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County Resources, Clay County

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The Grim Reaper's Footsteps Across the Nation as Mentioned in The Clay County (Arkansas) Courier Newspaper, 1893-1925
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-221-1, 506 pages, $59.50
Click here to view the index
This volume contains hundreds of news items from not only northeastern Arkansas, but also from places all over the United States. Some are lengthy obituaries, others are short notations. Even the short notices can lead researchers to other sources. The Arkansas deaths which occurred after 1914 are cross-referenced to the Arkansas Death Record series of books by Desmond Walls Allen. The book contains deaths, rumored deaths, impending deaths, and intended deaths. Every single person, dead or alive, mentioned in the book is listed in the index (see the link above). One article from 1893 lists 405 ex-Confederate Arkansas soldiers buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Chicago, Ill. It's impossible to fully describe the scope of this marvelous book. But it's not just an index, the full texts of the articles are given. There are over 8,000 deaths listed.

The Clay County Courier published news articles from all over Arkansas. It's amazing the amount of state-wide coverage in this wonderful resource. The indexes posted with this web site list place names as well as people, so take a look, whether or not you have Clay County folks. And there's a wonderful amount of information for Clay and surrounding counties. These books contain actual transcriptions for the most part, making it unnecessary to order copies of the articles from microfilm. As an added bonus, by reading through this material, you'll get a taste of what life was like at the turn of the century.

Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1893-1899, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-112-6, 138 pages, $21.00
Click here to view the Index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1900-1901, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-120-7, 135 pages, $21.00
Click here to view the Index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1902-1903, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-122-3, 154 pages, $23.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1904-1905, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-129-0, 139 pages, $21.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1906-1907, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-130-4, 133 pages, $21.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1908-1909, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-131-2, 157 pages, $23.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1910, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-133-9, 199 pages, $26.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper,1911, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-183-5, 170 pages, $25.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1912, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-135-5, 154 pages, $25.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1913, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-163-0, 139 pages, $22.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1914, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-170-3, 176 pages, $25.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1915, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-173-8, 176 pages, $25.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1916, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-181-9, 193 pages, $28.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1917, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-194-0, 174 pages, $25.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1919-1920, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-201-7, 139 pages, $22.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1921-1923, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-207-6, 184 pages, $26.00
Click here to view the index


Life and Times from The Clay County Courier Newspaper, 1924-1925, Published in Corning, Arkansas
Compiled by Cathy Barnes, ISBN 1-56546-215-7, 127 pages, $24.00
Click here to view the index



Arkansas Land Patents: Eastern Arkansas Counties (Clay, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Greene, Lee, Mississippi, Monroe, Phillips, Poinsett, and St. Francis Counties)
ISBN 1-56546-002-2, 232 pages, $24.00

What are land patents? All of what is now Arkansas was once owned by the federal government--it is a public domain land state. People who purchased land from the federal government received documents called land patents. Land was obtained through purchase, military warrants, homesteads, scrip acts and other laws that allowed the land to be transferred out of federal hands. The paperwork generated in those sales can be very helpful to genealogists. Copies of the land patents make interesting additions to published family histories but the land entry case files are most apt to have helpful details about families or clues that help piece together information from other sources.

What information is included? The county volumes of land patents list patentee's name, volume and page of the patent book, land office, document and miscellaneous document numbers, type of transaction, precise legal description, and number of acres. Introductory information describes in great detail how to get copies of the patents and land entry case files, how to use other land record sources, how to integrate the information with other sources, what is found in a typical homestead case file, where and when the Arkansas land offices operated, and a selected bibliography. County maps are also included. The time period covered by this information is earliest settlement through 30 June 1908. Information from 156,784 patent documents is included. These county volumes are based on current-day county boundaries.


Arkansas Confederate Pension Applications from Eastern Arkansas (Arkansas, Chicot, Clay, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Desha, Greene, Lee, Mississippi, Monroe, Phillips, Poinsett and St. Francis Counties)
ISBN 0-941765-57-1, 50 pp, 1,917 veterans, $10.00

This book is an index to Confederate veterans who applied for pensions from the State of Arkansas. Information includes: veteran's name, widow or mother's name, company, unit, year(s) of enrollment, county from which applied and death dates of the veteran and his widow. Also included is a list of pensioners granted awards through legislative acts and a list of residents of the Confederate Home. Pensioners in this book are cross-referenced to the 1911 Arkansas Confederate Veteran census. A detailed summary of pension legislation and suggestions for further research are included. Pensions were based on the state of residence at the time of eligibility.


Arkansas State Donation and Swamp Lands: Clay and Greene Counties
Compiled by Desmond Walls Allen, ISBN 1-56546-268-8, 173 pages, $25.00
Click here to view the names listed in this book

See our detailed explanation about donation and swamp lands under our "Land Records" category. (Then click your "back" browser button to return to this page.)

Or buy this book in .pdf with electronic delivery (no shipping), ISBN 978-1-56546-533-6, $8.95


Index to Arkansas' World War I Soldiers from Clay and Greene Counties
ISBN 1-56546-238-6, 55 pages, $15.00

Click here to view a list of Clay County World War I Soldiers

Click here to learn more about these records on our World War I page



FREE Clay County Death Record Indexes

The following links lead you to death record indexes for specified time periods. The information in these indexes is taken straight from Arkansas Health Department records. Click here to visit the Health Department's website for more information about ordering a death certificate. We've been selling this information in book form for some time, but have decided to make it available free to all our cousins researching our Arkansas ancestors. Click here to see details about the books.

Remember, just like in horseshoes and nuclear war, "close" counts when it comes to spelling.

Clay County Death Record Index 1914-1923

Clay County Death Record Index 1924-1933

Clay County Death Record Index 1934-1940

Clay County Death Record Index 1941-1948


Clay County was created: 24 March 1873
Note: It was created as Clayton County; the name was changed December 1875.
Parent Counties: Randolph, Greene.
County Boundary Changes: Line with Greene changed 5 March 1885.
County Records: In 1906, J.M. Pickens reported "the will and deed records begin in April, 1881, and are complete to date except deed record E from March 1, 1891, to January 31, 1892. This record was burned. The following records are missing: Book E named above, the entire records of Clayton County, and the records of Clay County from December 1875, to February 29 [sic], 1893. The latter records were burned at Piggott when the courthouse was destroyed by fire."

Click here to load a .pdf map of Clay County


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