Editing Clay, West Virginia (section)

==History==
[[Image:Clay County Courthouse West Virginia.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Old Clay County Courthouse (West Virginia)|Old Clay County Courthouse]] in 2007]]
Clay was established on the site of a farm that was the site of Clay County's first court meeting following the county's establishment in 1858. The community was initially known by the name of "Marshall," then briefly as "Henry," and then as "Clay Courthouse" and finally Clay. The town and county are both named for [[U.S. Senator]] and [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Henry Clay]] (1777–1852).<ref name=WVenc>{{cite book| last= Samples |first= Mack |editor= Ken Sullivan| title= The West Virginia Encyclopedia |year= 2006 |publisher= West Virginia Humanities Council |location=Charleston, W.Va. |isbn= 0-9778498-0-5 |pages= 141 |chapter= Clay}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Kenny|first=Hamill|title=West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009099824;view=1up;seq=202|year=1945|publisher=The Place Name Press|location=Piedmont, WV|page=174}}</ref> The town was incorporated in 1895.<ref name=eWV>Mack Samples (January 27, 2012). "[http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1257 Clay]" e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Accessed November 16, 2016.</ref> Before 1880, Clay was inaccessible to traffic from horse-drawn vehicles, and the [[Elk River (West Virginia)|Elk River]] was its primary mode of transport.<ref name=eWV/> Expansion of the [[Coal and Coke Railway]] reached Clay in 1905.<ref name=eWV/>

In June 2016, the town was impacted by [[2016 West Virginia flood|severe flooding]] from the Elk River.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ortiz|first1=Erik|last2=Federico-O'Murchu|first2=Sean|last3=Verala|first3=Jay|last4=Rappaport|first4=Ben|title=West Virginia Floods: 23 Killed, Including Toddler, as Thousands Left Without Power|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/west-virginia-floods-23-killed-thousands-without-power-n598346|work=NBC News|access-date=November 19, 2016|date=June 25, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=DeLancey|first1=Sean|title=Clay County devastated by flooding, in desperate need of donations|url=http://wchstv.com/news/local/clay-county-devestated-by-flooding-in-desperate-need-of-donations|publisher=WCHS-TV|access-date=November 19, 2016|date=June 26, 2016}}</ref>

In November 2016, Clay mayor Beverly Whaling approvingly responded to a social media post that referred to [[First Lady of the United States|U.S. First Lady]] [[Michelle Obama]] as an "[[List of ethnic slurs by ethnicity#African|ape]] in heels". Following international media coverage of the incident, Whaling resigned.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Browning|first1=Lexi|last2=Bever|first2=Lindsey|title='Ape in heels': W.Va. mayor resigns amid controversy over racist comments about Michelle Obama|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/11/14/ape-in-heels-w-va-officials-under-fire-after-comments-about-michelle-obama/|access-date=November 19, 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=November 16, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Raby|first1=John|title=Mayor in West Virginia resigns after racist Obama post|url=http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/us/article/Official-in-West-Virginia-on-leave-after-racist-10615123.php|access-date=November 19, 2016|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=November 15, 2016}}</ref>