White explorers used or cleared a trail between the future settlements of Saint Louis in Missouri, to 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 to Mt.

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 commissioners accepted the offer, renamed it Maysville, and had a two-room courthouse erected on the property by the end of the year.

The low rolling hills of Clay County are devoted to agricultural production.

Buck Creek, in the south part of the county, flows eastward and joins the Little Wabash above Clay City.

[8] The county produced excellent timber during the nineteenth century, and some sandstone and limestone.

[20] As part of Upper Southern-leaning Southern Illinois, Clay County is powerfully Republican.

No Democratic presidential nominee has won a majority in Clay County since Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide, and typically for the region recent presidential elections have seen dramatic declines in Democratic support.