Shelby County, Illinois

Shelby County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Shelbyville
Year Organized: 1827
Square Miles: 759

Court House:

PO Box 230
County Courthouse
Shelbyville, IL 62565-0230

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Isaac Shelby, soldier of the American Revolution, the Indian Wars and the War of 1812, and Governor of Kentucky (1792-96).

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Shelby County was created on January 23, 1827 (Laws, 1827, p. 115) and was formed from Morgan County. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Fayette County (1821–1827), Clark County (1819–1821), Crawford County (1816–1819), Edwards County (1815–1816), Madison County (1812–1815), St. Clair County (1801–1812) and Knox, Northwest Territory (1790–1801).

The County was named for Isaac Shelby, a soldier of the Revolution and Indian wars, Governor of Kentucky from 1792 to 1796 and again from 1812 to 1816. He commanded the Kentucky troops in the battle of Thames in the War of 1812. The County Seat is Shelbyville (1827-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 768 square miles (1,989 km²), of which, 759 square miles (1,965 km²) of it is land and 10 square miles (25 km²) of it (1.24%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Moultrie County; Coles County
Southeast: Cumberland County; Effingham County
Southwest: Fayette County; Montgomery County
Northwest: Christian County; Macon County

Cities and Towns:

- Ash Grove	township
- Beecher City	village	Incorporated Area
- Bowling Green	township
- Clarksburg	township
- Cold Spring	township
- Cowden	village	Incorporated Area
- Dry Point	township
- Findlay	village	Incorporated Area
- Flat Branch	township
- Herrick	village	Incorporated Area
- Holland	township
- Lakewood	village	Incorporated Area
- Moweaqua	village	Incorporated Area
- Oconee	village	Incorporated Area
- Okaw	township
- Penn	township
- Pickaway	township
- Ridge	township
- Rose	township
- Shelbyville (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Sigel	town	Incorporated Area
- Stewardson	village	Incorporated Area
- Strasburg	village	Incorporated Area
- Todds Point	township
- Tower Hill	village	Incorporated Area
- Windsor	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."