Township of Shelby

The first meeting of the town, which was at first Stony Creek, was at Wheeler's Mills, on the first Monday in April; Harvey Tower, chairman. This being the first election of the township, the electors went into caucus, and proceeded to nominate officers, after which they adjourned one hour. They then proceeded to poll the votes, polls closing at "half-past 3 o'clock." $75 was voted to defray town expenses. there were sixteen votes cast, in all, and the elections were practically unanimous. The following was the list of officers: supervisor, Warren Wilder, (now of Whitehall); clerk, Malcolm Campbell; treasurer, James McNutt; justices of the peace, E. Rich, A. R. Wheeler, Jasper Thompson and H. Harris; commissioner of highways, James McNutt, Harvey Tower and W. Wilder; school inspectors, Warren Wilder, Harvey Tower; constables, John Strong, John Stearns. The following is the list of supervisors, clerks and treasurers, to the present time: SUPERVISORS. - Warren Wiler, 1855; Wm. Gardner, 1856; L. D. Eaton, 1867-'58; S. E. Knowles, 1859; H. Hoffman, 1860-'61; BIrd Norton, 1862; Wm. Weston, 1863; Silas C. Powers, 1864; Warren Vradenburg, 1865; Walter H. Churchill, 1866; Parley R. Cady, 1867-'68-9; Andrew Maples, 1870-'71-2; George W. Woodward, 1873-'5-6-7-8-'80-2; A. H. Bearss, 1878; W. H. Barry, 1881. CLERKS - Malcolm Campbell, 1855-'56; Henry Hoffman, 1867; D. M. Merrifield, 1858; George Sembeck, 1859; Wm. Weston, 1860-'61-2; E. W. Elliott, 1863; A. C. Randall, 1864; Orrin Deming, 1865-'66-7-8; W. H. Churchill, 1869-'70-1-2-3-4-7-'81; H. O. Bickford, 1875-'76; Alpheus Neff, 1878-'70-'80; Manly C. White, 1882. TREASURERS - James McNutt, 1855-'56; John Stearns, 1857; L.M. Curtis, 1858; Wm. Gardner, 1859; James McNutt, 1860-'61-2; James A. Hall, 1863; Alva Babcock, 1884; R. Vradenburg, 1865; Clavin S. Reed, 1866; O.G. Marvin, 1867; James S. Runner, 1868; A. H. Bearss, 1869-'72; David Stringham, 1870-'71; Alex Pettinger, 1873-'74-5-6-7-8; Parley R. Cady, 1879-'80; A. Z. Moore, 1881-'82. In 1862 the town of Shelby, (called then Benona) was set off by itself, and there were but eight voters, and all voted for Bird Norton as supervisor. 1863 and 1864 seem to have been years of confusion, as the officers were always resigning. In the latter year there were eleven voters. In April, 1870, a vote was taken to give aid, to the amount of $7,195.20, to the G. R. & L.S. R.R., which was carried, but owing to some legal flaw was never paid. The people of Shelby built the depot, at a cost of $1,200. In 1875 G. W. Woodward, Greenbacker, gained the election for supervisor by thirteen majority over A. H. Bearss, Republican. In 1877 Mr. Woodward on an independent ticket defeated A. H. Lewis, Greenbacker, by thirty-six votes; again in 1879, he defeated W. H. Dunn, Republican, by fourteen votes, and, in 1880 had twenty-two majority over Mr. Dunn. In 1881 W. H. Barry, Greenbacker, defeated P. R. Cady, Republican, by twenty-four votes, and in 1882 G. W. Woodward, Greenbacker, defeated A. H. Bearss, by ninety-five votes. The first settlers in the town were: Silas C. Powers, on Section 1; William Weston, on Section 20; A. C. Randall, on Section 8; Orrin Demming, on the same section; Joseph Adams and Truman Jacobs, on Section 14; Wm. Hand, on Section 9; J.G. weixler, on Section 13, (who still runs a samll tannery); W. H. Churchill, February, 1864; James Runner, March 1864, and Jesse and Abraham H. Bearss, in 1863. Before the railway came, in 1872, there was a nucleus of a settlement at Churchill's Corners, on Section 18, where, besides Churchill, was A. Neff, with a blacksmith shop, and James Williams, with a general store, who afterward moved to Shelby. In 1872 Mr. Churchill built the depot, and a store, in which, with A. Neff, he carried on the hardware business until 1876. Mr. Churchill is postmaster, and besides having held for many years several municipal offices, has been justice of the peace fourteen years, and has been elected for four more years. As showing the rapid growth of the township, we give the names of all the voters in 1864, when Silas C. Powers was elected supervisor. These were: S. C. Powers, A. C. Randall, W. Weston, Joseph Adams, Orrin Demming, M. Forebear, G. Weixler, James Hall, W. Hand, Truman Jacobs and A. Babcock - eleven in all. In 1864, for three months, Mr. Runner was hired to carry the mail to Benona and back, eleven miles each way, for one dollar a trip. Truly, those were the days when men could go a long way - twenty-two miles - for a dollar, and that through trails and pathless woods. Shelby is now quite a mail ditributing-center, receives two mails on the railway daily, also by stage thrice a week, to Ferry, and to Marshville, and once a week to Oceana. The first hotel may be said to have been at Churchill's corners, near the present village, where W. H. Churchill, that vigorous pioneer, entertained travelers, from December 15, 1866 until 1872, when the railway arrived. The house was built of logs, in 1864, on the northwest corner of Section 10, when there was not a road in the township. In the Fall of 1865 the state road was opened from Whitehall to Hart, and in the Spring of 1866, the first mail route was established, with poistoffice at the "Shelby House," (churchill's), and James Roddy, of Pentwater, first stage-driver. In the Fall of 1872 the first hotel in the village was built, by A. M. Savage, and called Shelby House. M. L. Page built, in 1876, the Elliott House, kept by Elliott, now of Pentwater, then by Mr. Collins, who has just been succeeded by George Schuler, of Mears. The first birth in Shelby was that of a son of A. C. Randall. The first death that of a man named Fowler, killed in 1858, by a falling tree. The first cemetery was on John Randall's farm. The first hotel in the village was built by A. M. Savage. The first postoffice at Churchill's, in 1866. The first hardware store by Churchill & Neff. First schoolhouse in 1862, on Section 18. First church, the Congregational, in 1875. Shelby can boast of a commodious school building, built last year at a cost of $4,000. The teachers this year are Ambrose Hughes and Misses Luke and Billings. This is the fourth school building, each of which corresponded to the progress of the place. The first was built in 1862, on Section 18, and was a very humble and primitive affair, being built of logs, with elm bark for the floor, and the same material for the roof. This was built half a mile of the village. The next was on the southwest corner of Section 10, of logs, with board floor, but still with a bark roof, and was built in 1864. The next was a frame building, near the site of the present school, built in 1873. The churches in Shelby are two,- the Congregational, built in 1875, and the Methodist, in 1880.