Cloudy / 57° F
Shelton’s founder reveals secrets of successful business – and life
Published 8:22pm Thursday, July 8, 2010By AARON MUELLER
Niles Daily Star
In 1934, Ethan Shelton was like a lot of Americans struggling to make a living in the midst of the Great Depression.
Living on a cotton farm in Alabama at the time, Shelton went to his wealthy brother-in-law to borrow the $12 he needed to pay his property taxes on the farmland.
“I told him that I would pay him back,” Shelton said. “But he said, ‘I know you will, but you might die.’”
His brother-in-law didn’t loan him the money.
But it’s safe to say at some point over the next 76 years, Shelton would have paid him back.
Shelton, who has lived in Berrien County for the past 63 years, will celebrate his 107th birthday at a open house on Saturday at Denise Shelton Memorial Picnic Pavilion in Berrien Springs.
Even at 107, Shelton has a razor-sharp memory and recalls the challenges of the Great Depression.
Even though he wasn’t able to secure the loan from his brother-in-law, Shelton wasn’t about to quit on his farm. He began selling haircuts for a dime until he had the money.
“At that rate, it took quite a while,” he said with a laugh.
Shelton said the early 1930s that he spent on that farm in Alabama were the most challenging years of his life, but they certainly shaped the man he has become.
“I worked the hardest that year than any year of my life,” he said.
Shelton brought that industrious spirit to Niles in 1947 when he and his wife Rose founded Shelton’s Farms, which has expanded to include Shelton’s Farm Market and Whole Sale Co. The businesses are now owned and operated by his three sons, Ron, Jim and Joe, and grandson Mike.
Shelton’s has become a landmark in the community, and Ethan said the principles the business was built upon have been the keys to its success.
“Don’t tell no lies, be kind to your customer, don’t say something you don’t mean,” Shelton said. “And if (the customers) want something, get it for them, even if it’s quite a bit of trouble.”
Shelton retired in the mid-1960s but is a loyal Shelton’s shopper and has remained incredibly active.
He still works in his garden daily, plays golf, attends church every Sunday and plays a variety of musical instruments, including the mandolin, ukulele and harmonica.
He began his musical career at age 10 when he bought a harmonica from a Sears Roebuck catalog for 11 cents.
But gardening is clearly his passion. Even when he’s feeling tired, he uses his hoe as a walking stick to head back to his 20-row vegetable garden, where he tends his corn, collards, turnip greens, beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, beets and okra.
“But everybody likes the zucchini best,” he said.
Shelton hopes that soon he will be able to produce enough veggies to give some away to each of his more than 100 children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, whom he admits are sometimes difficult to keep straight.
This Saturday’s birthday open house is expected to draw around 200 family members, friends and neighbors. Shelton’s family has been putting on big parties for him every year since he turned 100.
So what’s Shelton’s key to longevity?
“It’s the way you eat and exercise,” he said. “If you eat right and chew your food right that helps. In grade school, our teacher gave us a talking to that I never forgot – chew your food good. Eat slowly. That’s good advice to anybody.”
A hard-working attitude, refusal to quit and warm sense of humor – qualities he has shown for nearly 11 decades – don’t hurt either.
