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Mancelona Chamber of Commerce Receives Junk Mail Addressed to Village’s Founder

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We all get junk mail every now and again, and sometimes, it’s not even addressed to us.

But how about junk mail addressed to someone who’s been dead for almost 150 years?

The Mancelona Chamber of Commerce received a letter from Chase Bank to apply for a credit card. The addressee was Mr. Perry Andress, who’s one of the town’s founders.

“It’s definitely been a great conversation piece for us,” said Mancelona Chamber of Commerce Director Joanie Moore. “A few years ago, we started getting mail addressed to Perry Andress, and of course it kind of made me curious where are they getting his name.”

Andress’ story in northern Michigan starts in 1869.

“Perry Andress moved here from Missouri in 1869,” said Mancelona Area Historical Society President Herbert Tipton. “He built the first dwelling and it’s just east of Mancelona up on the hillside.”

Andress moved to northern Michigan with his wife and his daughter–who was named Mancelona.

“They took the name from her for the town,” said Tipton. “He was really active in politics, leadership and stuff, and was quite active in development of Mancelona.”

Andress died in 1881, and there’s no one with the last name Andress in the area.

So why is he still getting mail—especially to the Chamber of Commerce?

“Perry Andress wasn’t really associated with the chamber,” said Moore. “He’s on the chamber website in the history pages, but it’s not like there’s a database out there that shows that he was a president or a board member of anything.”

Moore has a few theories on why Andress’ name keeps popping up, though.

“Bots are scanning billions and billions of pages. They’re grabbing names off of websites and then attaching it to the address whatever’s on there,” said Moore. “I’d like to know if he can get a credit, I’d love to apply for one and see if he gets credit!”

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