The next information source is the 1870 census for Lansing, Michigan which lists names, ages, occupations and birthplace for all the family members living at home at the time the census was taken. John and Mary are both listed as born in Ireland and their ages of 56 (1814) and 48 (1822). He is a contractor and she is keeping house. The children are: John Jr., age 22 (1848), overseer, contract road grader and born in Massachusetts; Mary H, age 20 (1850), at home and born in Connecticut; Eugene, age 16 (1854), laborer, born in N.Y.; Barney, age 14 (1856), attending school, born in Michigan; Thomas, age 8 (1862), attending school, born in Michigan; Dennis, age 5 (1865), born in Michigan; and Cora M., age 3 (1867), born in Michigan. Jeremiah N. Shine is not listed with the family, probably because he would be 26 years old and out on his own. We have found no evidence yet as to where he might have been. It is thought he might be looking after a contracting job elsewhere for his father.

We now have a skeleton time and place for the family. They lived in Louisiana in 1844 and had moved to Massachusetts by 1848 when John Jr. was born. They were in Connecticut in 1850 when Mary H. came along and in N.Y. by 1854 when Eugene was born. Two years later, in 1856, they were living in Michigan. There are still many questions to be answered as to the locations in these states and when they moved from one to another. Also, did they live at other locations at any time in between?

According to a marriage certificate, John Shine, Jr. married Ida Meltha Dewey on January 13, 1879 in Lansing, Ingham County, Michigan. John is listed as born in Salem, Massachusetts and Ida’s birthplace as Union City, Michigan. Their ages are shown as 29 for him and hers as 24. It is interesting to note Ida’s middle initial is listed as M on some records and W on others indicating the fancy handwriting used makes it difficult to distinguish between W’s and M’s.

Our next hint of the Shine family history comes from the 1880 census of Lansing, Michigan. John, the father, has apparently died sometime during the past ten years because Mary is listed as widowed. This census also lists the birthplace of the parents of Mary as both being born in Ireland. Jeremiah has come back home and is listed as single and Superintendent railroad construction. Other records show John Jr. married Ida Meltha Dewey in January of 1879 and so would have his own home and is not listed with this family. John Jr. who would now be 32 years of age and Mary H., now 30 is also not listed with the family. She has eluded our efforts to find her after the 1870 census report. Eugene has now become a grocery clerk rather than a laborer and is still single at 26. Barney who is now 24 is also single and an unemployed steam fitter and Thomas at 22 is single and a painter. Dennis at 15 years is a drug clerk and is single as is Cora who is 13 and attending school.

The record of a General Land Office Homestead Land Patent having been issued to Jeremiah Shine on December 10, 1881 has been found. This was filed and granted through the Wall Walla, Washington office for about 80 acres of land just a few miles south of Walla Walla. Copies of the papers of application for this Homestead were obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, these papers are not conclusive proof the Jeremiah Shine granted the Homestead is our Jeremiah Shine. The Homestead was granted as additional acreage to the 80 acres granted Jeremiah Shine from the Boonville, Missouri General Land Office on August 1, 1865. The location of this 80 acres was in Pulaski County, Missouri and was granted on the basis of military service during the Civil War. Notations on the paper work indicated the service was in Company “H”, 165th Pennsylvania Volunteers from October 16, 1862 until July 28, 1863. Another record from the internet indicated Jeremiah Shine served as a substitute for Edgar Jenkins of Conowago, Pennsylvania. If we can get copies of this record of military service, it could provide us proof he is, or is not, our Jeremiah Shine. In other records we find John Jr. and Ida Meltha or Weltha (Dewey) Shine becoming the parents of two daughters. A listing for the Central City, Nebraska Cemetery shows three Shines: John, aged 54, born May 19, 1848 and died October 19, 1902; Ida M., age 29, born October 29, 1854 and died September 9, 1884; and Maydora, age 1,born May 30, 1880 and died September 30 1881. Apparently Maydora was John and Ida's first child and Margaret Daisy the second who was born on May 18, 1883 in Chicago, Illinois.

The Record and Index of Persons Registered and of Poll List of Voters, City of Chicago, Northern District of Illinois for 1892 lists both Dennis and E.P. Shine living together in a residence at 193 Canalport Avenue in the 2nd Ward. It also shows they had been living in that county for 8 years which means they arrived there sometime in 1884.

The marriage of Margaret Cora Shine to Frank Parker occurred on June 21, 1893 in Lone Tree, which was later known as Central City, Nebraska. In February of 1894 Jeremiah N. Shine is a witness to a wedding in Tekoa, Washington. Later that same year Lewis Jerome Parker was born to Frank and Margaret Cora (Shine) Parker. Ida Meltha, or Weltha, (Dewey) Shine died on September 4, 1894.

The next piece of information comes from the marriage certificate of Jeremiah N. Shine and Lillian May Moore. They were married in the Congregational Church in Tekoa, Washington on February 14, 1897.

The marriage return of Jeremiah Shine/Lillian Moore filed with the Whitman County Court House in Colfax, Washington provided some additional information that was different than previously known. The information about the couple to be married was in a handwriting very similar to that of Lillian’s during her later years. Jeremiah’s birthplace in Louisiana was identified as New Orleans. Lillian’s birthplace as Leavenworth, Minnesota rather than Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Her occupation was Milliner (hat maker) and her mother’s maiden name was listed as Lydia Sprigg. The obituary for Lillian’s father, John Moore which was written by the Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons of Washington, stated he married Lydia Monroe in Illinois. This raises a question. Was he married twice? I found the answer to that question while looking through some old notes that had been recorded at least thirty years ago that had been filed away and of course long forgotten. It was actually just a very short note that my grandmother had a step-mother. I am not sure but it must have been the result of conversation with my mother that caused me to write that note about the step-mother. A recent search of the internet uncovered some evidence to support the presumption of two marriages for Lillian (Moore) Shine’s father, John Moore. A GEDCOM submitted to Rootsweb’s WorldConnect program by Marjorie Christiansen ( lists the marriage of John Moore, born in Ohio in 1840 and died in Washington April 26, 1926 to Laminda Ann Sprigg. The marriage took place in Schuyler, Illinois on December 20, 1866. There is also a comment that after a divorce John remarried, in 1876, a woman whose first name was Lydia. All these facts all fit nicely with the other information except for the birth date of 1840, rather than 1838.

The following year, 1898, John Francis Parker was born to Frank and Margaret Cora (Shine) Parker in Central City, Nebraska and Martha Ellen Shine was born to Jeremiah N. and Lillian (Moore) Shine in Mace, Idaho. A son, John Jeremiah, was born to Jeremiah and Lillian (Moore) Shine on October 5, 1899, also in Mace, Idaho.

We get another very small glimpse of Jeremiah N. Shine from an article appearing in the March 1, 1902 issue of the Wallace Press Times of Wallace, Idaho. According to the article “the most terrible fire in the history of the Coeur d'Alenes occurred at Mace shortly after 2 o'clock Tuesday morning.” The article goes on to state the fire was in a boarding house where six men died. Of special note to us is a very long sentence later on in the article. “Jerry Shine, the night watchman of the Standard Mining Company, was probably the first to discover fire coming out of the boarding house, he noticing the flames as he was registering at the tunnel at 2:20, and instantly gave the alarm by firing his pistol a number of times, which called out a number of men at the power plant.”

Frank and Margaret Cora (Shine) Parker had five more children between 1899 and 1908, all in Central City, Nebraska. William E. born in 1901, Bernard L. December 8, 1902, Florian in 1904, Marion in 1906 and Mark in 1908. Also born in 1908 on September 10th in Burke, Idaho was Daisey Beatrice Shine to Jeremiah N. and Lillian (Moore) Shine.

The Idaho communities of Burke and Mace in Northern Idaho are only a few miles apart and about eight miles up a canyon from Wallace which also is situated in another canyon. These two towns are where a number of events in the lives of the family of Jeremiah N. Shine occurred. They were established in the late 1800's because of the rich deposits of gold, silver and lead. An article on Burke written by Greg Schroeder contains the following description:

“The town of Burke, Idaho, is geographically remote and constricted. Located seven miles up a narrow, winding canyon north of the city of Wallace, the town is 3/4 mile long and just over 300 feet wide at its center.”.... “Hard-rock mines, railroads, ore mills, and lumber mills all competed for limited space on the canyon floor.”.... “Retaining walls, like the one surrounding the Hecla Mill, created some level building areas. Multi-level buildings also provided a solution to space shortages. Outhouses were built on stilts over Canyon Creek. Other buildings completely straddled the creek. By necessity, railroad tracks ran right through the center of town. Awnings on west-side shops were retracted to make room for passing trains. Burkes most famous building was the 150 room Tiger Hotel. Not only was the Tiger built over a creek, but it also had a train tunnel running through its center and a road running under its west end.”

Another article about Burke, Idaho and the Tiger Hotel contained these three sentences.

“The Tiger Hotel, located in Burke, Idaho, seven miles from Wallace, was a three story frame hotel with 150 rooms. It was built over the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River, and the Northern Pacific Railroad tracks ran through the lobby. The original Tiger Hotel, named after the Tiger Poorman mine, was built in the fall of 1896, and extended virtually from one wall of the narrow canyon to the other.”

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