Shelby County, Texas History
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Quick Historic Facts
- Shelby County, one of the original counties
of Texas was organized in 1837.
- It was named for Isaac Shelby, a Revolutionary
soldier from Kentucky. Counties in nine
other states are also named after Isaac
Shelby.
- Shelbyville, created in 1824, was once
called Nashville. Its name was changed
to Shelbyville when it became the county
seat.
- Center, the area once called White Cottage,
later became the county seat in 1866.
- J.J.E. Gibson, a native of Ireland, built
the Shelby County Courthouse (pictured
at bottom of page) in 1883-85.
- This courthouse is today one of the five
oldest courthouses in Texas of the original
design.
- The Shelby County courthouse is the only
Irish castle style courthouse remaining
in the United States.
- Two Shelby County natives, Sydney O. Penington
and William Crawford, were signers of the
Texas Declaration of Independence.
- Penington is buried in Shelbyville. Crawford
was a Methodist preacher, and is said to
have held the first service in the Methodist
Church at Shelbyville.
- Jesse Amason gave 50 acres of land for
the town of Center.
- The Regulator-Moderator War took place
in Shelby County in 1840-44.
- Sam Weaver surveyed the town of Center
in 1869.
- Richard Hooper, an early day surveyor and
Congressman from Shelby County, was married
to the niece of John Adams.
- Center became an incorporated town in 1893.
The first mayor of Center was Uncle Billie
Maund.
- The first Bottling works for soda water
in Texas was in Timpson.
- The water oak tree on the Hern Lawson farm
is the largest known of its type in the
United States.
- There is an annual Fox Hunt held at the
Boles Field in Shelby County. Located in
this area is a recognized dog cemetery.
- Around 1910 coal was mined not far from
the Center square.
- Tobacco was once grown as a crop in Shelby
County.
- John Moosberg initiated the broiler industry
in Shelby County and the surrounding area
in 1948, and today this is the number one
industry in this area
- The expression "Tenaha, Timpson, Bo-bo,
and Blair", was coined by the county
unit of the National Guard, under the command
of Col. RR. Morrison of Timpson.
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Shelby County History
 A Spanish explorer named De Soto was the first
white man to enter this area when he crossed
the Sabine River at what is now Logansport,
Louisiana, in 1539. The purchase of Louisiana
by the United States in 1803 resulted in
a boundary dispute with Spain. The absence
of organized law provoked a conflict with
the settlers and resulted in the organization
of a group called the Regulators and an opposition
group called the Moderators in 1842. Law
and order was restored by militia under General
Sam Houston.
Shelby County is one of the original counties
of Texas. We are located in the eastern part
of the state bordering what is now called
Toledo Bend Lake. This territory was a path
for many of the early migrants into Texas
from the United States, many of whom settled
here temporarily before proceeding westward.
It is said that the first permanent settler
was John Latham, who settled here in 1818
when the area was still under Spanish rule.
The present area of Shelby County was a part
of the Municipality of Tenaha when Mexico
became independent of Spain in 1821, and
the most important town was Nashville which
was created in 1824.
When Texas became independent from Mexico
in 1836, the Congress of the Republic of
Texas created Shelby County, naming it after
an American Revolutionary soldier named Isaac
Shelby. The county was organized in 1837,
and Shelbyville, which was once called Nashville,
became the county seat.
In 1866 a legislative act was passed requiring
all county seats to be located in the center
of the county. Center became the county seat
and was named for its central location.
The present Shelby County Courthouse was built
in 1885 and is on the National Register of
Historic Places in Texas.
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