Shelbyville

Shelbyville, city, seat (1822) of Shelby county, central Indiana, U.S. It lies along the forks of the Big Blue and Little Blue rivers, 23 miles (37 km) southeast of Indianapolis. Laid out in 1822 as the county seat, it was named for Isaac Shelby, American Revolutionary War hero and the first governor of Kentucky. The state’s first railroad, completed in 1834 in Shelbyville, was a horse-drawn conveyance on wooden tracks put into operation by Judge William J. Peasley. The city is an agricultural trade centre in the heart of the state’s corn (maize) belt and has some light manufactures, notably plastics, insulation, automobile parts, and metal products. Thomas A. Hendricks, vice president under Grover Cleveland and an Indiana and U.S. legislator, grew up in Shelbyville; a cabin reconstructed (1962) from the logs of his childhood home is on the outskirts of the city. Inc. 1850. Pop. (2000) 17,951; (2010) 19,191.