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Welcome to Texas Genealogy Trails!
*Volunteers dedicated to putting free data online.*
This County Website is available for adoption.
If interested in joining our group, view our
Volunteer Information Page and
contact Kim.
[Basic webpage design knowledge and a desire to transcribe data is
required]
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Shelby County was first organized under the
Mexican government as Tenehaw Municipality; Nashville, founded
in 1824, was the most important town. In 1836 the Congress of
the Republic of Texas established Shelby County, named for Isaac
Shelby, hero of the American Revolution and governor of
Kentucky. The name of the town Nashville was changed to
Shelbyville, and Shelbyville became the county seat, which it
remained until 1866, when the county seat was moved to Center. |
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The courthouse in Center, along with all
county records, was destroyed by fire in 1882. A new courthouse,
modeled on an Irish castle, was designed by the architect John
Joseph Emmett Gibson, an Irish immigrant. It was completed in
1885 and was recognized in the National Register of Historic
Places in 1971. The courthouse still housed the county
government in 1984. In 1840 disputes over land titles and
fraudulent land transactions led to the opposition of two
factions, the Regulators and the Moderators, and a series of
armed conflicts that came to be known as the Regulator-Moderator
War. |
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Shelby County's white inhabitants overwhelmingly supported the
secession movement during the winter of 1860-61. When the
secession ordinance was submitted for popular approval in
February of 1861, county voters approved the measure by a vote
of 333 to 28. They also wholeheartedly supported the war effort
of the Confederacy that followed. One county source estimated
that as many as 750 men from Shelby County served in either
state or Confederate army units. Shelby County was never
occupied by Union forces, and thus escaped the destruction which
devastated other parts of the South. Nonetheless, the war years
were difficult for the county's citizens. |
Cities and towns
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Arcadia
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Brooklyn
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Dreka
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Huxley |
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Shelbyville
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Tenaha |
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Timpson
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ONLINE DATA |
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State Bird
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