Mecosta County MI Archives Biographies.....Shields, James November 27, 1845 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Jan Cortez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00020.html#0004939 April 7, 2009, 11:22 pm

Author: Chapman Brothers

JAMES SHIELDS, of Big Rapids, was born in Norfolk Co., Can., Nov. 27, 1845.  
He is a 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 Co., 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 on the 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 
married in Norfolk Co., Can., 

June 10, 1867, to Mary A., daughter of William and Eliza Bunnings, born at 
Buffalo, N.Y., Nov. 3, 1848.  

Their children are Minnie E., Anna M., John A., Edith M., James A., William A. 
and an infant not named.

Additional Comments:
1883 Portrait & Bio Album of Mecosta Co., MI.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/mecosta/bios/shields494nbs.txt

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