News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
From the Civil War to the Great Depression to today, Clay County has had a hand in history over it’s 150 years as a county.
Although the official birth date is in 1870, Historic Clay County Courthouse Curator Thomas Watson said the county was conceived in 1850.
“Counties were kinda laid out as conveniences in those days,” Watson said. “Originally this was part of Overton County and Jackson County. Almost immediately after the Civil War, the legislatures looked at the counties, and they decided that every person in Tennessee, every citizen in Tennessee, should be no more than a one day horse ride from the county seat.”
June 16, 1870 the Tennessee General Sessions approved of Clay County as an official county. Clay County citizens rang bells and sang ‘happy birthday’ to celebrate the county’s sesquicentennial Tuesday.
The early town of Celina was closer to the river bank with stores, hotels, and served as a steamboat stop. Watson said a fire and intermittent flooding caused significant damage to the city over the years. He said the entire city was flooded in 1929, so residents moved to where Celina is today.
Some famous historical character that touched Clay County include Daniel Boone, World War I hero Alvin York and, most notably, Nobel Peace Prize winner Cordell Hull. Hull served as Secretary of State under Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930’s.
“The tradition at that time was that a president served two terms and didn’t run again,” Watson said. “Course, plans were being made for Cordell Hull himself to run for presidency of the United States. We found the newspaper article in one of the Cookeville papers talking about it, that he was going to announce his presidency from the Celina Court House.”
Watson said before Hull could announce his desire to run for president, President Roosevelt contacted Hull about running for a third term.
During the 1950’s through the 1980’s, Celina was a major textile center for OshKosh B’gosh with more than 500 jobs. Watson said the community suffered after the factory shut down.
“It’s been a struggle to come up with the things here around the square and here in the county,” Watson said. “But in the county, we have some major industries here.”
For the future, Watson said he hopes the courthouse will be transformed into a museum.
“If you look around town, you’ll notice there’s a lot of upgrading and working on storefronts here, that kind of thing,” Watson said. “We’re pulling ourselves up, and hopefully things are going to get much, much better.”
