SHELBY

city, seat (1842) of Cleveland county, in the Piedmont region of southwestern North Carolina, U.S. It is located 41 miles (66 km) west of Charlotte. Settled after 1760, the city was chartered in 1843 and named for Colonel Isaac Shelby, American Revolutionary War hero of the Battle of Kings Mountain (10 miles southeast), site of a national military park. The arrival of the railways in the 1870s stimulated Shelby's development. Textiles became its chief industry, later supplemented by diverse manufacturing. Cleveland Community College was opened there in 1965. Inc. city, 1929. Pop. (1990) 14,669; (1994 est.) 15,788.