Charles Howard Shinn (April 29, 1852 – December 2, 1924) was an American horticulturalist, author and forest ranger who worked for the U.S. Forest Service. He was inspector of California Experiment Stations and head forest ranger of the Sierra Forest. Mt. Shinn in California is named after him.
Early life and education Shinn was born in Round Rock, Texas in 1852 to James and Lucy Shinn. The family moved to Southern Alameda County, California along Alameda Creek between Centerville and Vallejo's Mills in 1856. Vallejo's Mills became the town of Niles in 1869 (now a District in Fremont). Much of Charles Shinn's childhood was spent at the ranch and nursery of his family in Niles. His sister Milicent Shinn and his first cousin Edmund Clark Sanford were psychologists.
Shinn attended the state university for two years, now the University of California, Berkeley. He attended Johns Hopkins University from 1882 to 1884. He received a bachelor's degree conferred "extra ordinary." While at Johns Hopkins University, his roommate was future U.S. president Woodrow Wilson.
Career 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 (1885), was a result of field work there and in the Sierras. The emphasis of the German folk moot tradition espoused while he was at Johns Hopkins influenced his often romanticized writings about the early mining camps. Between 1879 and 1889 he wrote for newspapers and magazines in San Francisco, Baltimore, and New York. In 1879 he worked for the San Francisco Bulletin. From 1878 to 1880 he edited the California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine. which was published by John H. Carmany. He published the Pacific Rural Handbook in 1879. He contributed to other journals: Pacific Rural Press, the Southern California Horticulturist, the Gardener's Monthly, Vick's Monthly, the Rural New Yorker, and The Garden of London.
The California State Horticultural Society was organized in 1879. Officers were: Professor E. W. Hilgard (President), J. Lewelling (Vice President), Edward J. Wickson (Secretary), G. P. Rixford (Treasurer). Directors were W. B. West of Stockton, Dr. John Strentzel, of Martinez, Dr. Behr of San Francisco, Charles H. Shinn of Niles, and John Rock of San Jose.
During the late 1880s, he served as managing editor of Overland Monthly while continuing to publish articles on nature, mining, and rustic California.
Shinn was inspector of California Experiment Stations from 1890 to 1902 In the May 8, Nation, 1893, Shinn wrote about the Geary Act and the affect on the Chinese workers and orchard owners in California.
In 1892 he was a Charter member of the Sierra Club. In 1900, he and his wife, Julia, were trustees of the Niles Library.
He was head forest ranger of the Sierra (North) Forest in 1902 for the Department of the Interior. In 1914 he worked for the San Joaquin Valley Counties Association. He retired from his Forest Service position in July 1924.
Marriage Shinn married Julia Charlotte Tyler on July 31, 1888, at the home of her father, Asher Tyler, in Oakland.Daily Alta California 1 August 1888 — California Digital Newspaper Collection. Their daughter, Ruth Shinn, was born on October 6, 1890. Ruth's developmental stages were observed by Milicent Shinn at the Shinn Ranch. Julia shared Shinn's interests in nature, worked at his side, and became one of the first women employed by the new U.S. Forest Service.
Death Shinn spent the last 22 years of his life in North Fork, California. Julia Shinn named their home the "Peace Cabin". He retired as supervising forest ranger a year before he passed. He is buried in Ukiah, California.
Memorial Shinn is remembered in the Sierra Club bulletin and in the Journal of Forestry. Coincidentally "Ranger Shinn; The Story of a Man Who Shaped His Life to Get the Greatest Happiness" was published in Sunset Magazine in the month that he died.
Mt. Shinn in the Sierra Nevada is named after Shinn. The name became official in 1934
Writings
Journal articles Charles Howard Shinn wrote for the Overland Monthly using a pseudonym, Stoner Brooke. "Notes on the Culture of Greenhouse Plants" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (May 1873) "Novarro", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Dec. 1874) "A Breath of Trees," Alameda County Independent (June 12, 1875) "La Gaviota", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Sep. 1875) "Notes from a Greenhouse - No. 1" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (June 1877) "Notes from a Greenhouse - No. 2" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (August 1877) "Notes from a Greenhouse - No.4" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (Sep. 1877) "Notes from a Greenhouse - No.4" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (Nov. 1877) " The Diospyrus Kaki, or Japanese Persimmon, in California." The Gardener's Monthly (Dec. 1877) "Concerning Shade Trees" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (Dec. 1877) "Beneath Her Window" Atlantic Monthly (Dec. 1877) "Laying Out the Garden" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (January 1878) "Peculiar Drawbacks of California Farming" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (February 1878) "Horticultural Gossip" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (March 1878) "Californian Flower Notes" Vick's Illustrated monthly magazine (April 1878) "Concerning Our Horticultural Future" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (May 1878)" "The Art of Beautifying Our Homes" Southern California horticulturist (May 1878) "The Resources and History of Shasta County. - Part 1" Pacific Rural Press (22 June 1878) "A California Garden" Gardener's Monthly (June 1878) "Garden Notes for July" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (July 1878) "Hot-Weather Plants" Southern California horticulturist (July 1878) "Garden Notes for August" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (August 1878) "The Rhododenron" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (August 1880) "Della" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (October 1880) "Seeds and Seed Planting" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (August 1878) "Flower Voices" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (October 1878) A same-named poem in Hearth and Home was reviewed in the Daily Encinal (16 May 1874) which mentioned he had dropped his nom-de-plume Philomathean. "Her Rose Garden" Pacific Rural Press (30 Nov. 1878) Note that Shinn's Nurseries in Niles were in operation at this time. Also note the following letter to the editor "House-Hunting in Shasta County" about his previous article. "Her Rose Garden. Being a Tale of Two Young Married People, and their Gardening Mishaps; Chapter II" (7 Dec. 1878) "Her Rose Garden. Being a Tale of Two Young Married People, and their Gardening Mishaps; Chapter III" (14 Dec. 1878). "Concerning a Satisfactory Flower Garden" December 1878 Note that CHS is editor: "Mr. Shinn is a young man of much literary promise, who has contributed horticultural articles to the Evening Bulletin, Rural Press, our own journal, the Southern California Horticulturist, the Gardener's Monthly, Vick's Monthly, the Rural New Yorker, and The Garden of London. His work has all been of a fresh and yet practical type, and has been widely read and copied." "Her Rose Garden. Being a Tale of Two Young Married People, and their Gardening Mishaps; Chapter IV" (4 Jan. 1879). "Her Rose Garden. Being a Tale of Two Young Married People, and their Gardening Mishaps; Chapter V" (11 Jan. 1879). "The Land of Gladness" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (March 1880) "Remembrances of a Mountain School" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (April 1880) "On Certain Methods of Pruning Ornamentals" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (May 1880) "The Rhododendron Woods" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (June 1880) "A Summer in the Saddle" The Californian, June 6, 1880 "Future Gardens of California" The Californian, August 1880 "Half an Hour with the Poets" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (Nov. Dec. 1880) "For the Last Time" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (Nov. Dec. 1880) Notice that this is the last issue and that it would be merged into the Pacific Rural Press. CHS moved to the San Francisco Bulletin. "Peace" The Californian (July 1882) Note that this is after the article by H.U.C. "Evil Literature" The Californian (November 1882) "Oxford University, and the Humanist Movement of 1498" (Mar. 1883) "Guppy's Daughter", Overland Monthly (Aug. 1883) "The Migration Problem", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Sept 1883) "Thomas Lodge and His Friends", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Feb. 1884) "California Mining Camps", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Aug 1884) "A Rhododendron Quest", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (June 1885) "Early Horticulture in California", Overland Monthly (Aug. 1885) "Shasta Lilies", Overland Monthly (Dec 1885) "Spring Flowers of California", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Apr. 1888) "Artesian Belt of the Upper San Joaquin", Overland Monthly (Aug. 1888) with illustrations by Ernest Peixotto "Early Books, Magazines, and Book-Making", Overland Monthly (Oct. 1888) "From Klamath to the Rio Grande", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Dec. 1888) "The California Palestine", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Jan. 1889) "Two Shasta Desperados" (May 1889) p. 459 under pseudonym Stoner Brooke. "The Building of Arachne", The Argonaut, 1889 "The Big Tree." Garden and Forest, 1889; 2: 614-615. "The Forest; Recent California Forest Fires", Garden and Forest, (Oct. 9,1889) "Old Mission San Jose Gardens", Garden and Forest (Sept. 11, 1889) "California Garden Gold", American Gardening (Jan. 1890) "Wintering in California," "An Early Winter Garden in California", American Gardening (Feb. 1890) "The Olive in California", American Gardening (Apr. 1890) "Spanish Pioneer Houses of California", the Magazine of American History (May 1890) "The Japanese Oranges", American Gardening (Jun. 1890) "The Quicksands of Toro", Belford's Magazine (Jun. 1890-Nov.1890), p. 735-739 According to the Wall Street Journal article by Ben Zimmer May 9/10 2020 "From 'The Three Stooges to Covid-19 Rulebreakers," this article is the first instance of the use of the word "Knucklehead" "Fourth of July in Rosamond Camp" The Wasp (1890) "Father Agapius Honcharenko" The Christian Union (July 1890) "An Old-Fashioned Countryside", American Gardening (Aug. 1890) "California Truck-Gardening", American Gardening (Oct. 1890) "California on Horseback. " (November 1890) "Notes from a Pacific Peach Orchard", American Gardening (Dec. 1890) "In a Spouting Funnel" The Wasp (1890) "Pioneer Spanish Families in California; With Special Reference to the Vallejos" The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (January 1891) "California Rose Cottages", Vick's Illustrated Monthly Magazine (1891) Note that p. 48 has a photograph of the Shinn House. "Social Changes in California" The Popular Science Monthly (April 1891) "The California Lakes", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (July 1891) "Ecce Montezuma" Goldthwaite's Geographical Magazine (November 1, 1891) "Mission Bells" The Overland Monthly (Jan. 1892) "Fig trees at the experiment stations" 1892 "Picturesque Plant Life of California" Century Magazine (October 1892) "Yachting Around San Francisco Bay (March 1893) "California Birds; Their Life in Garden and Orchard - The Yellow-Hammers, Half-Tamed Quail, and Saucy Baltimore Orioles - A Blossom Eating Revel" The Evening Post, New York (April 8, 1893) "Irrigation in the Arid States" The Popular Science Monthly (June 1893)