Biography of 	SHELBY, Edwin	Brandon, Mississippi, then Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller April 1998

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Louisiana:  Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions,
and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 396-397.  Edited
by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D.  Published in 1914, by Century Historical
Association.

Shelby, Edwin, of New Orleans, assistant secretary and general manager of
the New Orleans Casualty Co., was born in Brandon, Miss., Oct. 6, 1855; son
of Col. W. B. Shelby, a native of Tennessee, who settled in Mississippi in
his early manhood.  The father was a leading attorney of his adopted state,
became active in political affairs and was candidate for congress in 1872.
Col. Shelby was an officer in the Confederate army, and commanded the 39th
Mississippi regiment.  At Port Hudson, July 9, 1863, he was captured and
sent to Johnson's Island prison, where he remained until the surrender of
Gen. Lee at Appomattox.  After the war, he returned to Brandon, and resumed
the practice of law.  He died in 1873, aged 46 years.  Anthony B. Shelby,
grandfather of Edwin, was born in Tennessee, followed the law, and filled a
term as associate justice of the supreme court of Texas before it became a
state.  The great-grandfather, Hon. David Shelby, was one of the early
settlers of Tennessee, and is prominently connected with its early history.
 The Shelby family is inseparably connected with that state, and has given
name to both a city and a county.  The family are of Welsh descent.  Mr.
Edwin Shelby's mother, now past 82 years of age, was Margaret, daughter of
Isaac Alexander, native North Carolina, and a descendant of the Alexander
who signed the Declaration of Independence.  The Alexanders come from
Scotch ancestry.  Edwin Shelby is the third son in a family of 10 children.
 He resided in Brandon, Miss., until his 20th year, and attended the common
schools of that town.  In 1876 he became a traveling salesman, and was
employed in that capacity by Cincinnati and St. Louis firms until 1898,
when he entered the insurance business at Fort Smith, Ark.  Having sold out
his insurance business at that place, he came to New Orleans in 1893, to
represent as general manager for the Southern states a casualty insurance
company of St. Louis.  Since 1899 Mr. Shelby has been agent for English and
American casualty companies, and also has been engaged in the local fire
insurance business, this being carried on under name of Edwin Shelby Co.,
Ltd., of which he is president.  When the New Orleans Casualty Co. was
organized, he accepted the position of assistant secretary and general
manager of that company.  April 11, 1882, Mr. Shelby married Elmira
Richardson, daughter of the late Judge J. N. Richardson of Ouachita parish.
 They have 4 children,  Sarah, wife of John H. Frederickson, Salt Lake
City;  Margaret, wife of C. J. Fredricks;  Eleanor, and  Edwin, Jr., who is
a student at the University of Illinois in the civil engineering
department.  They also have 3 grandchildren:  Myra Shelby Fredrickson,
John H. Fredrickson, Jr., and  George Shelby Fredricks.  Mr. Shelby has
always been identified with every reform movement in politics.  In
recognition of his eminent fitness for the place, and without any
solicitation on his part, and quite unexpectedly, he received the
appointment of trustee of the State Industrial university.  Socially, he is
a member of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Pickwick club.  Having come
here from another state, he has identified himself thoroughly with the
state and city of his adoption until he is now looked upon as one of the
foremost citizens in all the higher phases of material, social and moral
welfare.