The Algonquian-speaking Shawnee Native Americans had come into the area in the 18th century, displacing the Ojibwa-speaking Ottawa of the Anishinaabeg, a related language group who moved northwest.

The Shawnee were joined by the Iroquois, Seneca and Mingo peoples as well, displaced by colonial encroachment to the east.

In 1792 the European-American pioneer John Hardin was killed by the Shawnee in Shelby County.

It also changed the way new immigrants traveled to Shelby County from Cincinnati in the south and by 1845, Lake Erie in the north.

The actual construction provided the initial boost; the real benefit proved to be the opportunity for increased commerce presented by this new transportation link.

The canal brought a business boom which in turn drove farm product prices to previously unknown heights.

As German immigrants arrived to work on the canal, on the land, and in the shops, business in Sidney and Shelby County expanded.

The Germans' penchant for thrift proved to be a valuable asset to the area's economic and social growth.

Those English immigrants were of working class rural origins; it was easier for working-class people to own land in America and by this time parts of the United States also had the practice of universal male suffrage so all men over the age of 18, regardless of property or wealth were allowed to vote.

These factors encouraged English immigration, particularly from the villages of Penkridge, Gailey, Lapley, Wheaton Aston, Bishop's Wood, Brewood, Coven, Featherstone, Essington, Four Ashes, Perton, Pattingham, Seisdon, Wombourne, Himley, Swindon and Enville, in south Staffordshire in central England, and for this reason these immigrants were sometimes known as "the Staffordshire settlers".

[5] In 1846, a group of 383 free blacks from Virginia, called the "Randolph Slaves", settled in the county, most at Rumley, Ohio.

[6][7] Their gaining freedom was delayed by court challenges to Randolph's will, but the families were freed and traveled in 1846.

[10] Terrain of Shelby County consists of low rolling hills, entirely devoted to agriculture or urban development.