In time, John McCabe purchased the interests of three of the pioneers and Sandy Branch became an estate.  A village began to appear when the Long family dammed Sandy Branch, a tributary of the Sinepuxent Bay, for a mill pond to operate a grist mill and sawmill near where Phillip C. Showell School is today.  then came a blacksmith shop owned by John McCabe Sr. who was a soldier in the revolution.

    Later, on a trip to Philadelphia in 1842, Sampson Selby, who had established a country store at Sandy Branch, was responsible for the changing  of the name from Sandy Branch to Selbyville.  Selby, after buying his stock of molasses, calico, muslin, rum, tobacco, flour, and other goods in the Quaker City, ordered, "It will be shipped by Indian River vessel and hauled to where I'm opening a country store.  Mark it 'Selby-Ville'."

                                                                                                Compiled by
                                                                                                        Fred Stevens 1989