County: Ray County
Location of courthouse: bordered by Thornton St., College St., Main St. (MO 10) & North Main St., Richmond
Location of county: on the inside edge of the NW quadrant; crossroads of MO-13 & MO-10; southern border is the Missouri River
Organized: Nov. 16, 1820
Named after: John Ray, a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1820
Elevation (highest): 308 meters (1,010 feet)
Population: 22,855 (2017)
"In 1816 Isaac Martin, Holland Vanderpool, Abraham Linville, Isaac Wilson, John Turner and others, from Virginia and Kentucky, settled on Crooked River near the present (1874) site of Buffalo City ... This same year the first steamboat navigated the Missouri River as far as Camden, and was a great curiosity to the Indians, who, for a time, could not be induced to approach it.
"The county was organized November 16th, 1820, and named in honor of John Ray, a member of the Constitutional Convention from Howard County. It then embraced all that part of the State west of Grand River and north of the Missouri. From this magnificent expanse of territory 12 other counties were erected -- Ray has been called the Mother of counties -- but its boundaries have not been altered since December 29, 1836.
"The first county court was held in April, 1821, at Bluffton -- John Thornton, Isaac Martin and Elisha Conner, justices; Wm. L. Smith, clerk and John Harris sheriff ... " ~ Campbell's Gazetteer of Missouri, 1874, p. 471.
"During the year 1821 settlers had poured into the western part of Ray County in considerable numbers. The pioneers evinced a disposition to go out upon the frontiers of the State to the "jumping off place," or to the extreme Western boundary of the State as far as they could go. So that it was that Clay County was well settled before Carroll, the eastern part of Ray, and a large portion of Chariton were.
"Fishing River and Gallatin Townships of Ray County were so well populated that it was determined to create a new county, to be called Clay in honor of the then brilliant orator and coming statesman of Kentucky, Henry Clay. January 22, 1822, the Legislature passed an act forming the new county of Clay." ~ History of Clay and Platte Counties, St. Louis, 1885, National Historic Society, p. 98.
"The first post-office was not at Bluffton, on the river, as one would suppose, but at Tinney's Point in the northeast corner of what is now Ray County. This was on May 29, 1821. Nathaniel Harlow, postmaster.
"The Tinney post-office lasted until June 22, 1821. It was reestablished in 1842 some 21 years after the first was established ...
"What is generally considered as the first post-office of any consequence was at Bluffton, with Jonathan T. Burch, postmaster appointed October 17, 1821.
"In 1835, a second post-office was established at Elkhorn. Next in succession were Fredericksburg, 1837, Knoxville, Camden, Grape Grove in 1838 and Hardin in 1858." ~ Ray County Missouri History, 1973