Editing Clay County, Illinois (section)

==History==
The future Clay County had been inhabited for thousands of years by the [[Illinois Confederation|Illiniwek Indians]] (the remains of an Indian village's burial ground are still visible west of [[Ingraham, Illinois|Ingraham]]). White explorers used or cleared a trail between the future settlements of [[Saint Louis, Missouri|Saint Louis]] in Missouri, to [[Vincennes, Indiana|Vincennes]] in Indiana; this became a mail route in 1805. The first white settler (McCauley, from Kentucky) built a cabin in 1809 near this road at its intersection with a trail from [[Vandalia, Illinois|Vandalia]] to [[Mount Carmel, Illinois|Mt. Carmel]]. He was driven out by the Indians, but had returned by 1819, by which time other cabins had been constructed in the area, which was originally called Habbardsville. The Indians were removed from the area in 1828.<ref name=CCH/>

Clay County was authorized by act of the state legislature on December 23, 1824, by partitioning portions of [[Wayne County, Illinois|Wayne]], [[Crawford County, Illinois|Crawford]], and [[Fayette County, Illinois|Fayette]] counties.<ref name=CCH>{{cite web|url=https://clay.illinoisgenweb.org/hist1912soil.htm|publisher=The USGenWeb Project|date=1912|title=A History of Southern Illinois|volume=1|pages=439–442|access-date=October 24, 2020}}</ref> It was named for American 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|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n32 83]}}</ref> a member of the [[United States Senate]] from [[Kentucky]] and [[United States Secretary of State]]. Clay was a candidate for president in 1824.

The first appointed commissioners met on March 8, 1825, to organize the county government. Land for county building purposes was donated near Habbardsville. The commissioners accepted the offer, renamed it Maysville, and had a two-room courthouse erected on the property by the end of the year.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.claycityil.com/|title=Larry Brant - Village of Clay City|access-date=October 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228032602/http://www.claycityil.com/|archive-date=February 28, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> The seat remained at that location (about a mile south of the present community of [[Clay City, Illinois|Clay City]]) through 1841, and in 1842 the county government began functioning in [[Louisville, Illinois|Louisville]], being at the center of the county's area.<ref name=CCH/>

The first railroad line through Clay County was laid between 1850 and 1854, the [[Ohio and Mississippi Railway|Ohio and Mississippi Line]].<ref name=CCH/> By 1855–56, the [[Illinois Central Railroad]] had also been constructed across the northwest corner of the county.