Shinn, Benjamin 1828 - 1913

SHINN, JENKINS, ROBERTS, BOGGESS, REEVES, WINDHAM, PHILLIPS

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler, Volunteer (email)
Date: 3/27/2017 at 07:46:21

Stuart Herald
Stuart, Iowa
Friday, Sept. 19, 1913
Pg 1 – Towns Round About

After an illness of a few weeks, Rev. Benjamin Shinn passed away Monday, September 8th, at 8 a.m. at his home in the west part of town. Several weeks ago he was taken ill from complications attending old age. At times he seemed better but he did not rally from his weakness as his friends could wish and the sands of life gradually slipped away until the summons came to join the countless throng on the other shore.---Dexter Sentinel.
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Newspaper Unknown

Rev. Benjamin Shinn was born in Salem, Ohio, May 1, 1828, and died at his home in Dexter, Iowa, September 8, 1913, aged 85 years, 4 months and 7 days. His early life was spent in the place of his birth, and on the 30th of March, 1854, in Salem, Ohio, he was married to Miss Mary L. Jenkins. So evidently was this union of God’s ordering that for nearly sixty years He permitted them to walk together in the holiest relation that falls to the lot of men and women in this life. Six children, five daughters and a son, came to bless the home and hearts of the father and mother, and all the children now grown remain to support and comfort the dear mother in this time of the greatest sorrow and can fall into a woman’s life. To break the ties formed and cemented during sixty years of holy, happy, faithful life, it is like tearing asunder the very vitals of life itself. But leaning upon the promise of God, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” and supported by the love and ministrations of her children, this faithful, loving wife will end her days in peace and comfort.

In the month of April, 1864, only a few weeks after their marriage, Benjamin and Mary Shinn bade farewell to their Ohio home and came to Iowa to live. They first settled in Johnson county, near Iowa City. Brother Shinn consecrated his life to the service of God when a young man. In 1856 he became a Supply on the Indianapolis Circuit, an appointment within the bounds of the Iowa Conference, and he joined the Iowa Conference in fall of the same year. At that time the Iowa Conference embraced nearly all of the state of Iowa. In the early month of 1864, the Des Moines Conference was organized and here began the long and useful career of Brother Shinn in the Des Moines Conference, he being one of the original members composing it. The Conference of 1899 brought to him the hardest and saddest experience that can fall to the lot of a Methodist preacher—the day when he realizes he has reached the close of his active ministerial life and must ask to be permitted to go into retirement. Brother Shinn realized that his long period of ministerial service, extending over forty-two years, had made such inroads upon his health that he felt compelled to ask for the Superanuated relation and without a dissenting voice, but with much sadness on the part of his brethren with whom he had been so closely and lovingly associated in work for God for so many years, the relation was given him. From that time until God took him to the Home in Heaven last Monday, he has continued to reside in Dexter loved and honored by all who knew him.

Five years ago last Christmas he was laid low with a stroke of paralysis from which he never fully recovered. During these years his suffering was intense, but, supported by the presence and strength of Him whom for many years he had recommended to others in like conditions, and tenderly cared for by his beloved and devoted wife and children, he bore all patiently and submissively. Christ was to him an abiding Friend and Comforter. Thus he continued until Monday, September 8, 1913, when he closed his eyes upon the familiar faces and surrounding of his little, happy home, and in a moment he was not for God had taken him.

Besides his dearly beloved wife he leaves to mourn his departure six children, Mrs. Eva L. Roberts and Mrs. Vesta A. Boggess, of Dexter; Mrs. Sarah J. Reeves, of Omaha, Nebraska; Mrs. Inez C. Windham, of Glenwood, Iowa; Mrs. Hattie M. Phillips, of King City, Missouri, and Warren S. Shinn, of Eddyville: eighteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren; his brethren of the Des Moines Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a host of friends here and in many other parts of the state where his ministerial work has been done.

His funeral services were held in the Methodist Episcopal church last Wednesday afternoon conducted by Rev. Fred Harris, of Indianola, Iowa, and in the presence of a concourse of his friends and neighbors that filled the church. Interment was made in the Dexter cemetery. Fred Harris