Albion Interactive History

James Wadsworth Sheldon, 1830
Died September 26, 1894
James Wadsworth Sheldon was born August 25, 1830 in Parma, Monroe County, New York, and came to Michigan with his parents in 1836. His father was Albion Township's first supervisor in 1837. In 1856 James married Mary E. Peabody, daughter of Tenney Peabody. Sheldon was active in community affairs, and served as president of the Village of Albion from 1868 to 1870. He also served as a treasurer of Albion College for many years. He made his home on the second floor of the ornate Sheldon Block on the N.W. corner of Superior and Erie Sts., which he built in 1872.
Sheldon died September 26, 1894, and is interred in the Sheldon mausoleum at the entrance to Riverside Cemetery. Also interred in the mausoleum is his wife Mary, and her second husband, Henry Ismon, whom she married after James died. It was Mary who built the E.L.T. clubhouse building on S. Clinton Street. James' estate later provided $50,000 for the new Albion hospital, which was built as the James W. Sheldon Memorial Hospital, and opened May 1, 1924.

Source: Frank Passic. Albion's Banks and Bankers. Albion, Michigan: Albion Civic Foundation. 1985.
Sheldon mausoleum at the entrance to Riverside Cemetery.

Damaged skylight to mausoleum.

Portrait of James W. Sheldon at the A.P. Gardner House Museum.

Portrait of James W. Sheldon and Mary Sheldon Ismon being stored in the basement of the Albion College Bobbitt Visual Arts Center.

Details from the painting.
Source: Isaac Kremer, January 2004