Floyd Shimalla and the First Manville Police Car (1929)

Floyd Shimalla • Click to Enlarge

Over the weekend I got an amazing email from Tom Schneck. It included this rare photo of his uncle Floyd Shimalla driving around in the first Manville Police car. If you recognize the name Floyd Shimalla that’s because he was Manvilles first constable and is featured in the pretty famous “First Manville Administration” photo that is on display at the Manville Library. I also posted it on this site… you can see it HERE. According to Tom he was also a professional Heavyweight boxer, which I actually was not aware of, but if you ask me is pretty good experience if you are about to serve as the only constable for a brand new town. Anyway, this photo is dated 1929. I’m not sure what that building is in the background there… anyone know? Thanks so much Tom, for this great photo! Here is the back of the photo…

The First Manville Administration

THE FIRST OFFICIAL FAMILY OF THE BOROUGH OF MANVILLE, NEW JERSEY, MAY 1929

TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT – JOSEPH BULAT, Clerk:  CHARLES KUPPER, Engineer:  FLOYD SHIMALLA, Constable:  JOHN JASINSKI, Recorder:  JOSEPH G. WILHOUSKY, Treasurer:  ADAM FUCILLO, Assessor

BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT – GEORGE W. ALLGAIR, Counsel:  JOSEPH ONKA, Councilman:  PETER WHELAN, Councilman:  GUSTAV BOESEL, Mayor:  NATHAN WEISS, Councilman:  BENJAMIN CZAPLICKI, Councilman:  JOSEPH SIDORSKI, Councilman:  JOHN GREASHEIMER, Councilman.

I was able to score this great photo of Manville’s first official administration from the Manville Library’s archive. Once again we owe the libray’s Director Ed Smith a big thanks. They actually have an enlarged version of this photo hanging up in the library as well… so if you want to see a real life reproduction that would be the place. You’ll probably recognize a lot of the names listed in the photo as mostly all of these men have streets named after them. Despite the fact that there were many markings on the back of the photo I could not find anyone to credit the photo to… so if anyone knows please tell me so I can get a proper credit on here. The back did include this little paste over label to include the names… I thought it worthy of inclusion (sorry about the bad photoshop job.) I wish I had this photo earlier as this is basically the godfathers of Manville’s Goverment. Just awesome… both photos are clickable for enlarged versions.