{"id":8840,"date":"2026-09-28T20:28:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T00:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/?p=8840"},"modified":"2026-09-29T17:46:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:46:58","slug":"history-of-shelby-county-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/2026\/09\/28\/history-of-shelby-county-kentucky\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Shelby County, Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group lightbox is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group post-header is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full post-header-img\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"458\" height=\"685\" src=\"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/History-of-Shelby-County-Kentucky-1929-Inside.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8844\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/History-of-Shelby-County-Kentucky-1929-Inside.png 458w, https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/History-of-Shelby-County-Kentucky-1929-Inside-334x500.png 334w, https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/History-of-Shelby-County-Kentucky-1929-Inside-134x200.png 134w, https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/History-of-Shelby-County-Kentucky-1929-Inside-300x449.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 458px) 100vw, 458px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group post-header-info is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History of Shelby County, Kentucky<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Written, Compiled and Edited By George L. Willis, Sr.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published in 1929, George Lee Willis, Sr\u2019s <em>History of Shelby County, Kentucky<\/em> is an invaluable aid when researching and writing about the county\u2019s beginnings. He stated, \u201cThe paramount purpose of the book is to preserve for posterity what was so rapidly fading into oblivion.\u201d Because of his foresight, we have a 268-page book dedicated to a history that was destined to become long forgotten had it not been for Willis. The book includes biographies of pioneers in this area, information on churches and schools, towns, newspapers, jails, courthouses, Revolutionary Soldier in Shelby County, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">George Lee Willis, Sr. (August 4, 1862 \u2013 August 9, 1948) was a writer, editor, and historian. In 1886 he began his newspaper career with the Louisville Times. Three years later he went to Frankfort, KY as a correspondent for the Courier-Journal for five years. He was editor of The Frankfort Capital before spending time in Washington writing a column for Kentucky newspapers. He was a writer for and Associate Editor of the Shelby Sentinel in the 1930s until his retirement, and Editor and part owner of the Shelby Record. In 1929 he published a <em>History of Shelby County, Kentucky<\/em>. The following year, he wrote a 210-page biography of geologist and historian Willard Rouse Jillson. Willis also wrote <em>The Moneyless Man<\/em>, <em>Kentucky\u2019s Contributions to History<\/em>, and <em>Kentucky Democracy<\/em>. In 1932 he penned, Where Silent Tents are Spread, a historical sketch of Grove Hill Cemetery with additional Shelby County burial grounds. Willis married Ruth Stanton in 1892, daughter of Maj. Henry T. Stanton, a former Kentucky Poet Laureate. They had one son and three daughters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-c9a32e35bedbbb2dba1f7e5b22f39be4\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content   ep-percentage-width   ep-content-protection-disabled \">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"embedpress-inner-iframe emebedpress-unit-percent ep-doc-c9a32e35bedbbb2dba1f7e5b22f39be4\"  style=\"max-width:100%\" id=\"embedpress-pdf-1790641514536\">\n\t\t\t\t<div >\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper\"><div class=\"position-right-wraper gutenberg-pdf-wraper\"><iframe title=\"History of Shelby County, Kentucky (1929)\" class=\"embedpress-embed-document-pdf embedpress-pdf-1790641514536\" style=\"width:600px;height:600px; max-width:100%; display: inline-block\" src=\"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=get_viewer&#038;file=https%3A%2F%2Fshelbykyhistory.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2026%2F09%2FHistory-of-Shelby-County-1929.pdf#key=dGhlbWVNb2RlPWRlZmF1bHQmdG9vbGJhcj10cnVlJnBvc2l0aW9uPXRvcCZwcmVzZW50YXRpb249dHJ1ZSZsYXp5TG9hZD1mYWxzZSZkb3dubG9hZD10cnVlJmNvcHlfdGV4dD10cnVlJmFkZF90ZXh0PXRydWUmZHJhdz1mYWxzZSZkb2Nfcm90YXRpb249dHJ1ZSZhZGRfaW1hZ2U9dHJ1ZSZkb2NfZGV0YWlscz10cnVlJnpvb21faW49dHJ1ZSZ6b29tX291dD10cnVlJmZpdF92aWV3PXRydWUmYm9va21hcms9dHJ1ZSZmbGlwYm9va190b29sYmFyX3Bvc2l0aW9uPWJvdHRvbSZzZWxlY3Rpb25fdG9vbD0wJnNjcm9sbGluZz0tMSZzcHJlYWRzPS0x\" frameborder=\"0\" oncontextmenu=\"return false;\"><\/iframe> <p class=\"embedpress-el-powered\">Powered By EmbedPress<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>History of Shelby County, Kentucky Written, Compiled and Edited By George L. Willis, Sr. Published in 1929, George Lee Willis, Sr\u2019s History of Shelby County, Kentucky is an invaluable aid when researching and writing about the county\u2019s beginnings. He stated, \u201cThe paramount purpose of the book is to preserve for posterity what was so rapidly <a href=\"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/2026\/09\/28\/history-of-shelby-county-kentucky\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  History of Shelby County, Kentucky<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-8840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-document"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8840"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8856,"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8840\/revisions\/8856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8840"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelbykyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=8840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}