Annie Holbrook Shinn (1856-1878): Part 2

The Life and Death of Annie H. Shinn

(1856-1878)

To-day I sought the place again,

But though for many years

All grass and flowers that grave has lain,

It moves me still to tears.

—Annie Shinn, "Hope"

Gravesite of members of the Shinn and Sanford families in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA

***

Annie H. Shinn

In Part 1 of this series (waaaaay back in September—sorry, my attention has been fixated on three Hayward birders I wrote about for my Digital Historical Methods course. I should be able to share the link to the website our class collaborated on soon!), I introduced you to Annie H. Shinn, sister to Milicent W. Shinn and Charles H. Shinn. I focused mostly on information I could find about her in newspapers and other records. In this post I hope to flesh Annie out as a person using what her family and friends have written about her.

We unfortunately don’t have much about Annie in her own words, so the next best thing I have access to are the Lucy Letters. Annie is mentioned over 125 times in the nearly 120 letters. She was mentioned in almost 50 of the 60-odd letters written during the years Annie was alive (1874-1878), and she was sometimes discussed at great length, mostly Lucy fretting over Annie’s poor health (1). From the one picture we have of her, we can tell that she had fair hair. She got freckles when she spent time outside in the summer. We know that she was tall–or at least taller than Millie, as Lucy wrote of a recently deceased cousin’s dresses being too short for Annie, but suitable for Millie.

I speculated in my entry about the “ghost” of Shinn House that Annie died of tuberculosis (TB). I have scoured the local newspapers for her obituary but have yet to find any conclusive cause of death. However, reading into what Lucy wrote about Annie’s health in her final few years, all the clues point to TB (in my layperson’s mind at least).

Edvard Munch, The Sick Child (1907).
Courtesy of the Tate.

Signs and symptoms of active TB: Coughing for three or more weeks Coughing up blood or mucus Chest pain, or pain with breathing or coughing Unintentional weight loss Fatigue Fever Night sweats Chills Loss of appetite Source: Mayo Clinic

The first variable in the equation is the fact that “by the late 19th century, 70-90% of the urban populations of Europe and North America were infected with the tuberculosis bacillus.” Though Annie grew up in the countryside (in what is now Niles CA), she and her siblings spent several school years living with their Aunt and Uncle Sanford in Oakland so the children could attend the nationally-renowned (2) Oakland High School. In the 1870s, Oakland was the second largest urban center in the San Francisco Bay Area, aside from San Francisco itself (3), so it’s not inconceivable (4) that Annie may have been exposed to someone infected with TB while living in “the City.”

Photograph of the Oakland High School building, erected 1870. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library.

Then we have Lucy’s descriptions of Annie’s poor health in the Letters. Annie’s cough would worsen in cold, damp weather. She worried about Annie catching a cold whenever she left home. Annie suffered from intermittent fevers and grew weaker and more fatigued over time. In the final months of her life, Lucy moved Annie's bedroom downstairs to the parlor, as going up and down stairs tired Annie out too much. Lucy and James slept close to Annie’s room in case she needed anything during the night. Lucy regularly wrote about how helpless she felt, as she could do nothing to relieve Annie’s suffering.

Forest Pictures in the Adirondacks (1864) with artwork by John A. Hows and original poems by Alfred B. Street. This copy was presumably gifted to Annie for Christmas in 1875. (You can check out the book online, thanks to HathiTrust!)

In the earlier letters (between 1874-1875), however, Annie was still healthy enough to live independently away from home (5). She taught in the public schools of Oakland for a year or two (6) after graduating from Oakland High School in 1872 at the age of 16 (7). As she was a bright and eager student, she entered what was then referred to as the State University (now known as UC Berkeley) in the Fall of 1874. The University had only started admitting women four years before, in 1870 (8). It would not be long, however, before her health made it impossible for her to complete her freshman year, and she returned home to Niles CA.

Annie would spend much of her last few years of her life at home, devoting most of her time to reading. She was very close with her younger sister, Millie. While Millie was away at college, Lucy wrote that Annie “lived entirely by herself”–she sounds like a bit of an introvert (9). This isn’t to say she didn’t socialize; whenever she felt well enough, she would take trips to Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco, where she would stay with family members or friends from school. She seemed to prioritize visiting Millie, and Lucy rejoiced in their "sweet sisterly companionship." Lucy felt that Millie's presence gave Annie strength, and regularly encouraged her to come home on weekends to spend time studying and reading together, and riding horses and hiking through the hills. She felt that Millie talking with Annie "ke[pt] her stirred up some, which is much better for her." However, she often appeared depressed in her final months, and Lucy worried that Annie’s solitude was contributing to her declining health.

On the way to the Geysers, Russian River Valley, c. 1870s. Calisphere.

On the way to the Geysers, c. 1870s. Calisphere.

Old Indian [Native American] steam bath, Sonoma Co., Cal., c. 1871. Calisphere.

Steam-bath, Geysers, Sonoma Co., Cal., 1867. Calisphere.

Calistoga Springs, bath houses and skating rink, Hot Sulphur Springs Hotel, c. 1871. Calisphere.

Calistoga Springs, swimming bath, Hot Sulphur Springs Hotel, c. 1871. Calisphere.

Beach scene [likely Santa Cruz or Capitola], c. 1877. Calisphere.

Bath House [likely Santa Cruz or Capitola], c. 1877. Calisphere.

Her family did everything they could to improve her condition. They weren’t a wealthy family, but they were able to save up enough money to send her up to St. Helena to visit the hot springs and steam baths there, as well as to Santa Cruz for the warm sea baths. Some people around town criticized the Shinns for sending Annie to Santa Cruz—including well-respected local doctor, Dr. Cyrus H. Allen—as they believed the climate would only worsen Annie’s condition. However, Lucy reasoned that everyone had told them to send Annie to St. Helena for the health benefits, but Annie’s health declined faster there than at any other time. Lucy concluded that “whatever we do I have no doubt we shall wish we had done something else"—a feeling that I think anyone with a chronically ill or ailing family member can relate to.

Advertisements and a box related to two patent medicine: Drs. Starkey and Palen's Oxygenaqua (pamphlet, box) and Dr. Walker’s California Vinegar Bitters.

They also resorted to what many desperate people did at the time: patent medicines and other unproven “cures.” One such medicine they wanted Annie to try was Oxygenaqua. She sent a bottle of this liquid to Millie at the State University, so Millie could give it to Prof. E. R. Sill, a friend of the Shinns, who would then pass it along to Prof. W. B. Rising of the Chemistry Department to analyze. Annie refused to try it until she knew what was in it, no doubt because many of the patent meds on the market contained such lovely ingredients as “alcohol, opium, and other narcotics.” While they waited on the chemical analysis, James insisted Annie take a dose of bitters because she appeared “tired of iron,” which she “meekly” took.

***

In spite of her family’s best efforts, Annie died in January 1878 when she was just 21 years old. I’ve looked through every resource at my fingertips (including microfilm, as mentioned in one of my previous entries), but I haven’t been able to find her death notice or cause of death, so at this point we can only speculate. But based on the above points, my best guess would be that she died of TB or TB-related complications.

Her family and friends were deeply affected by her loss. Millie, at that time in her junior year at the State University, stayed home from school for several months after Annie’s death and would take the Fall semester of her senior year off to travel around the East Coast.

Annie’s classmates from the University had a memorial published in the Oakland Tribune the week following her death:

“In Memorium. The following resolutions were drawn up yesterday by the Class Union of 78, of the University of California, to the memory of Miss Annie H. Shinn: ‘Once more we mourn a class-mate. In her death we suffer the loss of an enthusiastic and gifted student, an unselfish classmate and friend, whose character, in its beauty and grace might well lend inspiration to many lives. We reach hands of sympathy to her parents and near friends, wishing that our tribute of grief could lighten their sorrow. Class of '78.’” (10)

She was also included in the following year’s Blue & Gold yearbook on and “In Memoriam” page (left).

I think one of the most touching descriptions of her comes from her father, James. He wrote a letter to a family member several months after Annie’s death, saying:

"We are lonely + sad, + feel our great bereavement in the loss of dear Annie, + shall never forget, tho we endeavor to be reconciled. We never expect to be able to understand why in the wisdom of an infinite + good + wise Heavenly father, she should be taken away, as it would seem to us, before her time. She had every element of mind + heart to enable her with health to be exceedingly useful on earth. Her powers of mind were very rare, very evenly cultured, she had very acute reasoning faculties, a dignified deportment, and in short, all the qualifications, as it would seem usefulness here. But we know He who called her hence, knows better than we do what is for the interest of His kingdom, and as to her we do not doubt but her lot, + her usefulness even, has been greatly improved by the blessed transfer. We love to dwell upon her wonderfully pure life. I can safely say that I never knew her, in her whole life to do a single thing that she thought was wrong! I almost question whether this could truthfully be said of any other person. I never knew another. We do not for a moment question but that she was a sinner, but God only saw her sins. One of the Professors in the University, after she was obliged to come home, in writing to Dr. Clark [Annie’s uncle], respecting her condition + alluding to danger she was in, + to her future among the Angels, went on to say 'But she is an Angel already.'"

        –James Shinn to Hannah (Shinn) Mays, March 24, 1878 (Washington Township Museum of Local History archives)

**Addendum 1/21/2023: While we don't have a death certificate for Annie, I did run across some confirmation from Millie's own pen about Annie's cause of death: In a letter she wrote to Daniel Coit Gilman (then-President of Johns Hopkins University, formerly President of UC Berkeley while Millie was an undergrad), she mentions being "the last of four daughters" and that her "sister had consumption." I'll consider that case closed.

***

That's all I know about her at the moment, but I hope that as I learn more about the Shinns, I'll learn more about Annie. And with that, I'll leave you with a poem written by Annie that was (posthumously) published in a collection of pieces written by undergraduate students at the State University, College Verses.

Hope.

With leaden hearts we bowed and said

The bitter, last farewell;

For blessed Hope, we wept, is dead—

How blessed, who shall tell?

We laid her in the hollow ground,

And turned our heavy feet

From that unshaded, barren mound,

Our desolate lives to meet.

When suddenly, the pathway by,

An unknown form doth rise:

Awe-struck we gaze and trembling cry,

"Lo, Hope's eternal eyes!"

So we beside the grave did stand

That held her other form,

And felt again her kindly hand,

So brave and strong and warm.

And though she outwardly is strange

Hope walks beside us still,

And yet supports at every change

The ever-faltering will.

To-day I sought the place again,

But though for many years

All grass and flowers that grave has lain,

It moves me still to tears.

                                                                Annie H. Shinn, '78

***

Notes

1. The following insights were gleaned from the “Lucy Letters” unless otherwise specified. ↩

2.  An article from the 3/4/1873 Oakland Daily Transcript: “Wants an education.—The educational fame of Oakland has reached the interior confines of Texas. Mr. McChesney, Principal of the High School in Oakland, yesterday received a letter from a young man of twenty-seven, asking if he could be admitted into the schools of Oakland, should he migrate to this place—stating that it was his intention to do so, and as his education had been somewhat neglected, he wanted to secure the advantages of the superior school facilities which Oakland presented. Surely, Oakland is becoming the center of education for the gross Republic as well as the Pacific Coast. We are sorry to say that the age of the applicant will rule him out of the public schools; but there are plenty of private institutions to accommodate him.” ↩

3. According to the 1870 Census, San Francisco’s population was 149,473 and Oakland’s was 10,500. Per the 2020 Census, San Francisco’s population was 873,965, Oakland’s was 440,646. ↩

4. ↩

5. Henry G. Langley, A Directory of the City of Oakland and the Town of Alameda, for the Year Ending December 31st, 1874, Embracing a General Directory of Residents, and a Directory of Streets, Public Offices, Etc. (Oakland, CA: Henry G. Langley Publishers, 1874), http://archive.org/details/bishopsoaklanddi1874dmbi. ↩

6. “Closing Exercises—List of Promotions,” Oakland Daily Transcript, June 7, 1874, sec. Educational, San Francisco Chronicle Historical Archive; Langley, A Directory of the City of Oakland and the Town of Alameda, for the Year Ending December 31st, 1874, Embracing a General Directory of Residents, and a Directory of Streets, Public Offices, Etc. ↩

7. “Oakland High School,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 5, 1872, San Francisco Chronicle Historical Archive. ↩

8. “After Their Rights,” Weekly Colusa Sun, October 1, 1870; Laurie A Freeman, “Every Young Lady Should Be Fitted to Do Something in Life: Pioneer Coed Josephine Lindley and the Decision to Admit ‘Young Ladies,’” 2020, https://150w.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pioneer_coed_josephine_lindley_and_the_decision_to_admit_young_ladies_-_laurie_freeman.pdf; “Chance for the Girls,” Stockton Independent, October 1, 1870; “A Lady Applicant,” Daily Alta California, September 25, 1870. ↩

9. E.g., getting "talked out" by some visitors, skipping Sewing Society so as to not tire herself out, feeling "very nervous" and uncomfortable with a relative speaking openly and at length about his "feelings and symptoms," etc. ↩

10. “In Memorium [Sic],” Oakland Tribune, January 15, 1878, California Digital Newspaper Collection, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=OT18780115.1.3&srpos=1&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22annie+h.+shinn%22-------1. ↩

***

References

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After their rights. Weekly Colusa Sun, October 1, 1870. California Digital Newspaper Collection.

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***

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