The Origins of Jay, Oklahoma
When Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907, the only sizable hamlet in Delaware County was Grove Springs in the north part of the surveyed county. While it had some 200 inhabitants, a railroad, hack service from Vinita, two hotels, and a livery stable, it put some county residents a long way from the county seat. On July 27, 1908, a group of interested citizens from all over the county met at Muskrat Springs and organized an association called the Delaware County Improvement Association with E.C. Wofford as chairman. Dick Walker and Charlie W. Barnett were hired to survey and find the exact geographical center of the county. It was determined that the exact center of the county was in the allotment of Thompson Oochalata, a full blood Cherokee, but because of restrictions on Indian land his acreage couldn't be used.
Claude L. "Jay" Washbourne, Jr. donated his ten acres lying east of the Oochalata land for a county seat. A town site was laid out in what was then only a thicket and they began to circulate petitions for a post office. The association helped obtain the required number of signatures and forwarded them, along with the town plot, and three suggested names of the new county seat town. The name Jay was chosen.
There are at least two stories about how the town got it's name. One story says it was named by its surveyor Dick Wofford, for his only son, Jay, who later was a business man in Jay until his death early 1960. Another story says the town was named for "Jay" Washbourne. "Jay" got his name from the large "J" which refused to come off the flour sack from which his mother made his shirt. There is no known documentation as to how Jay, Oklahoma actually got its name.