COUNTY HISTORY

Shelby County was established in 1818 by an act of the Alabama Territorial General Assembly from former Creek Indian territory ceded in the Treaty of Fort Jackson in August 1814.

The county is named after Isaac Shelby, a Revolutionary War hero and the first governor of Kentucky, and comprises about 808 square miles of land.

Shelby County was created as part of the Alabama Territory before Alabama became a state on Dec. 14, 1819. The first county seat was located in Shelbyville, the area currently known as Pelham. Two of the delegates who served in the Alabama Constitutional Convention in 1819 and signed the first Alabama Constitution were from Shelby County: George Phillips and Thomas A. Rogers. Rogers built a county courthouse in 1820. Six years later, a permanent county seat was established in the southern part of the county at Columbiana.

According to the 1820 Shelby County census records, the county’s population was 2,492 two years after its formation. Today, more than 206,000 people make up the county’s population, according to the 2016 U.S. Census estimate.

As one of seven counties comprising the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, Shelby County is bounded by Jefferson and St. Clair counties to the north, Talladega and Coosa counties to the east and Chilton and Bibb counties to the south and southwest. Two major rivers – the Coosa and the Cahaba – are located in Shelby County. About 68 percent of the population is incorporated into 17 municipalities. Shelby County boasts direct access to three major roadways, U.S. 280, Interstate 65 and U.S. 31.