In my previous post about the Shinn Ranch, I promised a follow up concerning the children of Oliver & Louisa Shinn.

James Oliver Shinn, the eldest child pursued a career in newspaper business. He first gained experience working for Susanville’s Lassen Advocate.  Along with his brother, Al, they launched the Mountain Review on November 12, 1879. The newspaper continued until his untimely death the following summer.

Albert Loring Shinn, like his older brother, he dabbled in the newspaper trade for awhile. He, too, worked at the Lassen Advocate. In 1879 he made a failed attempt to run for Lassen County District Attorney.  In November 1880, he and David Hyer purchased the Lassen Advocate , which he finally sold out a year later.  In 1882, he won the Democratic nomination for Lassen County District Attorney and in November won the office. The following year he  passed his bar examination.  After his term expired, Shinn carried on with a law practice and was an attorney for numerous reclamation projects in the region. When the financial crisis of 1893 hit, he lost a large base of his clientele and relocated to Sacramento. There he later ventured into some mining operations, and ran for Lt. Governor on the Republican ticket and lost. He died in 1919.

Edward Eugene Shinn was the only family member to follow in his father’s foot steps and became a rancher. He remained at Shinn Ranch after it was sold, working for the new owners. He married Nettie McKissick, from a prominent ranching family. They remained in the region until the 1890s, relocating in Montrose, Colorado. He died in 1928.

Laura Shinn, like her mother, became a school teacher. She taught the first school at South Fork, later to be renamed Likely. In 1878, she married Milford businessman, Thomas Glasscock. They were divorced in 1883, after she was caught in bed with Lassen County Deputy Assessor, Morgan Ralls, in the Milford Hotel. After the divorce she married Ralls and died in 1921 in Sacramento.

Robert Lee Shinn the youngest family member, he was born in 1865. In 1885, he studied law in his brother’s practice and was admitted to the bar in 1892. In 1903 he moved to Sacramento and went to work in his brother’s law practice, and in 1920 accepted the position of Sacramento City Attorney. He died in Sacramento in 1942.

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