Bro. Shilling was born in Stark County, Ohio, April 23, 1840, of sturdy American parents. He attended school in his native county until he was twelve years old, when his parents moved to Cass County, Michigan, where he worked on a farm in the summer and attended school in the winter. At the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted in Capt. Dennison’s Company “M,” First Regiment of Michigan Cavalry, serving till the end of the war. He was made a prisoner at Gettysburg, and incarcerated for eight weeks in Libbey Prison and Belle Isle, Richmond, Va.

After being honorably mustered out, he took a course in Eastman’s Business Collage at Chicago, Ill. In 1866, he emigrated to the Rocky Mountains, settling in Central City, Colorado, where he worked for a few months in a drug store. After this he entered as a messenger in an office of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and learned telegraphy, of which he soon became expert. The first office he had charge of was in Cooper Creek, Wyoming, on the Overland Stage Line.

During the summer of the preliminary survey of the Union Pacific Railroad an Indian uprising occurred, causing much trouble to the surveyors and settlers, and Bro Shilling’s station being in the very midst of the disturbance, he was harassed by the redskins night and day, but always escaped unhurt. Upon completion of the telegraph line to Helena, Montana, in 1873, he filled the position of assistant operator at Helena. From there he went to Idaho and Utah, where he conducted the stringing of an emergency wire for the Western Union to Promontory, Utah, and when on the 10th day of May, 1869, the last (gold) spike was driven on the Union and Central Pacific Railroad, he assisted in telegraphing the news of the completion of the first Continental Railway to all parts of the world.

Leaving the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake, he went to Malad City, Idaho, as telegraph operator, stage and express agent. In Malad he found his future partner through life, Miss Angie Harrison. They were married in 1871. Seven children were born to them.

From Malad he was transferred to the Fort Hall Indian Agency in the same capacity, and by appointment of the United States Government, held the position of licensed trader to the Bannocks and Shoshone Indians. While following his occupation here as operator in 1876, the Custer massacre occurred in Montana; and this being before the day of railroads in Montana, their only route for telegraphic communication was over the Western Union line, constructed in 1865 from Salt Lake City to Virginia City, Montana.

This line having been temporarily constructed to tide over the time when railroad lines would supercede it, was becoming dilapidated and frequently out of repair; and at the time of the massacre the wire was broken between Fort Hall and the next station north, which at that time was Pleasant Valley, Idaho, 125 miles distant. The operator at Pleasant Valley took off the news at his station and turned it over to the stage driver to carry with all dispatch to Bro. Shilling at Fort Hall (or Ross Fork), as was the name of the post-office, and he, Bro. Shilling, telegraphed the news of this cruel massacre to the world. Mr. W. B. Hibbard, superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph company at Salt Lake City at the time, received the dispatch from the wires in the Salt Lake office.

While doing business at Fort Hall, in 1878, the Bannocks went on the warpath, and Bro. Shilling was again in danger of losing his life by the savage Indians. Upon completion of the Utah & Northern narrow gauge railroad, he removed to Blackfoot, Idaho, and was one of the first who erected a nice residence in that then thriving town. In 1880 his fellow Republicans nominated him for the Upper House of the Idaho Legislature; he however, was defeated by a very small majority. He was chairman of the first Board of the Idaho Insane Asylum; but having moved out of the Territory, resigned before the completion of the building. In 1884 he was elected a Delegate from Idaho to the Republican National Convention at Chicago, casting each time his vote for the “Plumed Knight,” whom he considered one of the greatest living Americans.

Bro Shilling removed to Ogden, Utah, in 1885, where he entered into the mercantile and banking business, and in which he was successful, until the disastrous crash came in 1893, which ruined not only him, but many other careful and conservative business men.

At the first election carried by the Liberty party, he was elected Alderman from his ward, and was the acting Mayor of Ogden during the frequent absence of Mayor Bro. F. J. Kiesel. In 1890 he was appointed Regent of the University of Utah; and again in 1892, holding the office four years. He was elected Superintendent of Public schools of Ogden in 1891, and during his incumbency of the office many fine school buildings were erected at an expenditure of over $100,000.

After his failure in business he moved to Washington, D. C., where he occupied a position in one of the Government Departments. But the custom and climate of the East would not agree with him, the “wild and wooly West” suited him best, and to it he turned his footsteps in 1901. He resides now in Ontario, Oregon, where he is engaged in the through-bred cattle business.

March 9, 1880, Grand Master Charles Himrod of the Grand Lodge of Idaho granted a dispensation to Weber Lodge No. 6 to receive and act upon the petition for the three Degrees of Bro. Shilling, who resided then in Ross Fork, Idaho Territory. Receiving the notice of his election he traveled over 150 miles to be initiated, which occurred April 1, 1880; he was passed May 24th, and raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason May 27th of same year. The beloved Bro. Gumpert Goldberg, Master of Weber Lodge, who died in Ogden November 14, 1881, conferred the degrees upon him. The first and only appointed office he held in the Lodge was that of Junior Steward in 1884. He was elected Junior Warden in December, 1885, Senior Warden in 1886, and presided over the Lodge from December, 1887, to December, 1888.

Bro. Shilling never held an appointed office in the Grand Lodge. He was elected Senior Grand Warden January 22, 1890; Deputy Grand Master January 21, 1891, and Grand Master January 20, 1882. He was a painstaking and zealous guardian of the craft. He visited every Lodge in the Jurisdiction, instructed them in the work, and in the kindliest manner advised the officers and members as to their duties as men and Masons, all of which made his administration a successful one for the fraternity, and on account of two events, an auspicious one for himself. The Grand Lodge not having granted a Charter for ten years, it granted one at its Twenty-Second Annual Communication to Tintic Lodge No. 9, at Eureka, which bears his signature as Grand Master.

But fortune smiled upon his administration, on another occasion, an occasion which will doubtless remain in his memory till his clock strikes low twelve. On Pioneer Day, July 25, 1892, at the request of the Liberal City and County Administration, he laid the cornerstone of the City and County Building, the finest public edifice ever erected in this part of the country. The heavy granite stone in the northeast corner of the building bears the following inscription in gold letters: “Laid by the Masonic Fraternity, W. N. Shilling, Grand Master, July 25, A. D. 1892.” It was chiseled in the stone by order of the then Mayor of the City, Bro. R. N. Baskin, and it is hoped that it will never be defaced. The Building Committee, through Mayor Baskin, presented Bro. Shilling, previous to the beginning of the ceremony, with a gavel and trowel made out of Utah mahogany and bound with Utah silver, of which he has reason to be proud.

Bro. Shilling is an honorary member of the Masonic Veteran Association of the Pacific Coast. His Grand Lodge number is 584; Lodge number 63.
The Capitular Degree were conferred upon him in Ogden Chapter No. 2, R. A. M., as follows: M. M. and P. M., April 1st; M. E. M. and R. A., April 21, 1883.

He was Knighted in Utah Commandery No. 1, K. T., Salt Lake City, February 21, 1884, dimitted from it and became a charter member of El Monte Commandery No. 2 at Ogden. He held the office of Treasurer in both these bodies for a number of years.

Brother Shilling dimitted from Weber Lodge No. 6, in 1910. No record has been found as to the date of when and where he died.