Shelby County was officially organized in 1821, taking its name from General Isaac Shelby, the first governor of Kentucky. In 1820, after the Delaware Indians formally surrendered all lands to the United States within Indiana borders, General Francis Marion laid out and platted the first town in the area, Marion, with streets, alleys, and a public square. James Wilson was the first settler of what became Shelby County. Subsequent settlers came by Whetzell’s Trace, a path Jacob Whetzell cut through the woods from Brookville to the center of the county after October 1818. Shelby County Courthouse in Shelbyville, a Works Progress Administration project, 1937 Credit: Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society View Source Shelby County is adjacent to Indianapolis-Marion County to the southeast and part of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Statistical Area.
