Timelines
Coming to California - SS Golden Age?
The Pacific Mail Steamship, SS Golden Age, may be the ship that brought James, Lucy, Charles, and Annie to California from Panama as reported in the Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 11, Number 1654, 15 July 1856.
Why Maybe? Is this a typo? "Mrs. Shinn, wife and 2 children"? or should that say "Mr. Shinn, wife and 2 children." Easily made when you have to set type upside down and backwards.
Look for yourself to see how they list a family. Generally it is "Name of husband, wife and x children."
If only Charles was on board, then it would be "Mr. Shinn, wife and child." But it is two children.
If Annie was born in California, then this passenger listing would not match the Shinn family. If she was born in Texas, then it matches well. Sure, there could have been another Shinn family coming at that time. Would have been nice to have James first name, too!
Let's Assume for a moment that this is James, Lucy, Charles, and Annie who arrived on the SS Golden Age on July 14th. Do the dates add up with our records?
15 April 1856 Panama City, the Watermelon Riot which would have made anyone afraid to travel.
6 May 1856 Annie was born (in Niles according to Ancestry record and Josiah Shinn)
OR 15 May 1856 Annie was born (in Vallejo's Mills, according to docent handbook)
22 June 1856 SS Daniel Webster left New Orleans (from this page SS Golden Age) (Would the Shinns have left from New Orleans? Or were there ships from Galveston? Needs more research, but they would have left with a month-old baby.
n.d. Arrived Panama...
.... The Isthmus continues healthy and quiet. The Panama Railroad is in perfect order. Passengers per Golden Age passed over in three and a half hours." All reassuring after the Watermelon Riot.
1 July 1856 Left Panama at 10 o'clock P.M
7 July 1856 arrived Acapulco 5:20 AM and sailed at 10 AM same day
14 July 1856 "The Pacific Mail Steamship Golden Age arrived this afternoon at 3 o'clock precisely" at San Francisco with passengers from New York and New Orleans. Their trip was 22 June 1856 to 14 July 1856, about 3 weeks.
16 August 1856 Dr. Joseph Clark received a deed for the land from Sim and also executed an agreement for eventual ownership by James and Lucy Shinn. (Kathryn Kasch)
23 August 1856 The first 1856 Shinn ledger (Shinn archives) says that they spent $4 on two days of housecleaning the cottage.
August 23rd was seven days after arriving in SF.
Was the land purchased before James and Lucy left Texas? Not sure. Good question.
How long did it take for the agreement to be signed? Check the first Shinn ledger from 1856 for clues.
Announcement of the S.S. Golden Age's arrival in San Francisco on July 14, 1856.
Advertisement in the Sacramento Daily Union for passengers on the S.S. Golden Age after the arrival of the Shinn family.
The Timeline looks good. Why the uncertainty?
There are the only two documents that say that Annie was born in California - a docent manual and a Josiah Shinn's family history.
Josiah Shinn's history of the Shinn family "The history of the Shinn family in Europe and America" says that she was born in Niles (which didn't exist yet) on May 6, 1856. The book is 425 pages long! Might Josiah have a couple of mistakes? Allan Shinn wrote to Rod Ricciarelli and included some corrections of Josiah's book. He corrected that page to say that she was born in Texas
So what other facts and family recordings are there about where Annie was born? Interviews, family bibles, and census records? Let's look.
More documentation on the birth date of Annie and where she was born
We care because we need to know how many children came to California - 1 or 2 -
to match or not match the passenger list,.
Census Records 1860 and 1870 say that
Annie was listed as born in Texas
Julia Shinn's account of the Shinn family's arrival in California
Julia Shinn says that Annie was born in Texas.
In the 1937 Washington Township Register, Julia Shinn gave the history of the Shinn family's arrival to California in 1856. Julia would have had ample time to talk with James and Lucy about their arrival in California. Annie died in the 1878 so she never spoke to her. Julia Tyler Shinn married Charles Shinn in 1888. Daughter Ruth was born in 1890. They lived with James, Lucy, Milicent, and Joseph. James passed away in 1896. Lucy lived until 1915.
So far, this accounting matches best with the documents of an earlier time but there are some inconsistencies [Read here]
By Mrs. Julia Shinn
(An interview with Mrs. Sladek)
Back in 1856 Grandfather Shinn, Mr. Jo Shinn’s father, was living in Texas. He and his wife had moved from Wisconsin to Tennessee, coming down the Mississippi by boat, then on into Texas by covered wagon.
His brother-in-law lived in San Francisco and constantly wrote of this beautiful land of California. His letters told of the healthy climate, the wonderful opportunities in this new country and urged him to bring his wife and two children and settle here.
They decided to do so and sailed from Galveston, crossed the isthmus and took boat again for San Francisco. They sent their furniture around the horn and, as usual, much of it was lost.
A Mr. Sims owned a land grant, a quarter section, and had built a house on what is now the Shinn place. This house was unique for it was made of timber from two schooners. In those days sailors were constantly abandoning ship in San Francisco and striking out for the gold fields. Mr. Sims used the lumber from two of these to build his home. This house is still standing. Mr. and Mrs. Jo Shinn, Jr. are living in it.
Grandfather Shinn bought the ranch and the house and lived there for twenty years, until the big house was built in 1876. In 1870 he decided to turn part of the ranch into a nursery and ordered trees and flowering shrubs, not only from this country but from Japan and China.
We still have some of the catalogs sent from Japan. They are not in book form but are beautiful, hand painted pictures of the flowers and shrubs advertised, all done in such exquisite colors that ; they deserve to be framed. Their bill of lading is interesting, too, a scroll, several yards long, written in Japanese characters.
When an unusual or beautiful tree arrived Grandfather Shinn always planted one or two on his own place. And so today we have a cypress from the Louisiana swamps, two Areca palms, an enormous Chinese camphor tree and a Japanese magnolia. The birds all love our trees but the most interesting thing we have on the place is a tree full of herons. These night herons, as soon as it is dark, go back to the creek to fish. But they spend their days high in the top of our big oak.
Need more evidence that Annie was born in Texas?
On the back of one of the paintings of Mission Peak in the museum, Allen Shinn wrote "This is a color photo reproduction of a water color painting done by Annie Holbrook Shinn. She was born in Round Rock, Texas in 1856 and died at Niles in 1878."
Yes, the Shinn Family history from Josiah Shinn says that she was born in California. Allen Shinn's correction is above. And allegedly Milicent corrected one of the copies to say that Annie was born in Texas. She was just a few years younger than Annie and would know. Find and post here!
Allegedly there is a family bible that says that Annie was born in Texas. Find date and location and Post here!
Not great documentation, but this could have come from and interview of Joe Shinn himself, youngest brother of Annie, in 1944 in the Knave "Niles' Oldest Resident'. "Joe, who celebrated his 83rd birthday on January 15, is the survivor of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. James Shinn, who came West from Ohio in 1856, Charles and Annie being born in Texas. Joe and Milicent (Dr. Milicent Shinn, first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the University of California, and editor of the Overland monthly when Jack London began writing) were born in the little house which originally had come around the Horn in a schooner and which now furnishes residence for Navy personnel not far from the present Shinn home." Joe's oldest sister was Annie and could have talked with her about her birth state.
Kathryn Kasch wrote "James and Lucy arrived in Niles with two small children who were born in Round Rock, Texas: four year old Charles Howard (1852) and baby Anne Holbrook who was born on May 16, 1856. On August 16, 1856, Joseph Clark received a deed for the land from Sim and also executed an agreement for eventual ownership by James and Lucy Shinn, so they must have traveled soon after Annie’s birth. According to most accounts, they came by ship and across Panama, but some thought they came overland because of a claim that James Shinn’s name is recorded at the El Morro National Monument “Inscription Rock” in New Mexico. Either way, it would have been a difficult journey! Milicent was born at Niles in 1858, followed by Joseph in 1861; the last child, Lucy Ellen, was born in 1863 but she died at age 10." [Note Kathryn did not have the SS Golden Age passenger list,]
References
1854 Advertisement for the "Golden Age" on the Atlantic side of the trip to California.
More about the Golden Age drawings, about
Cyndi's List Galveston - Start search here for James and Lucy on the Atlantic side.
Ancestry All New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., Passenger Lists, 1813-1963 results for Shinn (no luck)
"Riot in Panama over the theft of a slice of watermelon claims the lives of fifteen foreigners," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, refers to Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Central America, Volume III (San Francisco, CA: The History Company, 1887), 520-521.