Died: about 1905
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| Unmarked field stone |
Born in Saline Co. MO, Beulah was the third child of George W. Chinn and Ella May McGuire, who married in Saline CO. in 1889. There appears to be no record of either parent's time and place of death, but the grandparents are known on both sides. Ella's father was Samuel Newton McGuire of Saline and Johnson counties in Missouri, and George Chinn's father was Hector Chinn of Lafayette County Missouri.
The only census on which Beulah appears is the 1900, when the whole family (including three siblings) are living in Monarch, Chaffee County, Colorado. By 1910, she was dead. Bessie McCorkle Gibson (Mrs. Joe Gibson) spoke of her as a child, so her death year would be about 1905.
Beulah's siblings were Roy G., Russel E., Jesse Harmon, and Laura, all born between 1890 and 1908. Russell died in Tulsa in 1924 and Roy died in Delta, Colorado, in 1979. Roy married Minnie Mae Bragg.
The story of the Chinn family centers on Chaffee County, Colorado, which was mining country. In February of 1900 George struck it rich there, at least according to a letter he wrote to the Chandler News. The information appears to be confirmed by later articles in the Colorado Springs Weekly Gazette, one of which mentions that one Chinn's two partners sold his share of the mine for $250,000. Chinn's letter to the Chandler News says he's returning to enjoy his prosperity.
Something is wrong with this story, however, as there is no sign that Chinn enjoyed any prosperity in Lincoln County. In August of 1901, Ella sued him for divorce, and the next month was awarded custody of the children. In December of 1903, both George and Ella are listed as delinquent in their tax payments. In January of the next year, the Chandler News is asking, no doubt ironically, where "Millionaire Chinn" has gone. The article states that he had started for New York to sell stock in his mines and never returned. In the records, he next appears on the 1920 census, living with his son Russell in Osage Co. His year and place of death are not known.
A few years after her divorce from George Chinn, Ella was living in Chandler working for the Barker House, a boarding house on Manvel Avenue run by James Barker and his wife. On the 1910 census Ella appears as a servant, her three boys as sons of James Barker, and her two-year-old girl as James Barker's daughter. Barker was also a reverend, so one supposes that this was a loose, familial arrangement by which he kept his boarding house staffed and took care of the children of his employees.
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