Michigan Transportation History

Horace E. Shutts

See also
Ypsilanti Sanitarium
Occidental Hotel

PersonPublic

The following is a reprint from

Beakes, Samuel W. Past and Present in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Chicago: S. J. Clark, 1906.

HORACE EDWARD SHUTTS.
Horace Edward Shutts, proprietor of the Occidental HotelHotelierBusinessYpsilanti, the leading hostelry of Ypsilanti, is a native son of Michigan, his birth having occurred in Plymouth on the 20th of September, 1855. His father, Martinus L. Shutts, was a farmer by occupation. He married a Miss George and removed with his family to Ypsilanti during the infancy of his son Horace. The father, however, has now passed away.

At the usual age Horace Edward Shutts entered the public schools of Ypsilanti and acquired a good practical education. He has been engaged in various business enterprises in Detroit, Chicago, and other cities and is now proprietor of the Occidental Hotel, which he has managed for the past three years. This is the leading hotel of Ypsilanti, located at Nos. 16 to 24 North Huron street and in connection therewith he conducts a first class billiard hall and bowling alleys. There is probably no better criterion of the growing and prosperous condition of a town or city than its hotel interests. The town which is self-centered, having no connection with the outside world, is unprogressive, its business stagnates and its residents become lacking in enterprise, but if connected with outside affairs, travel and trade add new life and energy and there is demand for entertainment on the part of the visitors which makes good hotels a necessity. A little thoughtful consideration of the career of Mr. Shutts brings one to the conclusion that he has in most of his business operations been impelled by the spirit of the pioneer, having sought out new plans and new conditions likely to favor his projects. He has made of the Occidental Hotel one of the best establishments of the kind in this part of the state. It is a forty-room house, centrally located, and its cuisine and other appointments furnish the best service possible.

Mr. Shutts was married to Miss Nellie M. Moorman, of Ypsilanti, and unto them have been born four children: Carl, nineteen years of age, who is engaged in business in Salt Lake City; Genevieve, who at the age of seventeen, is attending school at Ypsilanti; Don, fifteen years of age, and Helen, thirteen years of age, also attending school. Mr. Shutts is a member of the uniformed rank of the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In the conduct of a well managed house he shows that he is a model landlord, giving due attention to the wishes and comforts of his guests. Moreover a cordial manner and genial disposition render him personally popular with his many patrons.

Shutts along with Allen Bagley received in 1885 a Canadian patent for an improved fishplate, a railroad rail joiner.1Inventor

 

1. Patent #22513, September 22, 1885, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trademarks, Volumes 12-13, October 1885, p. 417.

Citation: When referencing this page please use the following citation:

R. D. Jones, "Horace E. Shutts," Michigan Transportation History (Ypsilanti, MI: 2020), www.michtranshist.info/.

Unless otherwise noted all content on the Michigan Transportation History site is Copyright © 2020.
Page last modified on October 26, 2020, at 11:31 AM EST


Page last modified on October 26, 2020, at 11:31 AM EST