Shelby, Texas

Shelby is an unincorporated community in Austin County, Texas, United States. The community is situated at the intersection of Farm to Market Road 389 (FM 389) and Farm to Market Road 1457 (FM 1457). The town was established in the 1840s and soon afterward it attracted a number of German immigrants.
Geography.
Shelby is located at the FM 389 and FM 1457 crossroads in far northwest Austin County. The community is northwest of Industry via State Highway 159 and FM 1457. Round Top is northwest on FM 1457. Brenham is to the northeast on FM 389. Harmonie Hall and the Shelby Volunteer Fire Department are located a short distance to the southwest on FM 389, while the town cemetery can be found a few hundred yards to the south at FM 1457 and Voelkel Road.
History.
Otto von Roeder was the first settler in Shelby in 1841. The community was named for David Shelby, one of The Old Three Hundred under Stephen F. Austin. Shelby would become the home of many Adelsverein colonists in 1845, but it was founded a year before that organization was formed in Germany, and three years before the Adelsverein sent its first colonists to Texas . Von Roeder had emigrated to Texas from Westphalia in the 1830s and was not affiliated with the Adelsverein's colonization efforts. Because many of the German settlers spoke Latin, it is believed to be part of the Latin Settlement communities populated in Texas at that time.