Clay County Chamber of Commerce
www.ncmtnchamber.org
2016 Membership Directory | 5
History of Clay County
A
ccording to the late J.V.A. Moore, a
local historian, the first white man
to settle in what was to become Clay
County, was John Covington Moore during
the late 1700’s, and the first emigrants moved
into this section, which at the time was a part
of Macon County, in the early part of the
1830s.
In 1837 General Winfield Scott was
commissioned to gather all the Native
Americans throughout the region and detain
them in improvised stockades before taking
them to the Oklahoma Territory. During this
time, a Captain Hembree was sent to this
section of what was to become Cherokee
County (in 1839) and constructed a stockade
about a mile south west of the present town of
Hayesville, where the Indians were held until
they had all been captured and the
infamous “trail of tears” began.
government of their own. By promising them
that he would introduce legislation to form a
new county, he captured most of the votes in
this area. In February of 1861 such legislation
was introduced and passed by the No