Shelby county was named in honor of Isaac Shelby, an officer, of considerable distinction in the Revolutionary war, as also the war of 1812. He was also the governor of Kentucky.
The county was originally level forest land, with fertile bottoms along the streams, from half a mile to two miles in width. The uplands are elevated about forty feet above these bottoms. The soil in the bottoms is a rich dark loam, with a slight mixture of sand; on the upland there is much clay, covered with dark much, which requires drainage before it could be successfully cultivated. The timber in the bottoms was principally walnut, ash; etc.; on the uplands, beach, oak and hickory were the distinguishing features of the forest. It is a first rate farming county, in almost every respect.
        Shelbyville, the county seat, was laid out on the fourth of July, 1822, on a donation of

land made by John. Hendricks, James Davison, and John 0. Walker. The commissioners appointed for that purpose, were Ebenezer Ward, of Bartholomew county; Benjamin J. Blythe, of Dearborn county; Amos Boardman, of Ripley county; George Bentley, of Harrison county, and Joshua Cobb, of Delaware county. They met at the house of David Fisher, July first, and after four days deliberation decided upon the location of the county seat, where it at present stands, giving it the name of Shelbyville, a double honor to the venerable and patriotic ex-governor of Kentucky, Isaac Shelby. Jacob Wetzel, of the noted Indian fighting family of that name, on learning of the treaty of October, 1818, had blazed a trace from Jehu Perkins , on the old boundary line, to the bluffs of White river, about eighteen miles below the present site of Indianapolis. Richard Thornburg settled the same fall on Flat Rock, and James Wilson the same fall also on Blue river, the Wetzel trace crossing at both places. B. F. Morris was the first surveyor; Capt. McLaughlin, one of his assistants, camped on Wilson's place in November, 1818. He put his field notes and some other papers and valuables in a keg and concealed it, together with a hatchet, on the creek near his camp, when he left the neighborhood for the winter, and on returning in the spring found them safe and uninjured.
James Wilson may be regarded as the first settler. He came from Jefferson county, Ind., in 1819, and he induced Bennett Michael, a shoemaker, to settle near him; also John Forman, Benjamin Castor and John Smith, who came afterwards. Isaac H. Wilson, a son of James, who was born in Jefferson county in 1807, and came to Shelby county with his father, is still living in Shelbyville. He informed me that Indians were occasionally met with when he first came to the county. He frequently saw Joseph White-eyes, a Delaware chief, who had a son called Charles and a grandson named James, who was red headed. Two Indians, known as Cuman and Pishaw, lived on Blue river, a few miles from his father. They had very handsome half breed wives. On one occasion Mrs. Wilson invited them to visit her, which they did, riding upon ponies in gaily decorated side-saddles. They were very tastefully dressed, and wore silver brooches on their arms, and neat slippers fastened to the feet with silver bands, and exhibited a good breeding and politeness that might have excited the envy of their more civilized white sisters.
        Marion is the oldest town in the county. It was laid off in 1820, on the south-west quarter of section twenty, township thirteen north, of range seven east. John Sleeth was one of the original proprietors. His daughter Nancy was the first person married in the county; she was married to Abel Summers, May fifteenth, 1822, by Rev. Henry Logan, then living near the Bartholomew county line.
        After 1828, Shelby county increased rapidly in population and wealth, and it still continues to thrive. Today, the railroad facilities of Shelbyville, and also of Shelby county, are second to no county in the State of equal population Shelbyville has grown to be a city of over 3,500 inhabitants, among whom are some of the ablest and most enterprising business and professional men in the State. The schools of the county are well organized and. efficiently conducted. The incorporated schools of Shelbyville are the just pride of her citizens.