Goodspeed's 1887 History of Shelby County, Tennessee — Geography and Overview

This page preserves the geographic overview of Shelby County, Tennessee as recorded in Goodspeed's History of Tennessee, published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company of Nashville and Chicago in 1886 and 1887. Goodspeed's work was issued in three parts: a general illustrated history of the state, individual county histories, and biographical sketches of notable county residents — this page and its companion detail page draw on the county-history section.

As Goodspeed's history records it, Shelby County sits in the southwest corner of Tennessee, bordered by Tipton County to the north, Fayette County to the east, the state of Mississippi to the south, and the Mississippi River itself to the west. The county covers roughly seven hundred square miles, making it one of the larger county footprints described in the original survey.

This overview page focuses on that geographic framing. For the fuller narrative — early explorers and settlers, the county's political history, its Civil War period, and its educational and civic institutions — see the companion Goodspeed history detail page, which covers that material without repeating the geographic summary given here.