than Camp Jo. Holt, Jeffersonville, Indiana, a fact which has always been to him a matter of much regret, as his greatest desire at that time was to render efficient service at the front in the contest for the preservation of the union. Subsequently, in the spring of 1863, a com- pany of state militia was raised and organ- ized at Montpelier, known as the Indiana Rangers, of which he was elected and com- missioned first lieutenant, and soon after was promoted to the captaincy, in which ca- pacity he served until April, 1864. In this month Mr. Shinn made a third attempt to enter the army, this time recruiting a squad of fifteen men which became a part of Caj. tain B. F. Webb's Company I, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, in which he i:eld the position of orderly sergeant. This regiment was employed in guarding the Nashville & Chat- tanooga Railroad during the Atlanta cam- paign. This was a line of great importance as all the supplies for General Sherman's army were transported over this road and it was an indispensable necessity that this line should be protected and kept open. The regiment was called out for one hundred days' service, but from the time of the or- ganization of the companies until they were paid off and discharged, October 4, the term of service was full five months. After his discharge Mr. Shinn returned home and has since devoted his attention to various voca- tions of civil life.
In April, 1865, Mr. Shinn yielded to a desire of long standing by entering upon the study of law at Bluffton, Indiana, in the
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office of Hon. Edwin R. Wilson, a prominent attorney of that place, who had just com- pleted his term as judge of the judicial cir- cuit embracing a number of counties in the northeastern corner of the state. He pur- sued his studies under the direction of that gentleman until his admission to the bar by Judge Borden, in 1867, after which he be- gan the practice at Bluffton, where he ex- perienced the difficulties and discourage- ments incident to acquiring business so well known to the vast majority of young prac- titioners. Four years later he located in Hartford City and from that time to the present he has been one of the recognized leaders of the Blackford bar. While in Bluffton Mr. Shinn was for one year asso- ciated in the practice with Dwight Klinck, a public speaker of prominence, who had won an enviable distinction as a Republican po- litical orator in the campaign of 1860, be- ing known as the New York boy. After- ward for a period of two years Mr. Shinn had as a partner J. J. Todd, a widely known and successful attorney of Wells county, re- cently deceased. On coming to Hartford City, in April, 1871, he formed a partner- ship with Michael Frash, which lasted two years, and from the end of which time until 1881 he conducted an office of his own. In the latter year he took as a partner John Noonan, with whom he was associated until the close of 1883, and from that time until 1885 he again practiced alone, doing a suc- cessful business in the courts of Blackford and adjoining counties. From July i, 1885, to December 1, 1892, one of the leading law firms in Hartford City was conceded to be that of Shinn & Pierce, both members being recognized in legal circles as among the ablest and most successful lawyers prac- icing at the bar of Blackford county. After
the dissolution of the above firm Mr. Shinn conducted his law business alone till 1896, when his son, Eugene M. Shinn, entered the office as a partner and has since continued as such.
Several years before the organization of the present city government of Hartford City Mr. Shinn served for a time by appoint- ment as treasurer and afterward as clerk of the town and was for some years the adviser of the town trustees in legal matters. In 1876 he was chosen a school trustee for the town and filled the station for a term of three years. When, in 1894, the town became incorporated as a city he was appointed city attorney and discharged the duties of that position with fidelity and care for a period of four years and two months. While a resi- ident of Bluffton he served two years as deputy collector of internal revenue under Hon. John F. Wildman, who was collector for the old eleventh congressional district. He also made the race on the Republican ticket for representative from the counties of Wells and Adams in 1868, but the district being a Democratic stronghold he failed of election. In 1878 he received the unani- mous nomination of his party for joint sen- ator from the counties of Grant, Blackford and Jay, but by reason of the Greenback ticket drawing largely from the Republican strength he again went down in defeat, al- though leading the state ticket by a goodly number of votes.
Mr. Shinn is one of the charter mem- bers of the Republican party. Though but a boy of fifteen years of age at the time, he took a deep interest in the great national struggle in the early part of 1854, which resulted in the passage of the Kansas-Ne- braska bill and the repeal of the essential features of the Missouri compromise meas-
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ure. Until that time he and his father had been Whigs, but they then became disgusted and mortified with the manifest incapacity of their party to meet and deal with the is- sue forced upon the country by the ag- gressions of the slaveholding oligarchy, and they therefore hailed with joy the advent ou the political stage of the Republican party as the crystalization and embodiment of the aroused and awakened anti-slavery senti- ment of the people in the free states of the Union. While Mr. Shinn has always been heartily in accord with the positive and lead- ing ideas and principles of his party he has never been a bitter or offensive partisan. He has no sympathy whatever with that nar- row minded and bigoted partisanship which claims that all the patriotism and political virtue in the country is concentrated in any one political organization. As a politician his ability has long been recognized and his leadership as chairman of the county central committee during the campaigns of 1876, 1884, 1886, and 1888 contributed greatly to his party's success in those years. It is a fact worthy of note that in every year he acted as chairman of the county central com- mittee the majorities adverse to his party were regularly reduced, and in no way has the influence of his leadership been more materially felt than in gradually undermin- ing an opposition, which even the most san- guine partisans had pronounced practically invulnerable. In 1896 he was chosen presi- dential elector for the eighth congressional district, and throughout the contest of that year by his wise counsels and able addresses he contributed his share toward swinging the store into line for McKinley and Hobart.
For many years past Mr. Shinn has given much time and attention to the history of Blackford county and of the section of
Indiana of which it forms a part. His in- vestigations have been painstaking and his opportunities are such as to enable him to utilize the large fund of material at his com- mand for this purpose. He has at different times furnished historical sketches and early reminiscences for this and other localities. and otherwise contributed to the history of the county. In 1893 he produced a care- fully prepared sketch in which was set forth in succinct form and elegant diction a synop- sis of the history of Blackford county from its earliest settlement, together with its rise and progress to its present proud position among its sister counties of the common- wealth. This paper was deposited in the corner stone of the new court house, which was laid in November of that year, thus per- petuating valuable information for the en- lightenment of generations yet unborn. Mr. Shinn wields a graceful and facile pen and holds his readers by a style clear and forcible and not infrequently ornate-wit- ness the interesting memorial chapter of this volume -- a product of his investigation and research.
Mr. Shinn was married in Nottingham township, Wells. county, Indiana, on the 30th day of October, 1862, to Emily Jane Harris, whose birth occurred in that town- ship March 28, 1844. She was the daugh- ter of Jonathan and Mary Ann (Dawson) Harris, natives, respectively, of Carroll and Guernsey counties, in the state of Ohio. Her mother died when she was an infant and her father died when she was five years cid. She was taken and cared for by her grandparents, John and Prudence Dawson, with whom she resided until her marriage. She bore her husband three children : Or- lando Milton, a former grocery merchant, now a farmer of Blackford county; Elmer
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Ellsworth, newsdealer of Hartford City (sce sketch elsewhere), and Eugene Melville. Orlando M. was born in Wells county, In- diana, December 4. 1864. In 1887 be mar- ried Annie L. Patterson, daughter of Sidney R. Patterson, now deceased, one of the lead- ing business men of Hartford City. They have two bright and interesting daughters named Florence and Marjorie, aged, re- spectively, twelve and ten years.
Mrs. Emily J. Shinn departed this life on the 21st day of April, 1897, and her body „sleeps in the 1. O. O. F. cemetery, a short distance east of the city. A devoted mem- ber of the Methodist church, noted for her many acts of charity and genuine goodness of heart, she was known and admired by a large circle of friends in this place and else- where. A helpmate in the true sense of the word, she nobly seconded her husband in his life work and not a little of the success he has achieved is due to her wise counsel and unselfish devotion. She made little effort to shine in the circles of society, but in the quiet retirement of the home circle her true qualities were revealed. Her home and household duties were attended to with scrupulous care and punctuality and her un- selfish devotion to the comfort and welfare of her husband and children was heroic and sublime.
On the 22d day of May, 1898, Mr. Shinn entered into the marriage relation, in Hart- ford City, with Mrs. Louise Baechler, widow of the late Rev. Samuel Baechler, who died in August, 1890, having been pastor of the Lutheran church in Hartford City for the preceding two and one-half years. He was a minister of fine scholarly attainments and more than ordinary ability and a gentleman possessed of many admirable traits of char- acter. Mrs, Shinn is a lady of intelligence
and refinement and sincere piety and her companionship is an honor to the man she accepted as a partner in the journey and conflicts of mortal existence. She is the daughter of John Poscy and Mary A. ( Hughes) Wilson, both deceased. She was born in Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, Sep- tember 19, 1843, and belonged to one of the old and highly respected families of that part of the country.
By right of birth and by virtue of his early training Mr. Shinn is a Methodist. He united with that church April 1, 1855. and his whole life has been measured ac- cording to its standard of right and his daily walk and conversation are practical exempli- fications of its teachings. In 1868, while a resident of Bluffton, he was licensed as a local preacher and at the session of the North Indiana conference held at Fort Wayne, in 1874, he was ordained as a local deacon by Bishop R. S. Foster. Since then, in addi- tion to the numerous and various duties growing out of his profession and incident to the public positions with which he has been intrusted, he has found time to proclaim the word and minister, to the people in holy things. His well known ability as a public speaker always secures appreciative audi- ences and his services in this respect are in demand on special occasions. He has fre- quently been called to deliver addresses at distances remote from his home, especially on Memorial Sunday and Decoration Day, and as an eloquent champion for the right his voice has ever been heard in behalf of moral and religious enterprises and every- thing else of a nature calculated to benefit or uplift humanity. He has been a class- leader for many years in the local congre- gation to which he belongs and during the greater part of the time since residing in
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Hartford City has been the faithful and ef- ficient superintendent of the Sunday school. He is often called on to conduct the religious services on funeral occasions, and has joined together about two hundred and fifty couples in the bonds of matrimony.
In the years 1880, 1888, 1892 and 1900 he represented the Hartford City charge in the North Indiana lay electoral conference, and in 1892, and also in 1900, was chosen as one of the reserve lay delegates to the general conference. He has passed all the chairs in the local lodge of the I. O. O. F., of Hartford City, and is a member of its board of trustees and takes an active in- terest in the care and maintenance of its beautiful cemetery near the city. He has represented his lodge in the grand lodge and as an occasional attendant on its sessions has formed the acquaintance of many of the leading members of the order throughout the state. His name has been upon the mem- bership roll of the Daughters of Rebekah for a number of years and he has honorary membership in the Junior Order of Unit- ed American Mechanics. He is one of the leading members of the local G. A. R. post, which he has served in the capacity of com- mander for one term. and as chaplain and adjutant for a number of years.
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Mr. Shinn is a western man, in the broad sense of that term, and a splendid product of institutions which confer their favors upon merit rather than upon the prestige of wealth and family. He has realized the wants of the people among whom he lives and with strong brain and keen foresight he has done what he could to aid in supplying that demand. Since casting his lot with the people of Hartford City his biography and the history of the Blackford bar have been very closely interwoven, and he has given
to it much of its distinctive character. His has indeed been a long life of honor and trust and no higher eulogy of his public rec- ord need be attempted than simply to state that throughout his career there has never been the shadow of stain upon his integrity or unflinching honesty. In his chosen pro- fession few in Blackford county have at- tained to a more eminent standing or have surpassed him in comprehensive grasp of the law, or in applying its principles to the vari- ous phases of practice. He is a close, logical and judicious pleader, his papers always be- ing prepared with skill and caution, and he never presumes upon the weakness or care- lessness of his adversary. As a counselor he is careful and conscientious, having an eye single to the best interests of his clients, and in not a few instances he has, at the sacrifice of a fec, dissuaded those who sought his advice from embarking in uncertain liti- gation. Upon the assumption that a lawyer's province is to win his cases at every hazard and regardless of the methods employed, large numbers of persons have declared that Mr. Shinn was too honest to make a success- ful practitioner.
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