The Village of Shelby
Incorporated October 27, 1885
Shelby, originally named Arcade, was a product of the greatest migration in history. In the 1870s, nearly two million people moved onto the Great Plains, then referred to on maps as “The Great American Desert.” The Homestead Act of 1862 promised cheap land to anyone who filed a claim and farmed the land for five years. Thousands of immigrants were lured by the railroads, and the plow broke up the sod and grasses to convert the prairie into farms, gardens, and towns.
In 1874, Horace A. Cowles, a Civil War veteran, set up the Cyclone post office in his home one mile east and one mile south of present-day Shelby. In 1879, with the coming of the railroad, a second post office named Arcade was established one mile east of the present site of Shelby. In the winter of 1880, the post office was moved again a mile west to the present town location to be near the Omaha and Republican Valley Railroad, later the Union Pacific. People renamed the settlement Shelby, after the name of a railroad official, to avoid confusion with the town of Arcadia in Loup County.
Gilbert Van Vorce and Peter Matter owned the land on which Arcade was established. Seeing the need for a trade center, the two men gave the railroad company half interest in their property. The railroad retained 200 feet on each side closest to the tracks, and eight blocks were located on each side parallel to the tracks. The original streets are still present and retain the names of Walnut, Elm, Chestnut, Pine, Cherry, and Oak.
In 1880 the town had a drugstore, hardware store, hotel, boot and shoe shop, livery stable, and a physician. A brick factory provided building materials. In 1889 the “Shelby Sun” was first published. Before 1900 Shelby had its own electric light plant. By 1903 a telephone exchange was established and a water system in 1911. A cement plant, flour mill, planing mill, grocery stores, and a bank were part of town development. In 1926 KGBY, one of Nebraska’s early radio stations was established. The railroad that gave birth to Shelby still runs through the middle of town.
Several Shelby residents have achieved national and international recognition: John Dunning, a nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan project and was awarded the Medal of Merit by the president of the United States; Terrence Duren, a world renown artist; Arjay Miller, president of Ford Motor Company and dean of Stanford Business School; Frederick Eller, a vice president at Kellogg Co.; Curtis Tomasevicz, an Olympic medalist (gold in 2010 and bronze in 2014); Bill Ray, a photographer for LIFE Magazine; Charles Krumbach, a Nebraska state senator from 1902-1914 and Theodore Kiesselbach, a UNL professor who developed hybrid corn for farmers.