Isaac Shelby

Isaac Shelby was the first and fifth Governor of Kentucky. He was also a soldier in Lord Dunmore’s War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. Counties in nine states, and several cities and military bases, have been named in his honor.

About Isaac Shelby in brief

Summary Isaac ShelbyIsaac Shelby was the first and fifth Governor of Kentucky. He was also a soldier in Lord Dunmore’s War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. Counties in nine states, and several cities and military bases, have been named in his honor. His fondness for John Dickinson’s \”The Liberty Song\” is believed to be the reason Kentucky adopted the state motto \”United we stand, divided we fall\”. Isaac Shelby died at his estate in Lincoln County, Kentucky on July 18, 1826. He was the third child and second son of Evan and Letitia Shelby, who immigrated from Tregaron, Wales, in 1735. Isaac Shelby was educated at the local schools in his native colony. He worked on his father’s plantation and occasionally found work as a surveyor. At age eighteen he was appointed deputy sheriff of Frederick County. He served in the state legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina. In 1792, he secured Kentucky from Indian attacks and organized its first government. He used the Citizen Genet affair to convince the Washington administration to make an agreement with the Spanish for free trade on the Mississippi River. After the war, he retired from public life, but he was called back into politics by the impending War of1812. In his last act of public service, Shelby and Andrew Jackson acted as commissioners to negotiate the Jackson Purchase from the Chickasaw Indian tribe. He died in Kentucky in 1826 and was buried at his home in Hagerstown, Kentucky.

His son, Isaac Shelby, served as a lieutenant in the Virginia militia by Colonel William Preston. He took part in the decisive Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. As second-in-command of his father’s Fincastle County company, he took part. in the battle. After his unit was disbanded, Shelby surveyed for the Transylvania, a land company that purchased much of present-day Kentucky from the Cherokees. Back in Virginia, he found a commission from the Committee of Safety and Safety, appointing him captain of a company of Minutemen. In July 1776, he returned to Kentucky to recover from the fighting in Virginia. He returned home in July 1777 with his family, but returned to Virginia the following year to claim and improve land for himself. After returning to Kentucky, he became involved in Kentucky’s transition from a county of Virginia to a separate state. His heroism made him popular with the state’s citizens and the Kentucky electoral college unanimously elected him governor in 1792. At the request of General William Henry Harrison, he commanded troops from Kentucky at the Battle of the Thames. For his service, he was presented with a ceremonial sword and a pair of pistols by the North Carolina legislature and the nickname \”Old Kings Mountain\” followed him the rest of his life. He declined President James Monroe’s offer to become Secretary of War. Shelby was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.