Clay County Texas History and Genealogy - presented by Genealogy Trails

Clay County is named 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. The county seat is Henrietta. The first settlers in the area were probably W. T. and Wess Waybourne, who came in the 1850s and built their homes on the south fork of the Wichita River two miles from the site of present-day Henrietta. Clay County was marked off from Cooke County on December 24, 1857. Indians, however, remained a constant threat at this time, and the army conducted regular patrols of the area.

The county was organized in 1861, but it was largely abandoned the following year because of the removal of federal troops during the war. With the establishment of Fort Sill in Indian Territory after the Civil War, settlers began to return to Clay County.

Among the first permanent residents after the war was Henry A. Whaley, who raised grain and vegetables on his farm near the mouth of the Wichita River to sell to the army at Fort Sill. The county was reorganized on May 27, 1873, with Cambridge as the county seat. Most of the early settlers raised cattle, along with small crops of corn and cotton. In 1882 the Fort Worth and Denver Railway was built across the county through Henrietta. The town, which had been largely abandoned since the outbreak of the Civil War, bustled with new activity; after most of the residents of Cambridge moved there because of the railroad, Henrietta was incorporated and made the new county seat.