JAMES MADISON SHINN.
Judge Shinn was born at Yardell, Newton County, Arkansas, November 14, 1871, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Sanders Shinn.
He was educated in the public schools of Newton and Boone Counties and at the Mountain Home Baptist College. He was admitted to the bar in 1892 at Jasper, where he practiced law and resided until 1900 when he removed to Harrison. He served both as Prosecuting Attorney and Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit, holding the latter office for two terms. He was elected Chancellor for the 11th Chancery Court in the year 1936 which office he was holding at the time of his death at Harrison September 23, 1947.
Judge Shinn was a trial judge for nearly twenty years, serving with entire satisfaction both to the electorate and the bar. He presided over his courts with dignity. His judgments were sound and he exerted throughout his circuit an influence for law and order that long will be remembered. As a man he exhibited qualities of kindliness and compassion, and had a sincere interest in those who were unfortunate and oppressed.
Judge Shinn was a member of the Democratic party. He was a Mason, a charter member of the Harrison Rotary Club, and a member of the First Christian Church of Harrison.
His first wife was Miss Martha Victoria Phillips and in 1936 Judge Shinn was married to Mrs. Agnes Bass who, with a daughter, Mrs. Martha Shinn Saunders, and a son, William Darrell Shinn, of New York City, survive.
Source: Arkansas Law Review and Bar Association Journal, Vol. II, 1947; Pgs. 342-343
NOTE: Martha Victoria Phillips md. James Madison Shinn, 23 Oct 1895, Newton County, Arkansas.
