Clay County Historical Society, Inc.

The Clay County Jail Museum and Heritage Center performs many functions.  We collect, record, preserve, display and interpret our exhibits for the public's benefit, education and enjoyment.  We work to illustrate the development as well as hardships of life in Clay County in the late 1800's to the present.

Our extensive photo and archival collections attract adults and children alike.  Behind the facts, photos, artifacts, and displays, there is always a story to be told.  As our visitors travel through the historic building...jail to drunk tank, sitting room to basement, the story finds a path to excite the memory of a time long passed. Supporting everything we have and do is our pride in the heritage we have managed to preserve, display, and narrate for the education and entertainment of those who visit.

Our vision remains the same:  to continue to help people connect with and appreciate their roots, so they can fully understand how the past affects the present, and the present the future.

The Society is an organization of unpaid, dedicated volunteers, each bringing their own gifts and graces to the task at hand.  This museum operates solely on donations, membership dues, sales of our museum items and any grants we are blessed to obtain.  Therefore, we must raise funds to maintain and operate the museum.    

We need your help to continue the preservation of the county's history and the building itself.  The Jail is over 100 years old and will continually need unforeseen repairs.    Treatment of the interior bricks that are deteriorating in the jail is costly but necessary to preserve the building.  We hope to replace the fluorescent lights in the barn area with LED bulbs, purchase audio visual equipment for the meeting room, as well as other items to make it fully functioning.  We are continually updating the exhibits and displays creating audio QR codes for many of them.  We hope to purchase tablets for self-guided tours and digitize oral history of recollections of earlier days in Clay County.  We were able to update computers in our Archive room and another in our office area with money raised last year.   We need to purchase promotional materials to advertise our facility when we are making presentations to school children and community organizations.  Our biggest expense will be the replacement of the stucco on east end of our museum building.

Please consider donating to the museum during the posted 6am-10pm time period.  Help the Clay County Historical Society, along with our county of family supporters, continued to restore and preserve our history.

Who We Are

As an outgrowth of an earlier, long-time historical survey committee, the Clay County Historical Society, inc was chartered in 1981 as a non-profit 501 (c) (3) charitable organization that generally held programs and promoted interest in the history of the county and in collecting what it could before any more artifacts and stories were lost. In 1985 the Society took on the task of restoring the dilapidated 1890 Clay Co. Jail. A major capital funds campaign in 1995-96 raised a quarter million dollars to fully restore the building and establish the county museum-heritage center. In 2009-09, another capital funds campaign was held that netted three quarters of a million dollars to redo the basement, added storage space,, and strengthened the building. In 2012 the Museum was allowed to expand to recently emptied Henrietta VFD facilities located next to the Museum which allowed an expansion to display early agricultural equipment and larger equipment such as a printing press, covered wagon, and more. The Society is also hopeful to move into the second bay of the "barn" which could be used for traveling exhibits from other members of the Regional Museum Network, and more.

With the donations to Texoma Gives we hope will help us upgrade our technology and social media presence and, we have received the Commissioner's Court's permission to have the second bay of the previous VFD barn, are replacing the plumbing and make the space into a multipurpose area. This will allow us to bring in exhibits, hold programs and classes, and more. We are grateful for the support we have received by our donors since the beginning and welcome all to come and visit our Museum and learn more about the rich history of Clay County and the Pioneers who opened up this part of Texas bringing us to today .