The County Seat
The 1841 act of the NC General Assembly that created Cleveland County stipulated that a county seat be established “not more than four miles from Wilson’s Mineral Springs.” This was due to the fact that Wilson Springs was widely known and its location was already near the center of the new county.
The Cleveland County Court appointed a committee to settle on a site for the county seat. Its members were: Samuel Andrews, Edmund Bryan, R. H. Burton, H. Cansler, Achilles Durham, David Gray, Eli Hoyle, Alex McCorkle, and John McDowell.
There were two opposing coalitions debating the issue. One group lived on the east side of the new county in the area that had been part of Lincoln County. This group proposed the new county seat be located near the Stubbs Railroad Station. Members of this group were:
- Joshua Beam
- Robert Falls
- William Graham
- Samuel Oates
- John Roberts
An opposing group lived on the western side of the new county in the area that had been part of Rutherford County. They violently opposed the Lincoln group’s proposal. Members of this group were:
- Samuel Bailey
- Young Brisendine
- George Cabaniss
- William Covington
- Thomas Roberts
The Lincoln group made a counter offer of locating near Elizabeth Church as a compromise. Still the Rutherford group was opposed.
Two men stepped in with offers to donate land for the new county seat. In a deed dated June 18, 1841,William Forbes donated 50 acres. James Ingram Love donated 150 acres; deed dated Aug. 11, 1841.
With the acceptance of these offers, the court then appointed a six-man committee to plan the city: Samuel S. Gidney, Surveyor, John B. Harry, John R. Logan, Green B. Palmer, William Oates, and John K. Wells. At the request of Gidney, Logan, and James Love, the main streets around the center of town were laid out extra-wide for those days. The three of them had visited Washington, D.C. and been impressed with the streets there. It was also decided the main city streets be named for Revolutionary War heroes–DeKalb, Graham, Lafayette, Marion, Morgan, Pinckney, Sumter, Warren, and Washington.
City leaders opted to follow the lead county leadership had set when they named the new county after Revolutionary War hero Col. Benjamin Cleveland. The new county seat was named for Col. Isaac Shelby, another hero of the 1780 Battle of Kings Mountain.
The town of Shelby was chartered on Jan. 25, 1843. In Section 1 of the charter, a Board of Commissioners was named. This first board consisted of Richard Champion, Thomas Cooper, A. R. Homesly, Dr. W. W. Morris, andDr. Thomas Williams.1
A new brick courthouse was built in the center of Shelby in 1845, replacing the old temporary log structure. It was built by George Smith and John Dameron in the Greek Revival style. It served the county until 1907.
Two booklets have been found in the North Carolina archives that promote the city of Shelby around the turn of the 20th century. One was “A Brief Sketch of Shelby: A Thriving Town in the Piedmont Section of North Carolina.” Clarence Frick collected material for the pamphlet which was published in 1889 by C. P. Roberts, Printer.
Only two authors are mentioned in the compilation–L. E. Powers and “B.E.F.” This publication is in the style of a Chamber of Commerce brochure. Half of it describes the town of Shelby in such a way as to attract new residents and businesses. The back half is advertisements and business cards. The entire 66 page brochure can be accessed here.
The second booklet was “Glimpses of Shelby, North Carolina.” It was written by Thomas J. Gold in 1905. Mr. Gold was also the local manager of the Shelby component of the Lyceum System. This was an organization based in Atlanta that arranged visits of orchestras, musicals, and lectures to participating communities.
Mayors
Some uncertainty exists with regard to Shelby’s first mayor. Research conducted by the late Lee B. Weathers found documentation that Shelby did have a mayor in 1852, but the name was not included. Weathers’ educated guess was that the first mayor was either Frederick L. Hoke (1821-1897) or William Putnam Love (1828-1921).
William Putnam Love served six terms as Shelby’s mayor, although the dates of those terms are not documented.
Known mayors are listed in the table below, although the terms of service are unclear for the earliest.
| mayor | term in office |
| Frederick Hoke William Putnam Love Charles Crawford Durham S. L. Gidney J. N. Durham Dr. L. N. Durham John Wells Gidney Andrew C. Miller, Sr. Joseph T. Bostic Joseph C. Smith William L. Dameron | These are the earliest known Shelby mayors. All were born between 1814 and 1860. Their dates of office are unknown. |
| James L. Webb | 1880-1882 |
| William Henry Jennings | x-1905, 1909-11 |
| Joseph L. Suttle, Sr. | 1905-09 |
| Junius Tazewell Gardner | 1911-13, 1915-17, 1921-23 |
| J. C. Smith | 1913-15 |
| Paul Webb | 1917-19 |
| Charles C. McBrayer | 1919-21 |
| William Dixon Lackey, Sr. | 1923-25 |
| Albert P. Weathers | 1925-27 |
| William N. Dorsey | 1927-29 |
| Simeon A. McMurry | 1929-35 |
| Harry Woodson | 1935-51, 1955-63 |
| Clarence King | 1951-55 |
| Hubert Plaster | 1963-76 |
| Lester Roark | 1976-79 |
| George W. Clay, Jr. | 1979-95 |
| Michael D. Philbeck | 1995-2003 |
| W. Ted Alexander | 2003-11 |
| Oliver Stanhope “Stan” Anthony, III | 2011-present |
Old Shelby
The courthouse and square.
Shelby Schools coverage under the “Schools” tab.
| Additional Information on Shelby, NC |
| City of Shelby webpage |
| Shelby, NC Wikipedia entry |
| History of Shelby, Carolana website (5 min. read) |
| Historic Shelby Foundation |
| National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form for the inclusion of the Central Shelby Historic District, 1983 |
| National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form for the inclusion of the East Marion-Belvedere Park Historic District, 2002 |
| Riley, Madge Webb. (1940). “Beginning and Early Days of Shelby.” Fay Webb Gardner Collection, Gardner-Webb University Archives, John R. Dover Memorial Library, Boiling Springs, NC. |
On December 14, 1906, The Shelby Aurora published a special edition highlighting the history and progress of the city of Shelby. It can be read in its entirety at DigitalNC.
Notes
- Three years after Shelby was incorporated, a bill was introduced to the NC State Senate to repeal the act of incorporation; it passed and was sent over to the NC State House of Commons where it passed the following year. Cleveland County historian Robert S. Gidney conducted research into the reason for the repeal of the city’s charter. Writing in Our Heritage, he states, “It appears that the town of Shelby did not immediately exert any governmental authority and the citizens decided to ask the General Assembly to revoke the charter.”
However, in the legislature of 1848-1849, it was revealed that those responsible for the petition to repeal did not even live inside the city limits of Shelby. On January 27, 1849, the city of Shelby was incorporated again. In 1850, another attempt was made to revoke Shelby’s charter; this attempt failed as well.
Another act to incorporate the Town of Shelby was detailed in the Shelby Banner April 8, 1875. This was possibly due to the impact of the Reconstruction Era and the arrival of the railroad; a revision of the structure of city government was needed.
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Cleveland County History 