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Boundaries - Historical Notes

Tennessee Code Annotated
Tennessee Attorney General Opinions

The following is a summary of acts which authorized boundary changes for Shelby County.

  1. Private Acts of 1822, Chapter 111, authorized Colonel Jacob Tipton or one of his deputy surveyors to survey and mark the eastern and northern boundaries of Shelby County and to make up and present a certified plot of the county's boundaries to the county court.
  2. Private Acts of 1823, Chapter 206, authorized an election on the first Monday of February, 1824 to ascertain the wishes of the voters of Shelby County on the location of the county seat.
  3. Private Acts of 1824, Chapter 167, directed the commissioners appointed by law to fix the permanent seats of justice in counties west of the Tennessee River to select a site and fix the seat of justice for Shelby County.
  4. Public Acts of 1833, Chapter 46, Section 2, authorized the principle surveyors in Hardin, McNairy, Hardeman, Fayette and Shelby counties to extend the dividing line of said counties from the Winchester’s Line to the line ran by John Thompson on the 35th degree of north latitude.
  5. Acts of 1837-38, Chapter 7, Section 3, called the different surveyors in the counties of Shelby, McNairy, Hardin, Hardeman and Fayette to extend the dividing lines of said counties to the line marked by the commissioners in Public Acts of 1833, Chapter 46, Section 2.
  6. Public Acts of 1867-68, Chapter 60, changed the boundary between Shelby and Tipton counties to place the land of C. Angle in Tipton County. This was repealed and the land returned to Shelby County by Acts of 1905, Chapter 53.
  7. Private Acts of 1867-68, Chapter 105, required all landowners of lots in Shelby County to file plots with the register of deeds for that county.
  8. Public Acts of 1921, Chapter 54, authorized the governor of the State of Tennessee to issue a tract of land, that once comprised the old third civil district of Shelby County, to E. L. Bateman.
  9. Private Acts of 1937, Chapter 266, amended the general law provisions to provide that the county surveyor of Shelby County was to be paid a per diem salary of $10.00.
  10. Private Acts of 1974, Chapter 305, provided that if the boundaries of the corporate limits of municipalities of Shelby County were contiguous along a public roadway, and if such road were altered, the respective governing bodies were authorized to adjust such boundaries by contract between themselves.