”SHELBY COUNTY. Created by an act, February 7, 1817. Its territory was in the Creek cession of Fort Jackson, August 9, 1814. It was nominally a part of Montgomery County. When it was first formed it embraced St. Clair County; Will’s Creek was its northern boundary, and the southern boundary line was the township line north of Columbia. Its area is 772 square miles or 499,200 acres. It bears the name of Isaac Shelby, first governor of Kentucky.

The courthouse first stood at Shelbyville. In 1821, David Neal, Job Mason, Benjamin C. Haslett, Ezekiel Henry, Henry Avery, James Franklin, and Thomas Beecher, Sr., were appointed to select the site for the courthouse. A year later, Daniel McLaughlin, William Gilbert, Isaac Hutcheson, Edmund King, Bennet Ware, Webb Kidd, and Abraham Smith were appointed for the same purpose.”

Reference Data:

History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Vol. 2, by Thomas McAdory Owen and Mrs. Marie (Bankhead) Owen, 1921, page 1242