Clay County, West Virginia          Early History of Clay County

    The Early History of Clay County was submitted by Sandy Spradling,
    E-mail address:  <SSpradling@aol.com>

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CLAY COUNTY

Was established in 1856.  It is thought by many to be the roughest county in
West Virginia.  Elk river passes through it from East to West, and is the
only outlet for the commodities of the county.  There is but little smooth
but little smooth or level land within its territory; and as a natural
consequence, there is not enough of hay, grain and the like, raised within
the limits of the county to meet the actual wants of its citizens.  The
people of Clay county spend nearly all their time cutting saw-logs, getting
out cooper stuff, hoop poles, &C which are brought down the Elk river in very
large quantities on nearly every rise.  I have counted as many as one hundred
and nine rafts, averaging one hundred logs each, as they came down Elk river,
in one day, on a Spring rise.  They were not all, however, from Clay, perhaps
more than half of them being from Braxton and Webster counties.  Like
Braxton, Clay county is underlaid with immense beds of coal and iron, and
whenever the locking and dam-ming of Elk river is completed, the lands of
Clay county will necessarily become immensely valuable.

History of Kanawha County, George W. Atkinson, 1876, p. 30-31