Mead Relations book indicates his death as Oct. 20, 1901. In 1870 his family was living with his mother Sophia Brown Mead Chinn in Greenup County, Kentucky, listed as a farmer. He and his wife had 16 children. There is a large published photograph of him and his family (c.1897) with article in the Russell Times (Kentucky) of June 3, 1955. (see picture).

An unsuccessful law suit was brought by his wife after his accidental death and the following is the published decision:

24 Kentucky.L.Rptr. 2350

CHINN'S ADM'X v. CHESAPEAKE & O. RY. CO.
Court of Appeals of Kentucky.
May 5, 1903.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Greenup County.
Action by Thomas W. Chinn's administratrix against the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company. From a judgment in favor of defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.
W. T. Cole and A. E. Cole & Son, for appellant. W. H. Wadsworth and E. L. Worthington, for appellee.
BURNAM, C. J.

Appellant, as plaintiff in the court below, sought in this action to recover damages of the defendant for the death of her husband, which she charges was due to the negligence of defendant's employees in running an engine against him in their switchyard near the village of Russell, in Greenup county. The lower court, at the conclusion of plaintiff's evidence, instructed the jury to find for the defendant, which was done. The only question presented on this appeal is whether there was evidence conducing to show any legal liability on the part of appellee for the injury complained of.

The testimony conduces to show that the defendant railway company maintained a switchyard outside of the corporate limits of the town of Russell, which runs parallel with a public road for about a mile, and which is separated from it by a wire fence; that frequently, when the county road is very muddy, persons travel through the switchyard, between the main railroad track and this fence. It also appears that unauthorized persons frequently passed through and across the switchyard. On the morning of October 20, 1901, just prior to the accident, plaintiff's intestate, Thos. W. Chinn, was standing between two of the tracks in the yard, which were 8 feet 7 inches apart, with a wheelbarrow, which he had taken into the yard, without permission from the railroad authorities, for the purpose of picking up coal which had fallen off of cars loaded with coal. A freight train, composed of about 40 cars, was moving slowly to the west on the track north of him, and he appeared to be looking at the wheels of the cars as they passed. Just before the last of this train passed him, a yard engine, with 8 or 10 loaded coal cars, going east on the track south of him, approached. This engine was ringing her bell, and had blown her whistle about 70 yards before it got opposite to the point where decedent was standing. J. H. Stephens, the fireman on this locomotive, who was introduced as a witness for the plaintiff, testified "that the decedent was standing with his wheelbarrow about middleways between the two tracks, with his back to the track on which the switch engine was moving, and that he saw that he was not noticing the approach of the switch engine, and that he thought he might step backward, and that as they were within four or five feet of him he called to him to look out; that just at that moment he stepped backward against the side of the passing locomotive, and was struck by it and knocked down." There is substantially no variation from this testimony as to how the accident occurred. The engineer operating the locomotive, who was also introduced as a witness by the plaintiff, testified that he saw the deceased and others standing between the tracks for about 100 yards before he was struck, but that he was in no danger if he had remained in this position; that the locomotive was going at the rate of six or seven miles an hour; and that it was impossible to have stopped the train after the fireman called to the decedent to look out. It seems to us that there can be no room for a difference of judicial opinion, under this state of facts, as to the cause of the accident, or that it was due to the contributory negligence of the decedent. A railroad company is entitled to the unobstructed use of its private switchyards, and is under no obligations, in moving its engines and trains, to take special precautions or give special warning to avoid injuring any unauthorized person who may for his own purpose or convenience go therein, until the presence of such person in a situation of danger has been discovered. See Thompson on Negligence (2d Ed.) § 1760; McDermott v. Railroad County (Kentucky.) 20 S. W. 380; Kentucky. Central R. County v. Gastineau's Adm'r, 83 Kentucky. 119; Brown's Adm'r v. L. & N. R. County (Kentucky.) 30 S. W. 639.

After a careful consideration of the testimony in this case, and the able brief filed by counsel for appellant, we have reached the conclusion that the trial court did not err in directing the jury to find a verdict for the defendant. Judgment affirmed.
Kentucky. 1903.
CHINN'S ADM'X v. CHESAPEAKE & O. RY. CO.
END OF DOCUMENT
Excerpt from: 74 S.W. 215 to 74 S.W. 215, *216


OBITUARY:
The Ironton [Ohio] Register, Thursday, October 21, 1901
"THOMAS W. CHINN was born July 21, 1837; died October 20, 1901.
You may think I do not miss you
But then I can but weep
When I think of my dear father
In that long and deathless sleep.
Gone but not forgotten.
May his soul rest in peace.
Mary M. Chinn"
(likely his daughter Mariah/Marie Chinn]