James Shields

GEDCOM Note

The 1884 Big Rapids Directors said that James Shields owned a saloon on e s 4th avenuse 3 S of Baldwin. His residence was on the corner of Poplar and 4th Avenue.

James was born in Vittoria, Ontario, Canada. On October 16, 1999 Sandy Wigent visited his birthplace. It reminded her of a Greenfield Village near Dearborn, Michigan. There are many old buildings there with signs near them, telling us what they were used for, how old, etc. It is said that Lynedoch was at one time, the centre of the lumbering operations.

NOTES FROM MECOSTA COUNTY, MICHIGAN ALBUM, Chapman Brothers, 1883

Son of Archibald and Frances (Reed) Shields, and his father's calling was that of a wagon and carriage maker. At the age of 19 he engaged as traveling salesman for a hardware firm, where he continued three years. In 1867 he opened a hotel in Norfolk County., which he conducted 18 months, and then, in company with Andrew Lees, he engaged in buying lumber, ties, pail, shingle, cord wood, etc., for the market, and was thus occupied three years. In 1874, he came to Grand Rapids, and was there engaged in buying and selling garden products. Three years later he went to Morley for the purpose of buying a farm; was there taken sick and continued ill about seven months. This disaster put an end to his finances and to his agricultural projects. His next removal was to Greenville, where he engaged as a farm laborer one season. He opened an eating house at Greenville, which he managed 18 months, going thence to Lakeview, in the same county, where he built a grocery; he ran it a few months, and exchanged the property for a farm of 80 acres in the township of Hinton. He there built another store and conducted a mercantile business with a satisfactory degree of success, selling chiefly at auction, having a particular talent for that method of disposing of goods. Mr. Shields came to Big Rapids in the fall of 1880, purchased a store on Maple Street and put in a stock of groceries. He continued to operate there ten months, when he exchanged his business and fixtures for 35 acres of land in the Fifth ward, which is still in his possession. In the fall of 1881, he embarked in another grocery enterprise ont he east side, where he did business nearly a year. He bought the site now occupied by his store, erected the building, put in a stock of groceries and operated until the spring of 1883, when he again sold and began to deal in liquor and all the articles common to a first-class saloon. Mr Shields was elected Alderman of his ward in the spring of 1883. He was marred in Norfolk Co., Canada, June 10, 1867, to Mary a., daughter of William and Eliza Bunnings, born at Buffalo, NY, November 3, 1848. Their children are Minnie E., Anna M., John A., Edith M., James A., William A. and an infant not named. NOTE: Infant not named would have been Doc Keam Shields or Irwin Paul.

NOTES FROM SANDY WIGENT'S SEARCHES IN OCTOBER 1998

- James Shields was Mayor of Big Rapids 1896 and 1897. - The large Shields marker in Highland Cemetery in Big Rapids has a Mason sign on top of it. - In another lot, next to the one James is buried in, Highland Cemetery in Big Rapids are two other people buried: 1. Katie Shields, Battle Creek, 49 years old, died 7/16/1924, buried 7/18/1924. 5 feet from North Side, Lot F, Block M 2. Eno Frances James, 70 years old, Battle Creek, Died 8/20/1967, buried 8/22/1967. Lot F. - James Shields brought the 1st lot at the cemetery on June 23, 1885 for 12.50 ples prep care of 12.50 for a total of $25.00 - He bought the adjacent lot on March 9, 1891 as well.

NOTES FROM HAZEL SCHUETTE

James was born in Ireland and came to the US when he was a young man. He settled in San Angelo, Texas.

He was a butcher by trade and owned and operated a shop in San Angelo, Texas.

He moved his family to Big Rapids, Michigan and had eight children. Mary (his first wife) died when the youngest child, Doc Shields, was 5 years old.

James remarried and had one son named Foster.

James Shields was a very large man with very BIG hands. He had a ruddy complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes.

He was at one time Mayor of Big Rapids and a close Freind of Mr. Ferris of Ferris Institute. According to relatives, he was co founder of this college. Hazel Schuette had never found no evidence to substantiate this claim.

Lynn Thrasher said that James Shields and Mr. Ferris (of Ferris College) pushed carts around town selling vegetables. James wanted to open a meat market, so his wife cut open the mattress and pulled out $800. After that he had a chain of meat market. He once offered his son, Doc Keam Shields, ownership of one in Texas if he would stay a year and run it. Doc chose not to do it. The Shield's boys were like outlaws according to what Lynn's mom, Eunice, told him (of course she divorced out of that family). Lynn remembers hearing that the Shield's boys would buy insurance on buildings and low and behold they would be burned down. One time they hired a kid to ride a horse from Battle Creek to Marshall for sale. The kid ran the horse so hard one day in the summer. The horse drank from the fountain in Marshall and dropped dead. The guys in the bar took up a collection by passing a hat to hellp the Shields boy not take a loss on the dead horse.

GEDCOM Note

GEDCOM Source

Both Big Rapids records and Crawford Cemetery, Raleigh Township, Canada Records says B. 1845

GEDCOM Source