Settlers of New Clay County

It can be said of these early settlers that a more intelligent, industrious, better educated and worthier set of men never settled many new country. They were the scions of a noble ancestry, who had settled originally in Virginia, giving to that State renown and prestige such as no other state in the Union possessed; whose fathers had gone to Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, and whose sons now were seeking homes in western Missouri. It is not contended that all of this immigration was from these states, for such was not the case, but by far the greater portion of these settlers were from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina.

In 1820 the territory embraced in Clay County formed a part of what I was known as Howard County, and the county seat was Old Franklin. At this time, there was not a store at which goods could be purchased within the present confines of Clay County, (it is true some French men had a trading post at Randolph Bluffs, where barter and trade were made for furs and beeswax, exchange being made therefor, in gewgaws and trinkets; but nothing of a substantial character could be purchased.) At this time, if a settler wanted a new axe there was no place to obtain it north, south or west, but only at the nearest place, which was five miles this side of Old Franklin, in Howard County, to a certain blacksmith, who made axes with his bellows, steel and iron, anvil and hammers, and it was estimated for a settler to leave home, with his saddle bags, go to this blacksmith's, get his axe made, then return home, sharpen the axe with an old fashioned grindstone, would take about two weeks of the settler's time. Up to 1819, there was no money in circulation, nor was there in what is now Clay County, according to Mrs. Shubael Allen, then a resident, a silk ribbon.

Bluffton which stood on the Missouri River, near where Camden now stands, was made the county seat of Ray County, after that county was I taken from Howard, Clay County being at the time a part of Ray. The first county court was held there in April, 1821, and two of its members were John Thornton and Elisha Camron, and the clerk of the court was William L. Smith; all three of these officers were citizens of what is now Clay County.

The first settlers of the territory bordering on the Missouri River, not only in what is now Clay County, but in almost all other counties, were Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the two Carolinas, and in making their settlements, located their houses near springs. Their locations were in timbered lands, not prairie, for in that early day prairie land was an unknown quantity, it having been reported, and believed to be, fit only for grazing purposes, hence settlements were made almost exclusively in timber lands.

So numerous were the settlers in what is now Clay County, prior to the autumn of 1821, that it was determined to create a new county, subdividing Ray into two or more counties, and accordingly on the 2nd day of January, 1822, the Legislature passed the following act creating the county of Clay.

At the time of the organization of the county the population was about 1,200 and about this time, or shortly thereafter, this population consisted of other men of sterling worth, not hereinbefore mentioned, who by their industry, enterprise and discernment contributed largely to the upbuilding of the county, namely:

Clay County| AHGP Missouri

Source: History of Clay County, Missouri, by W. H. Woodson, Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, 1920.