Hayesville, North Carolina

Hayesville is a town in Clay County, North Carolina, in the United States. The population was 311 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Clay County.GeographyHayesville is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.4sqmi, all of it land.The Hiwassee River flows along the outskirts of Hayesville.HistoryHayesville occupies the site of the former Cherokee town of Quanassee, which lay along the Trading Path (also called the "Unicoi Turnpike"). The road led from Quanassee west to present-day Murphy, North Carolina, then over the Unicoi Range at Unicoi Gap and down to the Cherokee town of Great Tellico (today Tellico Plains, Tennessee) (Duncan 2003:245).The town's present day name owes to Mr. George Hayes, who was running for representative from Cherokee County in the fall election of 1860. When campaigning in the southeastern end of the county he discovered that its residents wished to separate from Cherokee County and form their own county seat. Promising to introduce legislation to this effect won him most of the area’s votes, swinging the election in his favor, and in February 1861 the legislation was introduced and passed by the North Carolina General Assembly. The county seat was thus named in his honor, while the county itself was named in honor of Kentucky statesman Henry Clay.