Ionia-Eaton County MI Archives Biographies.....SHILTON, Iril 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
LaVonne Bennett lib@dogsbark.com February 6, 2007, 11:18 am

Author: THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR, December 1971, Volume 7, Number 3; submitted with permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins

GETTING STARTED IN SEBEWA by Iril Shilton:

About 75 years ago my father, Andrew Shilton, bought 40 acres in Sebewa and 
moved his family here from Orange Township.  The 40 acres was located at the 
west end of York Road.  His family consisted then of my mother, Hattie, my 
elder brother Ernest and myself.  The land near the road was low and swampy, so 
the site for our first living quarters was on a knowll in the woods about 40 
rods west of the road.  A lane was made back there from the road.

After my father had bought the land, there was little money for anything else.  
Our first winter was spent in a tent that my father rigged up.  The tent had 
room for four of us.  It was square and had a stove in it that kept us warm---
sometimes too warm.  There was a shield for the stovepipe to keep it from 
setting fire to the tent.

That fall a tall, lanky half-breed Indian came through the woods gathering 
herbs, which he would sell to Indian doctors.  Ernie and I were scared of him 
at first but we soon got to know him and took a liking to him.  He sometimes 
gave my father herbs that "would cure our ailments".  He asked my father if he 
could pitch his tepee nearby and stay the winter.  His wigwam was covered with 
skins and as he had a surplus of skins he gave my mother some to cover our 
floor.  That made our tent more comfortable and cozier than before.

The next spring my father had Jimmie Creighton saw out some lumber from our 
timber to build us a house.  It was rough lumber, 15' x 20' house of a story 
and a half.  Ernie and I slept in the loft and reached it by a ladder in the 
corner.

When it came time to go to school we found we were in the Travis District and 
we started at that school.  There were a lot of big boys at the Travis who 
seemed to enjoy making it tough for the little fellows.  My father decided 
enough was enough and he had a solution.  Our new house was built on a 
foundation of wood blocks.  By fitting a pair of skids under the house and 
using three teams of horses and moving the house a short distance, we began 
living in the Sebewa Center District and finished our schooling there.  Later, 
by skidding the same house between the stumps and stones, it was drawn to the 
location where I live and became a part of this house.  I wish I could remember 
the name of that half-breed Indian.

(Iril Shilton will celebrate his 80th birthday in this December.  The 
annoucement and celebration last year were premature.)

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/bios/shilton472gbs.txt

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