Author: Frederick Arnold Weyler
One of the most honored patriots, the biographies of Isaac Shelby are plentiful. These snippets are a few facts harder to find on library shelves.

Isaac and his father, Evan Shelby, entered the service of USA from Squabble State. Four veterans recorded under oath that they did the same. When they left Shelby’s neighborhood, they did not know on which side of the contested line their homes ended up. In Autumn 1779, Samuel Newell and Isaac Shelby were militiamen guarding surveyors of the Virginia/Carolina state line from Tories and Cherokees. When winter came, the surveyors quit. They resumed after the leaves blocked their view and marked a line which got moved and remarked many times for decades to come. Shelby served simultaneously as a magistrate in both states and a representative to both legislatures.

Shelby was good with the land, horses, and dogs. He was great with people and thus won two wars of independence. Isaac had served with Col. Charles McDowell and knew that Charles was too conservative for the daring needed to defeat Patrick Ferguson. Shelby’s diplomacy led to Col. Campbell acting as general of the overmountain army which Thomas Jefferson said “turned the tide of the war” with total victory at Kings Mountain. A big man, 6’10” Joseph Greer went to Philadelphia to tell George Washington and congress about Kings Mountain.

Shelby was responsive to the little man as well. He apologized for having somebody else to write a letter because in his old age, his arm was worn out. The Wilderness Road had a Traveler’s Rest at the home of Isaac Shelby. Stephen Austin was welcomed long before he became a Texan. Isaac is known more as first than as fifth governor of Kentucky. Fewer know that he was elector of six presidential elections, so he could vote for James Madison in Washington and James Monroe in Stanford.

Shelby helped Thomas Jefferson win the War of 1812 by recruiting Kentucky riflemen. They filled William Henry Harrison’s regiments and won the northern front in Canada. Not all of Samuel Newell’s sons answered Shelby’s call. After the war, Governor Shelby reorganized Kentucky to make militia districts responsible for tax collection. John Montgomery Newell of Pulaski County paid his tax to Wayne County where his militia company mustered. Some families had lots of sons, but could barely afford one rifle and could ill afford to do without it for a son deployed as a soldier. Kentucky bought rifles for militia armories.

Shelby and Andrew Jackson got along with Indians better than many of their neighbors did. They bought Indian land. I think the Trail of Tears would not have happened had James K Polk had the advice of Isaac Shelby.

Isaac Shelby appointed old patriots, regardless of rank, colonels as ceremonial attendants to the governor. The tradition continues with the “Kentucky Colonels.” Resolved that the SAR PG’s travel coordinator henceforth be known as the PG’s Shelby Colonel.

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