Shelby

Shelby is at the junction of Farm roads 389 and 1457, twenty-four miles northwest of Bellville in extreme northwestern Austin County. It was settled in the early 1840s and was named for David Shelby , reportedly the first settler in the area. Most of the early residents were members of the German Adelsverein , and the actual founder of the town was Otto von R?der, who constructed a grain mill at the site around 1841. In the mid-1840s a small community began to develop and was known as R?dersm?hl, or R?ders Mill. In 1845 August Vogelsang bought the mill from R?der, and that year a number of German families, including the Vanderwerths, the Rothermels, and the Ohlendorfs, moved into the area. A post office opened in 1846 under the name Shelby. Most of the German settlers were from well-educated middle-class families and were interested in the promotion of the arts and sciences. Among these Germans the knowledge of Latin indicated a high level of education, and for a time the community was called a Latin settlement ( see ??LATIN SETTLEMENTS OF TEXAS