Please consider partnering with us and contributing to our shared history – it really does benefit us all and enriches our community. There are added bonuses and a gift for you: for a $25 NEW membership donation, you may have your choice of 2 wonderful SCHS publications – A Living History Shelby County, Kentucky 2011 or The Shelby Historian (2022). OR, your choice of a beautiful Shelbyville Horse Show poster – created by local artists and distributed to promote the well-known horse show which ran for 25 years and celebrated our rich equine heritage. These special items are a great way to own a piece of Shelby County history while receiving the benefits of a SCHS membership donation!

For a $25 membership donation, you will receive the membership benefits listed below, including our newsletter, The Gazette. Due to printing costs, The Gazette is available only to those who makes a membership donation in any amount.

Membership Levels

• Squire Boone – $2,000 (Benefits: Business logo and/or name recognition on website, and name recognition on social media & on member printed materials). Squire Boone was the younger brother to Daniel Boone & Founder of Painted Stone Station.
• Whitney M. Young, Jr. – $1,000 (Benefits: Name recognition on website, social media, & on member printed materials). Whitney M. Young, Jr., born in Shelby County, was an internationally respected civil rights leader and executive director of the National Urban League, born in Shelby County.
• Daisy Saffell – $500 (Benefits: Name recognition on website, social media, & on member printed materials). Daisy Saffell, businesswoman and entrepreneur, was the first black woman in Kentucky to obtain an embalmer’s and undertaker’s license. Also established the Daisy Saffell Memorial Hospital and Saffell Funeral Home with her husband, George W. Saffell.
• Abraham Rothchild – $250 (Benefits: Name recognition on website, social media, & on member printed materials). Abraham Rothchild, known as “Captain Abe”, he was a civic and business leader. He established a family clothing store on Main Street, Shelbyville.
• Julia Tevis – $100 (Benefit: Name recognition on website & on member printed materials). Julia Tevis founded Science Hill Female Academy in 1825, the first school established west of the Allegheny Mountains for girls ages 12 to 16. It is historically significant as possibly one of the first all-girl schools in the nation to include in its curriculum science, astronomy, math, and foreign languages.
• Thomas S. Baxter – $75 (Benefit: Name recognition on member printed materials) Thomas S. Baxter was born into slavery, but became a teacher, prominent civic leader, and served as a city councilman for many years.
• Edwin Hubble – $50 (Benefit: Name recognition on member printed materials) Edwin Hubble moved to Shelbyville with his family when he was young. Edwin gained fame as an astronomer, made scientific discoveries that made space flight possible, and had a space telescope named after him.
• The Old Sexton, Mr. Moesser – $25 (Benefit: Name recognition on member printed materials) Frederick Moesser was the second sexton for Grove Hill Cemetery. He was German, considered a little peculiar in dress and speech, a bit old for the job, and retired at age 94.

Please provide accurate, up-to-date contact information, including spouses name and email address and/or additional family members names (optional).

Annual Fund Drive

Once a year we roll out our Annual Fund Drive, which has replaced annual membership dues. As a non-profit, this is a fundraising appeal to members for financial support to continue our mission. Our Annual Fund Drive raises much needed funding to provide free programs and events, free museum access, allows us to continue our daily operations, and provides the ability to answer inquiries from all across the US relating to local family history and genealogical research. We encourage you to participate in our Annual Fund Drive.

Support comes in many different forms – monetary, volunteers, loans, gifting of collections, a one-time donation for a special project – and we appreciate each and every one of them. Choose your Annual Fund Drive support level from the options listed below and conveniently pay by cash, check or by clicking the PayPal link.