Born in Licking county, Ohio, on the 26th of November, 1833, and comes from an old Maryland family. He had a very ordinary common-school education. At fourteen he was employed in a store at Johnstown, and he has made the commercial business his life-work. When of age he left Licking county, came to Corydon, Iowa, and was in the trade twenty-two years. He has carried on farming and stock-raising by proxy while merchandising, and is no doubt the best business man in this vicinity. He has three well improved farms in Wayne county, others in the states of Missouri and Kansas, and was a heavy stockholder in the Wayne County Bank, located at Corydon, which was the county seat. He was its president since its organization in 1875. He had one of the best homesteads in the county. Mr. Selby was elected state senator in 1873, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. M. Read, and served in the fifteenth general assembly, doing good work on four or five committees. He was quite active at times in the Corydon school board, and held other local offices, being a practical, energetic and serviceable citizen, ready for any work that will advance the interests of the town or county. He was a Royal Arch Mason; a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a man of pure and noble qualities of character. In January, 1862, he was joined in wedlock with Mrs. M. L. Miller, daughter of James May, of Pennsylvania, and they have two children.