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Office: Clay County Sheriff’s Office – 300 Broadway Street, Louisville, IL 62858 | (618) 665-3316 | Email: [email protected]; Sheriff Andy Myers, in office since 2014. Serving roughly 14,000 residents across 462 square miles; the office traces its history back to 1826.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: SR-130/50 serve Louisville, the county seat; Flora is the county’s largest city.
Notes: Clay County was created December 23, 1824 and organized March 8, 1825, from parts of Wayne, Crawford, and Fayette counties, named for statesman Henry Clay, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky and Secretary of State.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Clay County Courthouse – 300 Broadway Street, Louisville, IL (built 1913, Classical Revival, architect Joseph W. Royer, who designed several other Illinois courthouses; the county’s fourth courthouse; National Register of Historic Places since 2015).
Notes: The county seat has genuinely moved and been renamed multiple times: first established at Hubbardsville in 1825, it was renamed Maysville after local landowner Daniel May donated land for and built the first wooden courthouse. In 1841 the Illinois State Legislature ordered the seat relocated to Louisville, where a permanent courthouse opened in 1846 after some legal difficulties. The historic Clay County Jail (195 Main Street, Louisville, built 1893, Queen Anne style, built by the Pailey Jail Building and Manufacturing Company, the county’s third jail; National Register of Historic Places since 1998) still stands as a preserved landmark. Louisville native Clyde Williams (1872-1940), admitted to the bar in 1897, served as county prosecuting attorney, mayor of Louisville, and later represented the district in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight consecutive Congresses.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Clay County Veterans Assistance – confirm current contact via claycountyillinois.org.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Louisville Public Library (Louisville) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The historic Clay County Jail (National Register of Historic Places), the Clay County Courthouse, and downtown Louisville are the county’s premier heritage attractions.
Notes: The genuine, well-preserved 1893 Clay County Jail and the county seat’s multiple historical relocations and renamings are among the standout local facts covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Clay County Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via claycountyillinois.org.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via claycountyillinois.org; Clay County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Clay County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via claycountyillinois.org.
NOTES: Clay County is the thirteenth county completed in Illinois’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine, well-preserved 1893 Clay County Jail is among the standout local facts covered in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Clay County County
Clay County is south-central Illinois’s Little Wabash River agricultural and oil heritage county – the river corridor and the shallow oil fields that brought 20th-century petroleum extraction to the county’s rolling terrain define a quietly agricultural community where Louisville serves the surrounding farming communities in the southern Illinois interior.
Louisville (the county seat, population ~1,100) is Clay County’s governmental hub, a small south-central Illinois community on IL-45 serving the county’s agricultural and former oil-producing communities in the Little Wabash River watershed.
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Clay County Supervisor of Assessments at 111 Chestnut Street, Louisville, IL 62858, phone 618-665-3626. IL assessed at 33.33% of market value.
Courts & Legal
Clay County Circuit Court at 111 Chestnut Street, Louisville, IL 62858, phone 618-665-3523, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
111 Chestnut St., Louisville, IL 62858
(618) 665-3523
CIRCUIT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
111 Chestnut St., Louisville, IL 62858
(618) 665-3626
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
111 Chestnut St., Louisville, IL 62858
(618) 665-3523
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Clay County Circuit Clerk (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Clay County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Clay County Circuit Clerk (Fourth Judicial Circuit) 111 Chestnut Street, Louisville, IL 62858 (618) 665-3523
Clay County was created December 23, 1824 and organized March 8, 1825, named for Henry Clay. The county seat is Louisville; the largest city is Flora. The Fourth Judicial Circuit also includes Christian, Clinton, Effingham, Fayette, Jasper, Marion, Montgomery, and Shelby Counties.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Illinois has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code and is not a community property state – it follows common law property principles. Illinois probate is governed by the Probate Act of 1975 (755 ILCS 5/). Two main paths:
Small Estate Affidavit – for estates where personal property (excluding real estate) is valued at $150,000 or less (raised from $100,000 effective August 15, 2025), with no unresolved debts or claims and no real estate involved. No formal court probate is required.
Formal Probate (Independent or Supervised Administration) – required when the estate doesn’t qualify for the small estate affidavit. Most Illinois probate cases proceed under Independent Administration, letting the estate representative act without prior court approval for most routine actions.
Step 2: filing for formal probate
File the decedent’s original will (if one exists) with the Clay County Circuit Clerk, where the decedent resided at death.
Petition the court to open the estate and appoint an executor (if there’s a will) or an administrator (if intestate).
The court issues Letters of Office (Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration) appointing the representative.
Publish notice to creditors and unknown heirs as required by Illinois law.
Under Independent Administration, the representative marshals assets, pays valid debts and taxes, and distributes the remaining estate without needing court approval for each step.
File a final accounting or closing documents to formally close the estate.
What it costs
Illinois imposes its own state estate tax on estates valued above $4 million, with rates up to 16%. There is no Illinois inheritance tax.
Filing fees vary by county – confirm current amounts with the Clay County Circuit Clerk.
Most uncontested probate proceedings in Illinois can be completed within about a year.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
111 Chestnut St., Louisville, IL 62858
(618) 665-3211
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
111 Chestnut St., Louisville, IL 62858
(618) 665-3523
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
111 Chestnut St., Louisville, IL 62858
(618) 665-3523
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Clay County Health Dept
(618) 665-3286
IL DCFS — Flora
(618) 662-4487
IL Medicaid
(800) 843-6154
Richland Memorial Hospital (Olney)
richlandmemorial.org
Flora Memorial Hospital
claycountyhospital.org (Louisville)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Clay County Health Department – confirm current contact via claycountyillinois.org.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Louisville
Population: 13,000
Area: 469 sq mi
Established: 1824
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for Clay County County residents.
