Charles Howard Shinn


Charles Howard Shinn was a horticulturalist, author, inspector of California Experiment Stations, and forest ranger in California.
He was born in Austin, Texas in 1852 to James and Lucy Shinn. The family moved to Vallejo's Mills, California in 1856. Vallejo's Mills became the town of Niles in 1869. Much of Charles Shinn's childhood was spent at the ranch and nursery of his family in Niles. His sister, Milicent Shinn, was an American child psychologist, while his first cousin Edmund Clark Sanford was a prominent psychologist.

Education

Shinn attended the state university for two years and Johns Hopkins University. While at Johns Hopkins University, his roommate was Woodrow Wilson.

Career

Charles Shinn was a teacher in four counties in California from 1870 to 1876 and at Washington Corners in 1876. He was also a writer. In 1878, while teaching in Shasta County, he began the study of the mining district codes or laws of the 49ers and after. His most famous book, Mining Camps, was a result of field work there and in the Sierras.The emphasis of the German folk moot tradition espoused while he was at John Hopkins influenced his often romanticized writings about the early mining camps. Also, between 1879 and 1889 he wrote for newspapers and magazines in San Francisco, Baltimore, and New York. In 1878 he edited the California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine. He was elected to be a director of the State Horticultural Society in 1879. During the late 1880s, he served as managing editor of Overland Monthly while continuing to publish articles on nature, mining, and rustic California. Charles Shinn was Inspector of California Experiment Stations from 1890-1902 He was head forest ranger for the Department of the Interior.

Marriage

Charles Shinn married Julia Charlotte Tyler on July 31, 1888 at the home of her father, Asher Tyler, in Oakland. She shared his interests in nature, worked at his side, and became one of the first women employed by the new U. S. Forest Service.

Death

Charles Shinn spent the last 22 years of his life in North Fork, California. His home was named the "Peace Cabin". He retired as supervising forest ranger a year before he passed. He is buried in Ukiah, California

Memorial

Charles Shinn is remembered in the Sierra Club bulletin and in the Journal of Forestry.
Mt. Shinn in the Sierra Nevada is named after Charles Howard Shinn. Mt. Shinn is 11,013 feet high, two miles south of the south fork of San Joaquin River, near latitude 37°13' longitude 118° 55'. It can be found on the USGS Topographic map "Ward Mountain Quadrangle" 2018.

Writings

Magazine articles