Mrs. Mary J. Shinoe Biography - Grant County Wisconsin ********************************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************************** Submitted by David W. Taft, dtaft@cowtown.net Commemorative Biographical Record of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette Counties, Wisconsin J. H. Beers, 1901 Pg. 571-2 MRS. MARY J. SHINOE, not now actively interested in the business cares which absorbed her attention for many years, and living quietly and at her ease in the town of Paris, Grant county, was born in Allegheny county, Penn., Aug. 18, 1838. Alexander and Jane (Dalgril) McPherson, her parents, were both natives of Scotland, where they were reared. While they were still young people they came to Allegheny county, Penn., and there they were married and made their home some five or six years. Mr. McPherson was a shoemaker, and followed his trade while living in Pennsylvania. In 1844, Mr. and Mrs. McPherson, with their family, moved West, and effected a settlement at the mouth of the Big and Little Platte rivers, in Grant county, where he ran a ferry boat for a number of years. While living on the Platte he purchased a farm of 160 acres of wild land two miles west of Dickeysville. This place he cleared up, erected good farm buildings, and made a comfortable home for his family, occupying same until 1881, when he sold out and moved to Phillipsburg, Kans. where he purchased a home and lived until his death, in 1898. Mrs. McPherson died in 1882, in Kansas. Of their family of nine children, three died while children: (1) Mary J., Mrs. Shinoe, was their eldest child, and received her education in the common schools of Grant county. (2) James McPherson, the eldest son and second child, was born in Pennsylvania in 1840, and died while a soldier in the Civil War. He was a member of Company I, 25th Wis. V. I. (3) Robert McPherson, born in Pennsylvania in 1844, was a soldier in the Civil war, serving until its close as a member of the 33d Wis. V. I. He married Miss Montie Dickey, of Dickeysville, Grant county, and now resides on a farm near Phillipsburg, Kans. They have three children, Frank, Estella and Maggie. (4) Alex McPherson, born in Grant county, enlisted when a boy of sixteen in the 43d Wis. V. I., and served until the close of the Rebellion. Returning from the war, he married Miss Henrietta Meighey, and now resides on his farm in the town of Paris. They a family of nine children, Estella, Alex, John, Arthur, Emaline, Bessie, Maggie, Gertrude, and Etta. (5) William McPherson, born in Grant county, is married, and now lives in Ironton, Iowa. He is the father of four children; we have record of three, Susan, Jennie, and William. (6) Julia McPherson, born in Grant county, is now the wife of John Ferguson, who lives near Phillipsburg, Kans. They have one son, James. In March, 1856, Mary J. McPherson was married to Lewis Shinoe, a native of Virginia, then living in Grant county. Jeremiah Shinoe, his father, moved into Ohio when Lewis was very young, and after a short stay in that State came to Wisconsin, where the family made a permanent location. During the Civil war, in September, 1862. Mr. Shinoe enlisted in Company I, 25th Wis. V. I., and served with his regiment on the Minnesota frontier, in Kentucky and Missouri, and then with Gen. Sherman on his famous March to the Sea. While in the campaign around Atlanta Mr. Shinoe was taken sick, and his malady proving serious, he was sent home on a furlough. He died in January, 1864, after having faithfully performed his every duty as a citizen and a soldier. Mr. Shinoe was greatly honored and esteemed by his comrades, as well as by the people of his own community. Mrs. Shinoe was left at the home in Dickeysville with four little children. After her husbands death she bought the Allen Taylor farm, and there lived until recently, now making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Benjamin Folts. (1) Martha J. Shinoe, the eldest child of this estimable lady and her honored husband, was born in the town of Paris in 1857, and is now the wife of James Harvey, of Remsen, Iowa. They are the parents of six children, Orvil, Maud, Bessie, Benjamin, Roy and Carl. (2) John L. Shinoe, born in Grant county in 1858, married Miss Othie Rister, and is now living in Bottineau county, N. Dak. They have six children, Pearl, Ernest, Effie, Nellie, Burt and Bertha James. (3) Nora Shinoe, born in February, 1861, married Benjamin Folts, now of the town of Paris, a veteran of the Civil War, in which he was a member of Company K. 44th Wis. V. I., serving throughout that desperate struggle. They have one son, Leslie B. Mr. Folts was born in Milwaukee in 1846, a son of David and Mary Folts, who came west from Pennsylvania, and settled in Jamestown, Grant county, where the father is still living at a ripe old age. In 1891 Mr. Folts purchased his present home in the town of Paris, and here he has since followed farming. (4) Benjamin F. Shinoe, born in 1863, is unmarried, and resides on his farm in North Dakota. Mr. Shinoe was always a Republican in politics. Mrs. Shinoe is a member of the Congregational Church of Mount Zion. She deserves more than passing mention in a work like this. Left a widow, with a family of small children, and smaller resources, she has battled successfully with the difficulties of life, and has reared a family of children in whom she takes much pride and comfort.