Editing Clay County, Alabama (section)

==History==
Clay County was established on December 7, 1866, from land taken from [[Randolph County, Alabama|Randolph]] and [[Talladega County, Alabama|Talladega]] counties. Named after the famous statesman [[Henry Clay]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n32 83]}}</ref> the county seat itself was named after [[Ashland, the Henry Clay estate|his estate]] in [[Lexington, Kentucky|Lexington]], Kentucky called "Ashland". The county was covered with a heavy growth of trees, and a part of the territory was occupied by the Creek Indians. The early pioneers acquired the lands by government entry and the Indian lands by public auction. The families came wholly from [[Fayette County, Georgia]].<ref>History of Clay County, Alabama Ingram, Clanda Garrett 1966</ref> Clay County was formed for geographic reasons. The citizens of the area had a difficult time reaching the county seat of [[Wedowee]] in [[Randolph County, Alabama|Randolph County]] because of the [[Tallapoosa River]] to the east. [[Talladega, Alabama|Talladega]] was difficult to reach because of the intervening mountains. Even today, Clay County is one of only three counties in [[Alabama]] to have no U.S. highways in its boundaries. Ashland was a mining center, particularly for graphite.<ref>Graphite Deposits of Ashland, Alabama by John Stafford Brown, 1925</ref>

During the [[Persian Gulf War|Desert Shield/Storm conflict]], Clay County had more soldiers serving per capita than any other county in the United States.<ref name="Ashland/Clay County, Alabama">{{Citation | title = Small Town Historic Markers | publisher = Alabama Tourism Department | url = http://www.alabama.travel/homecoming/ | access-date = February 2, 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110203101446/http://www.alabama.travel/homecoming/ | archive-date = February 3, 2011 | df = mdy-all }}</ref>