Alameda
County
Biographies
JOSEPH CLARK SHINN
Adjoining the town of Niles, and
divided by the Alameda creek, is a fertile ranch which largely owes its many
improvements to the resourceful management of Joseph Clark Shinn. Valued at
from $300 to $500 per acre, it presents many claims upon the consideration of
thoughtful horticulturists, for the methods pursued, and the results obtained
are the outgrowth of years of practical and thoroughly tested experience. A
country home of large proportions and every improvement known to the
intelligent farmer is enhanced by beautiful surroundings, ornamental trees,
flowers, and shrubs, vistas to delight the eye being produced by careful
arrangement such as is the gift of the landscape artist and farmer combined.
Two hundred and sixty-five acres comprise this ranch of which one hundred and
fifty acres are under fruit, cherries, apricots, with prunes and almonds
predominating, while a small peach orchard, and a grove of oranges, lemons, and
apples, combine to make as representative and satisfactory an aggregation of
fruits grown in the state as can be found anywhere in Alameda county. Every
possible facility for caring for and shipping fruit is
found on this ranch. A valuable gravel and sand pit is one of the remunerative
additions, and a side track of the Southern Pacific has been extended onto the
grounds for shipping purposes.
Mr. Shinn is recognized as an
authority on fruit growing. As a man he has the sterling endowments which are
recognized as fundamental to prosperous communities, and which are doubly
appreciated in his case, as his entire life has been spent on the farm which is
now his home, and his training and education have come from its immediate
surroundings. In a house much smaller than the one he now occupies, but in
about the same location, his birth occurred January 15, 1861. James Shinn, his
father, a Quaker by birth and training, was born in Salem, Columbiana county,
Ohio, September 29,1807, and represented the sixth
generation from the emigrant, John Shinn, who arrived in Virginia during the
summer of 1662. James Shinn was reared in the wilderness of Ohio, attended its
early subscription schools at rare intervals, and at an early age assumed his
share of the family support. If his education was neglected and desultory his
moral welfare was well cared for, for he attended the Quaker meetings of the
settlement with regularity, in time evidencing the zeal and diligence in well
doing which gained him the approval of his superiors in the faith. At the age
of about twenty-seven, December 25, 1828, he married in Lexington, Ohio, Mary Sebrell, whose parents came early from Virginia and settled
near the Shinn farm in Columbiana county. In the early
‘40s Mr. Shinn went to Platteville, Wis., in search of zinc deposits for which
the locality was renowned, and in connection with his mining and prospecting
operated a small farm. His first wife dying in 1845, he married November 26,
1846, Lucy Ellen Clark, with whom he removed two years later to Tennessee,
where both himself and wife taught school and farmed.
In 1850 reports from Texas justified him in disposing of his interests and
driving overland to that then practically unexplored state, but he evidently
failed to realize his expectations, for in 1856 he was still unsettled, and on
the way to California by way of Panama. Settling at what is now Niles, Alameda
county, he bought a squatter’s claim of a Mr. Simms, comprising one hundred and
sixty acres, and there erected a small house and proceeded to till his land. He
was both an observing and ambitious man, and, perceiving that fruit prospered
in his neighborhood, set out what was the first and largest orchard in the
county. As harvest of plenty came his way he added to his land, and at the time
of his death, October 29, 1896, owned two hundred and sixty-five acres. His religious life in the west was
disappointing to a certain extent, for his neighbors did not include any of the
Quaker faith, and he was forced to identify himself with the Presbyterian
Church. He was very active therein until a few months before his death, his
entire life being full of devotion to lofty religious ideals. He had the
simplicity, the faith, and the earnestness of the Quaker, and in no way was his
lofty character better shown than during his last years, when, overcome with
blindness, he was forced to seek light from within. As his age indicates, he
came from a long-lived family, the sobriety and temperance of his own life
adding to his longevity. He is survived by his wife, who, though physically
feeble with the weight of seventy-seven years, is nevertheless bright mentally,
and an active member and worker in the Congregational Church of Niles. The
excellent example of this Quaker home is reflected in the lives of the three
children which shared its prosperity, the eldest son, Charles, at present being
United States government supervisor of the Madeira Reserve, of California, and
formerly assisted professor Hilgard in the management
of the United States forestry and agricultural experiment station in
California. The only daughter of the family, Millicent Washburn, is a woman of
strong character and pronounced mental endowments, who graduated from the
University of California in 1880, and has besides received the degrees of A. B.
and Ph. D. Miss Shinn was editor of the Overland Monthly for many years, and is
a frequent contributor to magazines and current periodicals. her
(sic) most profound thought being devoted to child nature and child
development, and her ablest articles being upon this subject.
His elder brother engaging in
educational work, it became necessary for Joseph Clark Shinn to return from the
University of California and assume the active management of the home farm. To
a certain extent this frustrating of his plans was a grave disappointment,
especially as he was only eighteen. Two years later he was compelled to
relinquish all hope of an educational career and assume the entire
responsibility of the farm. His father’s health had begun to fail, and he came
to look upon his second son as the fulfillment of his hopes, and the successor
of his name and home. Thereafter the farm was conducted as a nursery, until
1890, as by this time the majority of the land had been set out in orchard. It
was even then the finest place along the creek, the most fertile and well
improved, and its possibilities appealed to the intellect and resource of the
ambitious young horticulturist. Mr. Shinn has made good the prophecy of his
youth, and is today one of the substantial and successful men of Alameda
county. Rich in the faith of his father, and the embodiment of high thinking
and living, he takes his place as a leader in a progressive community,
attaining to the highest degree in the line of work he has chosen for his own.
He is a Cleveland Democrat, and is president of the board of trustees of the
Union High School. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.
Transcribed
by: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 1054-1055. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.
BACK TO GOLDEN NUGGET LIBRARY'S ALAMEDA DATABASES