Darius Shinn

    Darius Shinn was born in Harrison County, West Virginia, November 16, 1815, a son of Daniel and Mary (Whiteman) Shinn. Daniel Shinn was born in old Virginia, and when a young man went to West Virginia, where he married Mary Whiteman. They lived in Harrison County until 1823, when they moved to Tyler County, where they lived until 1829, when they started for the West, taking a flat-boat to Cincinnati, and thence going by canal to Hamilton where they hired a team to take them to Indiana. They located in Henry County, which was then in a wild state. There Mrs. Shinn died November, 1833. Mr. Shinn subsequently removed to Fayette, and thence to Blackford County, and from here went to Dubuque County, Iowa, and from there to Illinois, where he died. His family consisted of thirteen children, nine sons and four daughters.

    Darius Shinn was reared in his native State and in Henry County, Indiana. After the death of his mother he began work for himself and was employed on farms in Wayne, Henry and Fayette Counties. He was married in Fayette County in October, 1840, to Rachel Turner, a native of Ohio. In November, 1841, they moved to Blackford County, and located on ninety-two and three-fourths acres which he had entered five years before, and on which he had made a deadening. This land was in the wilderness and with the exception of the deadening and the round-log house he had built was unimproved. The only roads were those he hewed out through the woods.

    Game was plentiful and Mr. Shinn being a good marksman killed more than enough to keep the family in meat. As an evidence of his skill with the rifle we cite a few of his adventures: One day when returning to his home from Montpelier he saw five deer and taking aim he killed a doe. Reloading he waited a few minutes when a buck returned and he killed him, and again waiting he killed the third one, all falling within five rods of each other. He killed our wild turkeys one morning before breakfast by calling them up, while standing under a tree. One morning when calling turkeys he heard something heavy step on the leaves behind him, and on looking around, saw a wild-cat creeping up on him, having probably been drawn tot eh spot by the smell of the turkeys. Mr. Shinn drew his gun on him and he immediately left the field to his superior hunter. Wild hogs were numerous and one cold winter a number were frozen to death. Wolf tracks were often seen about the house in the morning, and a wild eagle and ravens were often seen.

    Mrs. Shinn died in 1858. Mr. and Mrs. Shinn had ten children, seven of whom are living -Sarah Jane, wife of Jep McDaniel, of Jay county; Martha, Philip A., Mary Amanda, wife of Stephen Smith; Cornelius, of Jay county; Mahala, wife of James Dawley, of Jay County and Charlotte Abigail. Martha and Abigail are at home with their father. Daniel Henry was a member of the Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry, serving through the war and died after his return home, from the effects of his army life. Silas Newton was a member of the Seventy-fifth Indiana Infantry, and died at Gallatin, Tennessee, from the effects of taking cold while sick with the measles. Arabel died at the age of sixteen.

    Mr. Shinn has been identified with the county nearly a half century and is located on the same place where he built his log cabin in 1840. He is an honorable, upright man, and has been one of the foremost in advancing the interests of the county, which he has seen develop from a wilderness to one of the best in the state. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Shinn's Chapel, which he helped to organize, and has been a trustee over a third of a century. In politics he is a Republican. He has held the office of supervisor several years.

Source: Biographical and Historical Record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887.