2   HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

number 10, lies immediately west of the town of Middlebury, crossing
Eel river just west of the Evansville & Indianapolis Railroad bridge,
touching the east side of Saline City, and passing through the City of
Brazil on Forest Avenue.
    At the legislative session of 1825, nine years after the admission of
the state, and very soon after the removal of the seat of government from
Corydon to Indianapolis, a bill was introduced by Daniel Harris, then
the member of the lower house of the General Assembly from Owen
county, providing for the organization of the new county of Clay, which
was enacted, and approved by the governor on the 12th day of February.
Whether the act was approved by Governor William Hendricks or by
Acting Governor James B. Ray is not popularly known, the latter execu-
tive having succeeded the former on this day, and, presumably, at 12
o’clock M. Representative Harris then resided upon the extreme west-
ern border of Owen county, on what was afterward for many years
known as the Connely place, at what is now Eel River station. At a later
day he crossed the river and settled what is now the Jacob Baumunk
place. The following is the act of the legislature organizing the county:

    SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana,
That from and after the first day of April next, all the tract of country included
within the following boundaries, shall form and constitute a new county to be known
and designated by the name of the county of Clay, to wit: Beginning at the south-
west corner of township 9 north, range 7 west, thence east ten miles, thence north
twelve miles, thence east six miles, thence north nine miles, thence west four miles,
thence north nine miles, thence west ten miles, thence south six miles, thence west two
miles, thence south twenty-four miles to the place of beginning.
    Sec. 2. The said new county of Clay shall, from and after the first day of April
next, enjoy all the rights, privileges and jurisdictions which to separate and inde-
pendent counties do or may properly belong or appertain.
    Sec. 3. That John Denny, of Putnam county, John Bigger, of Owen county,
Rezin Stulby, of Vigo county, Jacob Bell, of Parke county, and James Smith, of
Greene county, are hereby appointed commissioners agreeably to the act entitled
“An act fixing the seat of justice of all new counties hereafter to be laid
off." The said commissioners shall meet at the house of David Thomas, in the
said county of Clay, on the second Monday in May next, and shall immediately
proceed to discharge the duties assigned them by law. It is hereby made the duty
of the sheriff of Owen county to notify said commissioners, either in person or by
writing, of their appointment, on or before the first Monday in May next, and for
such services he shall receive such compensation out of the county treasury of
the said county of Clay as the board of justices thereof may deem just and reason-
able, to be ordered and paid as other county claims are paid.
    Sec. 4. The county board of justices of the said new county shall, within
twelve months after the permanent seat of justice shall have been selected, proceed
to erect the necessary public buildings therein.
    Sec. 5. That all suits, pleas, plaints, actions, prosecutions or proceedings here-
tofore commenced and pending within the limits of the said county of Clay, shall
he prosecuted to final issue in the same manner, and the state and county taxes
which may be due on the first day of April next, within the bounds of the said
county of Clay, shall be collected and paid in the same manner and by the same
officers, as if this act had not been passed.
    Sec. 8. The county board of justices shall meet at the house of David Thomas
in said county, on the first Monday in November next, and then and there proceed
to do and transact all such necessary county business as may be required by law.
    Sec. 7. The said county of Clay shall be attached to the first judicial circuit
and shall continue to be attached to the several counties from which it has been
taken for the purpose of electing senators and representatives to the state legis-
lature and the other state officers, and in all elections for any of said officers the
citizens thereof shall vote in the same places and in the same manner they would
have done if the erection of said new county bad not taken place.