Jacob E. Shinn, engaged in the abstract and loan business in Ottawa, Kan., is a native of Franklin county, having been born there Jan. 17, 1874, his parents being Albert C. and Frances E. (Bride) Shinn, residents of Hayes township, Franklin county. An unusually complete record has been obtained of the Shinn family in America and a brief outline of their ancestry is incorporated in this review of one of that family's descendants.

John Shinn was one of two hundred and thirty Quakers who left London on the ship Kent in the spring of 1677 and immigrated to America, settling in West Jersey; his son, James, married Abagail Lippencott, in 1697; their son, Joseph, married Mary Budd, in 1726; to Benjamin, son of Joseph and Mary (Budd) Shinn, was born a son, Isaac, who married Agnes Drake. The second child of Isaac and Agnes (Drake) Shinn was George, born Aug. 20, 1787, who was married in Harrison county, West Virginia, Jan. 7, 1808, to Sarah Kirk, born in 1784, to Samson and Eleanor (Sims) Kirk. George and Susan (Kirk) Shinn were the great-grandparents of our subject. Their son, John, born in Harrison county, West Virginia, March 4, 1813, was married there June 24, 1836, to Tabitha Ogden and removed to Adams county, Illinois, in 1848. Albert C. Shinn was born to this last named couple in Harrison county, West Virginia, Oct. 12, 1842, before the family's removal to Illinois. At the age of twenty years he enlisted in Company G, Twelfth Illinois cavalry as a soldier for the Union. This company was assigned to the Army of the Potomac and later, on veteranizing it, was assigned to the department of the Mississippi. After serving his period of enlistment and having been honorably discharged he returned to his home in Illinois, where he was married to Frances E. Bride, Oct. 7, 1865. In the following year they removed to Franklin county, Kansas, settling in Hayes township, where he has ever since engaged extensively in farming and stock raising, and where he now owns one of the finest farms of that township, comprising 400 acres. He has always been active in political affairs but along independent and progressive lines. He was a candidate for lieutenant-governor on the Farmers' Alliance ticket, in 1890, but was defeated, and now gives his allegiance to the Democratic party. He is a wide reader of current literature, thus keeping in close touch with the great economic issues of the day, and with the advanced thought in regard to scientific farming and stock raising.

Frances E. (Bride) Shinn is a daughter of Samuel and Esther J. (Dyer) Bride, the former born Jan. 4, 1810, in Massachusetts and the latter born in Vermont, in 1812, who removed to Illinois after their marriage and died there. William and Mary (Scripture) Bride, natives respectively of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, were the parents of Samuel, and Elisha and Ruth (Heath) Bride were the parents of William.

Jacob E. Shinn was reared and educated in Franklin county, his literary education having been completed at Ottawa University, from which he was graduated in 1898. He at once entered the abstract business in Linn county, where he remained three years, then returned to Ottawa as the successor of William Sumner in the loan and abstract business, a business which he has since conducted and which has grown to large proportions. He has held for two terms the office of treasurer of the Kansas Abstractor's Association, and is now a member of the executive committee of the association. He has platted and sold two additions to the city of Ottawa, the additions known as Shinn's and Crestview additions. Mr. Shinn is a young man of ability, intent upon a successful business career and a due measure of success has already attended his efforts. Besides the business noted he is also interested in farming and stock raising and owns several large farms as well as valuable city property. He is secretary of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, and is a Democrat in politics. He affiliates fraternally with the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.