U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Shinn Family ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Harrison County, West Virginia, From the Early Days of Northwestern Virginia to the Present. by Henry Haymond Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va., 1910 Pages 385-386 In a history of the Shinn family by Josiah H. Shinn published in 1903 it is stated that Levi Shinn who was born in New Jersey in 1748 and married Elizabeth Smith in 1772, died at Shinnston was the pioneer of the Westward movement so far as the family of Shinn was connected with it. The records do not disclose his dismissal from any New Jersey meeting of friends. Neither do they show when he reached Hopewell, Virginia, nor how long he remained there. Tradition and the records say that he lived for awhile on Apple Pie Ridge in Frederick County, Virginia, where others of the family and others from New Jersey had taken residence. In 1778 we find him in Harrison County, Virginia, blazing with his axe the domain which was to be under his tomahawk right and near which the town of Shinnston now stands. After this he returned to Hopewell for his family. His description of the Country so pleased his friends and relatives that many of them determined to move. Some time in the year 1779 Levi with his family, his brother Clement and his family, his cousin Benjamin and family, viz: Samuel, Isaac, Amy and Lucretia Shinn, and some of the Clarks, Antrims, Earls, Drakes, Herberts and others set out for Harrison County. Arriving there they took up such lands as pleased them and began their improvement. Levi Shinn had already made his selection, Clement located on Middle Creek about one mile from where Shinnston was afterwards laid out. Isaac Shinn went about six miles away and chose a location on Sampson's Creek, while Samuel Shinn made a selection on Ten Mile Creek about fifteen miles away, clearing and housebuilding kept them busy and the Indians troubled them so frequently as to make them forget their peaceable doctrines and fight for their lives. The necessity of a fort soon presented itself and upon a prominent location three miles away they erected a stockade. They were pleased with their settlement and sent word back to Hopewell and to New Jersey inviting other friends and relatives to join them in the West. The records show that Levi Shinn entered 400 acres of land on the West Fork River with a preemption to 1000 acres adjoining in 1773. By the census of 1782 he had seven in his family. Benjamin Shinn entered 400 acres in 1773 on Simpson's Creek. By the State census in 1782 he had a family of eight. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Harrison County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/harrison/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------