Shelbyville emerged in the eighteen seventies with the arrival of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad and was named for the first station agent, Mr. Shelby, with “ville” added because another Michigan town already bore the name Shelby. It became one of the largest shipping points between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, with livestock yards just south of the depot where cattle, hogs, and sheep were gathered for shipment. The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad depot was built in Martin Township on the southwest corner of 124th Avenue and the railroad tracks, and the first wood-burning engines arrived in 1871. The D.D. Harris store, built in 1881 by Schroeder and Olin of Galesburg, Michigan, was taken over by D.D. Harris in 1882 as a general store. Postal service began with Leonard Doxey, appointed first postmaster in 1871 and serving from his residence for thirteen years, followed by Fremont Young. In 1886 D.D. Harris became postmaster and served through his general store; in 1901 he was authorized by the Postmaster General in Washington, D.C. to establish Shelbyville’s first rural delivery route, which began on February 1, 1902. Fred H. Herbert became the first rural mail carrier at an annual salary of $500.00 including horse hire, traveling a twenty-five-mile route with one hundred forty stops by horse and covered wagon and later by motorcycle. James E. Adams was appointed rural carrier in 1906 and served for thirty-two years until 1938, while D.D. Harris served as postmaster for a total of forty-nine years until retiring in 1940, except for a four-year interruption during the Cleveland administration. From 1915 to 1926, the Michigan Electric Railway Company’s Interurban depot stood just west of Tenth Street on the south side of 124th Avenue, serving travelers between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids and from Allegan through Monteith Junction to Jackson, and Shelbyville became a favorite stop for vacationers heading to Gun Lake. In the nineteen thirties and forties, Dad’s Place at the northwest corner of Tenth Street and 124th Avenue sold sandwiches, beer, wine, and gasoline, and business continued there later as the Shelbyville Tavern. The Shelbyville Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1885, with Reverend L.W. Calkins and many members credited for its construction; D.D. Harris donated nails, hardware, lathe, and plaster, lumber for the pews and altar came from the Meredith farm, Walter Meredith built the railing, and Ben Smith donated the bell, which was hastily installed so it could toll at his funeral. Walter Meredith built his home in 1882–83 from locally cut and sawn timber at a cost of $4,000, finishing it in cherry, oak, and black walnut, with a black walnut staircase made from lumber from the John C. Wheeler farm; he and Mrs. Meredith operated the house as a hotel for several years. A large two-story brick schoolhouse was built on the northeast corner of Tenth Street and 124th Avenue in 1915 to replace a white frame building moved there in 1885, and classes continued there until 1944, when the district was consolidated with the Wayland Martin School Districts.