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View Tree for William Dorphus ShelleyWilliam Dorphus Shelley (b. June 03, 1890, d. February 03, 1973)

William Dorphus Shelley (son of James Calvin Shelley and Mary Isabel Johnson) was born June 03, 1890 in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas, and died February 03, 1973 in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. He married Grace B. Stark on August 06, 1911 in Pottawatomie County , Tecumseh, Oklahoma.

 Includes NotesNotes for William Dorphus Shelley:
STORY WITH MENTION OF WILLIAM D. "HEAVY" SHELLEY AND HIS WIFE GRACE
STARK SHELLEY.
William D. "Heavy" Shelley was the son of James Calvin Shelley and Mary
Isetta Johnson Shelley.
James Calvin Shelley was the son of Thomas Shelley and Cordelia Isabelle
Shelley.
POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY OK HISTORY - Me and My Pott County by Francis
Stilley: When I first saw Tecumseh, I thought it to be a very large and
very exciting place. No wonder. I was only five years old, and nothing
in my life up to that time had prepared me for the exalting hurly-burly
of such a bit city. I was all eyes and ears, and doubtless agape. I had
been born in a teeny hamlet of Wardville was hardly more than a
crossroads. Its population was somewhere around 50. About the only
excitement there was on Saturdays in the summertime when a train brought
in a five-gallon shipment of ice cream for a little five-stool cafe. My
first view of the dazzling bigtown Tecumseh was on Sept 23, 1923. I
arrived with my parents, Mabel and William Stilley, in our trusty
road-eating Model T Ford Coupe. It had been a rather arduous all-day
drive over the dusty, bumpy dirt roads of those days. But that mattered
little. We all were too excited about the prospects of our new life in a
new place. It's odd how one often long remembers something of little or
no consequence. A thing about that trip which stuck in my mind was that
around our feet on the Model T floorboard was a batch of potatoes. They
kept rolling around throughout the journey. I'm still puzzled as to why
my folks brought along the potatoes. Dad had become the Rock Island
depot agent at Wardville, and now he was to become agent at Tecumseh. In
time he also was to become an important civic leader. There was a very
special reason why we moved to Tecumseh. It was me. My mother, in her
very forthright way, had made it explicitly clear that we were going to
move to some larger place where her little son could get a decent
education as well as to have the social benefits of growing up with
others my age. In Wardville, I had not had a single playmate because
the few other children lived at some distance. As a result I was shy and
knew not how to relate to others. Furthermore my mother as loving
mothers were given to doing, evidently held the unshakable conviction
that her son possessed extraordinary intelligence and quite possibly a
touch of ............................. Tecumseh, came open at the right
time.
Dad bid on the job and presto! We were on our happy way to Tecumseh,
potatoes and all. Ddad shipped our household goods by boxcar. We arrived
late in the day and our first stop was at the Rock Island depot. Dad
went in to perform the formalities of relieving the outgoing agent. IN
THE STATION ALSO WAS W. D. "HEAVY" SHELLEY, THE LOCAL DRAYMAN. MR.
SHELLEY AND HIS WIFE, GRACE, WERE TO BECOME LIFELONG, DEAR FRIENDS. For
a few nights we stayed in a boarding house in the northeastern part of
town near the business district, then rented a modest frame house a bit
farther away. All this was exciting to me. For one thing, I had never
lived in an ordinary house. At Wardville, the station had living
quarters for the agent on the upper floor. And I had a yard instead of a
station platform to play on. There was more excitement to come. A thing
many people did in those times was to stroll downtown at night. There
they could chat and socialize generally with others, as well as enjoy
the sights and sound of bustling activity. It was sort of like a free
carnival. Many blanket-clad Indians were amid it all. I had never seen
so much commotion in any place before. There were countless wagons and
cars rattling about and scores of people moving along the sidewalks.
Saturday nights were especially big times. Most impressive to me was the
business district itself. I thought it huge. It stretched for two blocks
on both sides of Broadway. There were so many stores. I couldn't count
them. I thought Tecumseh must be the biggest city that could
be...................................................................


MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM D. "HEAVY" SHELLEY AND GRACE STARK:
William D. "Heavy" Shelley was the son of James Calvin Shelley and Mary
Isetta Johnson Shelley.
James Calvin Shelley was the son of Thomas Shelley and Cordelia Isabelle
Shelley.
Certificate lists William Shelley as born in Arkansas and Grace Stark as
born in Iowa.
Married 6 Aug 1911 Pottawatomie, Tecumseh, OK.
Wm was age 21 and Grace was age 17. Both listed as "white."
Witness: Lamar Hatfield and Lena Shelley [his sister], both of
Tecumseh, OK. J. H. Hatfield was Justice of the Peace


OCCUPATION AND LOCATION OF WILLIAM D. "HEAVY" SHELLEY:
William D. "Heavy" Shelley was the son of James Calvin Shelley and Mary
Isetta Johnson Shelley.
James Calvin Shelley was the son of Thomas Shelley and Cordelia Isabelle
Shelley.
1916 - Tecumseh, Pottawatomie OK. [Grace B.] tmstr. r E Jefferson
(found in R. L. Polk & Co. Directory)


BURIAL OF WILLIAM D. "HEAVY"SHELLEY AND HIS WIFE GRACE STARK SHELLEY:
William D. "Heavy" Shelley was the son of James Calvin Shelley and Mary
Isetta Johnson Shelley.
James Calvin Shelley was the son of Thomas Shelley and Cordelia Isabelle
Shelley.
William D. "Heavy" Shelley:
3 Feb 1973 - Masonic emblem on tombstone
Row 10, Block 7, 2nd addition of Tecumseh, Pottawatomie, OK Mission
Cemetery, Vol IV.
Grace B. Stark Shelley:
21 Feb 1966 - O.E.S.
Row 10, Block 7, 2nd addition of Tecumseh, Pottawatomie, OK, Mission
Cemetery, Vol IV.



MARRIAGE OF ROY LEE SHELLEY AND LAURA COGBURN:
Roy Lee Shelley, son of James Calvin Shelley and Mary Isetta Johnson.
James Calvin Shelley, son of Thomas Shelley and Cordelia Isabell.
Roy Lee Shelley was age 21 & Laura was age18 when
they applied for their marriage license on
23 Dec 1918. (Application for marriage license bk 20, pg 67
- Tecumseh, Pottawatomie, OK)


More About William Dorphus Shelley:
Burial: February 1973, Cemetery in Pottawatomie County.

More About William Dorphus Shelley and Grace B. Stark:
Marriage: August 06, 1911, Pottawatomie County , Tecumseh, Oklahoma.
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