George M. Shelley

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George Madison Shelley (c. 1850–January 5, 1929) was a Kansas City businessman and Democratic politician who served as mayor from 1878 to 1879.

Shelley was born around 1850 in Calloway County, Kentucky, and grew up in Keokuk, Iowa. He attended schools in Keokuk, then studied at the University of Chicago and Princeton University. After traveling for two years to places like Italy, China, Japan, Australia, Central America, and the West Indies, he moved to Kansas City around 1868–1870. He started as a grocer, then worked in dry goods, and eventually opened Kansas City’s first wholesale dry goods firm at Third Street and Delaware Street.

As a Democrat, Shelley was elected mayor in 1878 and served two terms until 1879. During his time in office, he pushed for a new sewer system and established the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Association to support the needy. He later served as police commissioner for three terms and worked as city postmaster from 1888 to 1900, until President Grover Cleveland removed him due to factional differences.

Shelley ran for mayor again in 1900 and 1904 but was not elected. In 1901, he was elected president of the City Council and Board of Public Works, and he encouraged the Exoduster movement, helping push migration from Kansas City to Kansas. He owned farmland in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, and operated a store in Springfield, Missouri. A fire damaged his Delaware Street business, and he filed for bankruptcy on June 14, 1910. He later managed the Western Mercantile Company until his death.

On December 12, 1872, Shelley married Scioto “Otie” McAdow of Chillicothe, Ohio. They had five children, including James M. Shelley; Otie died in 1907. Around 1917, he married Julia A. W. Baker, editor of Mother's Appeal. In later life, Shelley lived at 3621 Wyoming Street and then at 818 Wyandotte Street in Kansas City. He died after a fall on January 3, 1929, suffering a concussion and shoulder fracture, and passed away January 5 at his home. He is buried at Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery, and Shelley Park in Kansas City was named in his honor.