My Genealogy Hound

C. R. CHINN, dry goods merchant, Webb City, Mo., is a native of Henry county, Ky., and was born where the town of Eminence now stands, Aug. 17, 1833. His father, W. S, Chinn, was from Norfolk, Va., coming to Kentucky in an early day. C. R.’s grandfather, Thos. Chinn, was also a Virginian, who, coming west in the early times, stopped first in Kentucky, then in Indiana, at Indianapolis, and from there to Muscatine, Iowa, where he died in 1837, at the age of eighty-five. Shortly after their marriage in Kentucky, W. S. and family came to Missouri and settled in Shelby county, where he assisted in laying out the county seat, and was one of the first judges of the county court. He gave it the name of Shelby in remembrance of his Kentucky home, which was Shelbyville. C. R. Chinn, the subject of this sketch, is the youngest of a family of ten children, six of whom are now living. He was reared and educated in the schools of Shelby county, this state. He engaged in the mercantile business first at Kirksville, Mo., in 1855, and for three years he followed the dry goods trade in that place. In 1860 he was elected treasurer of Adair county on the Independent ticket, and served two years. In the spring of 1862 he went west and spent a few months among the mountains, but finding no place to suit him so well as Missouri, he returned to Shelby county, and for seven years engaged in the mercantile trade at Clarence, Shelby county. He then returned to Kirksville, doing business in that city for three years. In 1877, seeing a favorable opening at Webb City, he located here, and now carries the largest stock of dry goods in the city. August 3, 1853, he was married to Miss Milissa Sodowsky, in Jasamine county, Ky. She is of Polish descent, but the family settled in Kentucky at an early day. They have one son, W. S., born Jan. 16, 1855, now a partner in the clothing firm of Parker, Chinn & Co., of this city. C. R. and wife are members of the Christian Church. He is a Master Mason, and now S. W. of the Webb City Lodge, of which he is a charter member. He is also a member of the I. O. O. F. He has always been a Democrat in politics, and is an active, progressive man, taking an interest in all that tends to advance the community in which he resides.