Shinah Solomon Etting

Shinah Solomon Etting (December 24, 1744 – November 30, 1822) was the matriarch of one of the first Jewish families to live in Baltimore, Maryland.

Biography Etting was born in New York City to Lancaster merchant Joseph Solomon and Bilah Myer-Cohen Solomon. She had two brothers, Isaac (1742–1798) and Levy (1748–1827).

She and her husband ran a small store in York where they hosted Alexander Graydon in the summer of 1773. He wrote about the pleasant hospitality he received in the Etting home, saying that Shinah in specific was "always in spirits, full of frolic and glee, and possessing the talent of singing agreeably...." Using her inheritance, she had a small boarding house built to her specifications, "for gentlemen." She took in boarders, among them Judith Cohen, the widow of Israel Cohen, and her children; both families had sons who rose to prominence in Baltimore. Etting used the profits from her successful inn to assist her two prominent sons in their business ventures.

Etting had her portrait painted twice by Charles Peale Polk in the first half of the 1790s. One of the paintings is considered "one of his more successful portraits."

Her son Solomon and her brother Levy purchased the "Jew's burying ground" in Baltimore in 1801. Solomon Etting and Jacob Cohen were elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1826 a few months after the state constitution was amended to modify the requirement that elected officials swear a "Christian oath." Her son Reuben was appointed United States Marshal for Maryland by President Jefferson in 1801 and served through 1804.