Welcome to Clay County, Illinois Genealogy and History
Welcome to Genealogy Trails Volunteers working to put free historical data online. Our names are Sue Eskew and Gary Phillips and as your Clay County co- hosts we try to post as much data online as possible in order to make it freely available to all. We gratefully accept contributions of raw data such as census information, marriage/birth/death records, obituaries, county histories, biographies, old newspaper items - anything that would help someone build their family tree!! Feel free to email either of us-- Sue or Gary with your contributions - every little bit helps. We regret that we are unable to do personal research
Clay County was formed in 1824 out of portions of Wayne, Crawford, and Fayette counties. Its name is in honor of Henry Clay, famous American statesman, member of the United States Senate from Kentucky and United States Secretary of State in the 19th century.  It is located in South Central Illinois.  Some of the towns within this county are: Flora, Xenia, Oskaloosa, Clay City, Iola, Bible Grove and Louisville which is the county seat.  It is bordered by Effingham, Wayne, Marion and Richland Counties and in 2006 had a population of 14,028.            The first settler in the county was John McCawley.  He is said to have traveled the Vinsans Trace, as the old Vincennes, St. Louis & Kaskaskia Indian and buffalo path was known in the early days.  The next documented settlers were Philip Devore, Seth Evans and a Mr. Circles.  Mr. Circles' given name is unknown, but he was remembered well by the very early settlers, because of the fact the he put up a horse mill east of Flora, and for some time furnished bread, or the means of grinding their own corn.  Many more settlers arrived--some stayed others moved on further West.  Those who stayed all made their marks on the county, and on the towns within the county.
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Local Info Clay County Genealogy Society  P.O. Box 94 Louisville, IL 62858-0094 Flora Carnegie Library  216 North Main St.     Flora, IL 62839-1510 Phone: 618-662-6553 Clay County Courthouse P.O. Box 160 Louisville, IL 62858 County Clerk Phone:  618-665-3626	Visit our National Site
All data on this website is © Copyright 2006 by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.