Clayton, Indiana

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Liberty Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46118. The Survey maps it on the Clayton quadrangle. 908 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 876 feet above sea level.

Clayton within Hendricks County

On record in Clayton

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

McCormack-Bowman Houselisted 1995

Population over time

2 figures

Clayton fell from 972 to 908 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	972
2020	908	-64 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1953 USGS Clayton quadrangle1:24000
1953 USGS Indianapolis quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1956 USGS Indianapolis quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Indianapolis quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1962 USGS Indianapolis quadrangle1:250000
1970 USGS Clayton quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS Indianapolis quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

In the county-history sources

9,884 words on this township

History of Hendricks County, Indiana, Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Liberty Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Liberty Township is in the southern part of the coutitv, and is bounded as follows: On the north by Center and "Washiiio-toD, on the east by Guilford, on the south by Morgan County and on the west by Franklin and Clay. It comprises about forty-nine square miles, in townships 1-i and 15 north, ranges 1 east and 1 west. It is the largest township in the county. The surface in the northern and eastern portions is high and rolling, while the southwestern portion is low, level, and in places inclined to be swampy. East Fork crosses the northeast corner of the township near Clayton, and passes out of it near the southwestern corner. The natural drainage of the higher portions of the township is excellent, and the small streams or branches generally afford an abundance of pure water the season through. Mud Creek Valley, in the southwest, is of easy drainage on account of the large proportion of sand in the soil. The lands of the township are fertile throughout and well cultivated, and the most e.xtensive farmers in the county live in it.

Passage source: History of Hendricks County, Indiana, Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, published 1885.

Odell and J. S. Wills, 1S36; Clayton T. Swindler, 1841; John W Bryan, 1S45; Nathan Meredith, 18i7; John W. Bryan lSi9- iXathan Meredith and Clayton T. Swindler, 1851; Araos s' Wills' 1854; Jacob S. Redmond and Elisha Franklin, J,S55- Amos s' AYdls and Samuel J. Banta, 1S5S; Elisha Franklin and J. F Powell' lSo9;.John P. McCormick, 1860; Amos S. Wills, 186-> Elisha Franklin, 1863; William Williams, 1864; Amos S Wills and Abraham Bland, 1866; W. W. Irons, 1868; H. A. Marley 1869- Amos S. Wills and Abraham Bland, 1870; Elisha Franklin and j' Ballard, 1872; Amos S. Wills and H. C. Harper, 1874- Amos Elmore and H. F. Swindler, 1876; Araos S. Wills and D H Watts, 1878; John Glover and Reuben Franklin, 1880- Alvin Graves, R. C. Franklin and William Shepherd, 1882; Dan Watts and M. F. Jones, 1884.

Clayton is the largest village in Liberty Township, having 500 inhabitants. It is situated on the Vandf^lia Eailroad, in the northwestern part of the township, on sections 33 and 34. It was platted in 1851, by George W.Wills, and contains about eleyen acres, which tract was purchased from Elizabeth Wills. Its first name was Claysville, in honor of the Kentucky statesman, and had its name afterward changed because there was already a postoffice m the State by that name. The first house was built by Thomas Potts, and the second by Lewis T. Pounds, b-?th frame structures. The first store was opened by Parker & Foote, the second by Eichard and James Worrel, and :.he third bj Morrison & Thomas, m which the first postoffice was kept by P>enjarain F. Thomas, about 1852. The first hotel was buiH by George W. Wills, and was run by Ephraim Hartsuck.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Liberty Township - it names this place 27 more 27 times.

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Clayton: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Happy Valley Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Hendricks County

Storms near this place

16 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clayton in 16 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 8 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2016	Tornado (EF1)	Clayton	$18,000	An EF-1 tornado, with maximum winds estimated at 105 mph, caused minor damage to a few farm buildings, rolled a trailer, and uprooted trees.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$15,000	no account filed
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$4,000	A large tree was downed covering the westbound lanes of Highway 40, south of Clayton, due to damaging thunderstorm wind gusts. Power lines were downed on both sides of the road.
December 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$3,000	A barn door was blown in near US Highway 40 and Highway 0 due to damaging thunderstorm wind gusts.
July 2015	Flash Flood	Clayton	$2,000	Several roads were closed around the county because of flooding due to heavy thunderstorm rainfall. Also, White Lick Creek was about a foot out of its banks.
July 2015	Flood	Clayton	$1,000	An estimated 4 inches of water was on the road at the intersection of State Route 39 and York Avenue due to moderate to heavy rainfall.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$250	A 6-inch diameter tree limb was blown down at County Road 100 West and Highway 40 due to strong thunderstorm wind gusts.
June 2023	Hail	Clayton	-	Thunderstorm hail as large as ping pongs in Clayton.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	-	A three foot diameter tree was blown down in the roadway near a cemetery.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	-	A one-foot diameter tree was blown down by thunderstorm winds at County Road 200 West and United States Highway 40.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	-	Several large limbs were broken. A road was blocked by the debris.
July 2015	Hail	Clayton	-	no account filed
May 2014	Hail	Clayton	-	no account filed
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Clayton	-	no account filed
July 2003	Flash Flood	Clayton	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hendricks County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Summit	0.8 miles	12
North Belleville	1.5 miles	16
Belleville	2.0 miles	16
Pecksburg	2.7 miles	12
Magnetic Springs	3.0 miles	16
Cartersburg	3.2 miles	16
Nash	4.2 miles	12
Springtown	4.5 miles	12

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Clayton	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3292489	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 432598. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.