Clay County, Florida’s thirty-seventh, was created on this date in 1858 by carving out part of Duval County in northeast Florida. Named after American statesman Henry Clay, the U.S. senator from Kentucky and secretary of state under President John Quincy Adams, its county seat is Green Cove Springs. Considered part of the greater Jacksonville metropolitan area, Clay County was a popular tourist destination for northern tourists during the latter half of the nineteenth century. People particularly enjoyed the therapeutic warm springs which abound in Clay County. In 1939 Clay was chosen as the site of one of the largest U.S. Army training bases in Florida during World War II, Camp Blanding, which at its height was considered the fourth largest “city” in Florida. Clay County was also the home of Gustafson Dairy Farm, started in Green Cove Springs in 1908, which was one of the largest privately owned dairies in the southeast.
Florida Historical Society
