Bushel baskets of peaches fill the floor of a packing house in Shelby, Michigan, as workers sort and load fruit for shipment. The handwritten caption reads, “Packing Fruit — Mylie Bros., Shelby, Mich.” with an arrow pointing to “Peaches.”
Even better, the back tells a personal story: a woman named Mary Pollitt wrote this card in Shelby on June 20, 1917, calling it a birthday greeting and saying the scene is “John’s packing house” — and that John is the one holding the basket (no last name given).
Shelby sat in West Michigan’s Lake Michigan fruit belt, and packing houses like this were essential for grading and moving crops quickly. A later Farm Bureau report noted Shelby’s cooperative packing operation expanded its facility in the 1920s.
What do you know about the Mylie Brothers — or who “John” might have been?
#ShelbyMI #OceanaCounty #MichiganHistory #PeachSeason #VintageMichigan
