Harrison Co., WV: Bios - SHINN FAMILY of Harrison County
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Submitted by Valerie Crook

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III
pg. 121
Harrison County

SHINN FAMILY. One of the historic communities in Har-
rison County is Shinnston. founded by and named in honor
of members of the Shinn family. The Shinns are still rep-
resented in the useful citizenship of West Virginia, and the
vigor of the family stock appears undiminished in nearly
three centuries of American residence. The purpose of this
article is to give a brief account of the Shinn genealogy
and the circumstances and personalities connected with the
origin of Shinnston.

The first Shinns came to America with a party of two
hundred and thirty Quakers that left London on the ship
"Kent," half of them being from London and the other
half from Yorkshire. They were settlers in New Jersey.
Thev were followed by other immigrants in the year 1677.
A New Jersey historian gives a general list of these immi-
grants, and among them is the name of John Shinn. In a
record of the freeholders of Burlington for the year 1680
appear the names John Shinn and Clement Shinn. The
children of John Shinn were Francis, John, Jr., George,
Mary, Thomas, Sarah, Esther, Francis Martha and James.

James Shinn, representing the second generation, was
born in England, and lived longer than any of his brothers
or sisters. He died in 1751, without a will. March 3, 1697,
he married Abigail Lippincott.

Their son Clement first appears as a witness upon several
marriage certificates. In 1740 he married Elizabeth Webb,
a woman not of Quaker faith. As a later paragraph dis-
closes, it was his children who were the pioneers of the
family in West Virginia.

His son Clement Shinn. Jr., was born in 1746. In 1774
he married Ruth Bates, of New Jersey. Their children were
Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Hepzibah, Clement, Edward, Reuben,
Achsah, Samuel, Jonathan and Eli.

Of the next generation Moses Shinn was born, February
10, 1779, and died in 1871, at the age of ninety-two. April
5, 1799, he married Sarah Kyle, in Virginia, daughter of
Anthony and Elizabeth (Cooper) Kyle. She died in her
eighty-fourth year. Their children were: Hiram, Maria,
Sampson, Matilda, Justus, Merrick, Rezin K., Sevilla
Absalom.

Absalom Shinn was born in Harrison County, January 19,
1818. He was a physician by profession, and prior to the
Civil war was an anti-slavery man. He spent his last years
at Brooklyn, five miles from Heliopolis, where he died in
January, 1861. September 7, 1837, he married Clarissa B.
Ebelt, who was born November 10, 1820. Their family of
children consisted of Savilla Ann, Harriet Amelia, Sarah
Elizabeth, Henry Alphonso, Paulina, Orville, Charles Moses,
James William, Mary Jones and George H. M.

A representative of the seventh generation was George
H. M. Shinn who was born, April 27, 1855, and died in
Fairmont, June 27, 1903. For a number of years he was
a Government postal inspector in the Railway Division, and
later was in the Census Department at Washington, Dis-
trict of Columbia. February 27, 1879, he married Della
Burns. The oldest of their children was Mabel Parker.
born March 1, 1880. The second, James Edwin, was born
at Fairmont, May 13 1882. The third, Chester Crittenden,
was born June 9, 1884. Charles M., was born January 18,
1889. Margaret, the next child, married J. J. Crumbaugh.
Jennie M., the youngest, was born October 10, 1892.

Shinnston stands upon land originally taken up by the
Shinns after their emigration from New Jersey. The
pioneer was Levi Shinn, one of the sons of Clement Shinn
Sr., in the above record. According to the land records
Levi Shinn located 400 acres on the West Fork River, ad-
joining lands of John Wood to include his settlement made
in the year 1773, with a pre-emption right to 1,000 acres
adjoining. Levi, it appears did not remove his family to
his homestead for a year or two after making his location.
Shortly after doing so he was joined by several members
of his family, including his two brothers, Clement, Jr., and
Jonathan. There is a family tradition that Levi's lands
lay west and south of Shinn's Run. Jonathan's lands ex-
tended from the mouth of this run down the river to the
south and east. covering the present site of Shinnston, while
Clement's holdings lay south of Jonathan's, on a stream
called Middle Creek. Jonathan willed the land covering
the present site of Shinnston to his son Levi, who built
the first house, in 1802. This house was still standing in
1909. The first child born in the new settlement was Asa
Shinn.

The act of the Legislature establishing the town of
Shinnston, as passed January 22, 1818, enacted: "That the
lots and streets as already laid off on the lands of Asa
and Levi Shinn on the West Fork of the Monongahela River
in the County of Harrison, he established a town by the
name of Shinnston and that John Righter, Davis Wams-
ley, Samuel Shinn, John D. Lucas, Benjamin Wood, Joseph
Wilson, and Jeremiah, Roby, Gentlemen, and they are
hereby appointed trustees thereof."

By an act of May 26, 1852, Shinnston was incorporated
and the voters were authorized to elect seven trustees with
the usual powers of such officers. The act was not to take
effect until ratified by a majority of the voters of the
town, and was to include the town "as the same has here-
tofore been laid off into lots, streets and alleys." During
the war this charter was allowed to lapse and a new one
was procured in 1877. The Circuit Court on June 4, 1877,
issued an order incorporating the Town of Shinnston under
Chapter 47 of the code and appointed Albert Shinn James
Jackson and M. J. Ogden commissioners to hold the first
election for officers of the said town.

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