According to Deed Record D Page 24 and 25:
I do certify that this is a true plan of so much of the Town of Anquilla as lies on the west side of Eel River situated in Clay County, IN, at the feeder dam 25 miles SE of Terre Haute and nine miles SW of Bowling Green the Base line bears S50 degrees 30 minutes W and the set right angle and parallel. Given from under my hand July 11th, 1838 C. C. MODESITT, Deputy Surveyor of Clay County.

Listed are the names of landowners in the town of Anquilla: G. FAIRE (Fain), David NUCKOLLS, John WHITELEY, Zera SUTHERLAND, Daniel WALLACE, Wm. HANDLIN, L. N. WILLCOX, James MCCAIG, Patrick CONLIN, Owen B.

Anguilla was located in the SE 1/4 of the NE 1/4 of Section 6, Township 10 North, Range 6 West. John HUFFMAN and his wife, Polly, deeded this property to Samuel Howe SMYDTH on June 9, 1837. Deed Record C, page 429. Mr. SMYDTH laid out the town of Anquilla in the 40 acres he purchased from the HUFFMAN’s. There was an exception of 3.47 acres out of this 40 acres that was deeded to the State of Indiana.

The following article was printed in the Clay City Independent, Friday, September 23, 1881, Vol. 1 No. 33.

“ANGUILLA is the Latin for eel, hence, an appropriate name for the town which was laid out on the west bank of Eel River, just below the feeder Dam, in July, 1838, by William J. BALL, the chief engineer on that section of the Wabash & Erie Canal lying between Terre Haute and Newberry. The canal company bought twenty acres of land on which to build the town, anticipating the development of a large and flourishing commercial town. The name was given the town by Judge Daniel HARRIS, grandfather of Daniel HARRIS, of Middlebury, who is usually spoken of as the Father of Clay County. but it is not to be inferred from this that Clay County is sire to our Daniel, but that Judge HARRIS represented Owen County in the State legislature at the time this county was organized and was instrumental in effecting the organization out of territory taken from Owen and Vigo Counties, the Judge residing near the Vigo line. Thomas HARRIS, our Daniel’s father, engaged in merchandising at this town, having his store in the only remaining house of the town, that is now occupied as a dwelling by Jesse ALLEE, and was also appointed post-master when the office was established there, and was succeeded, in his official capacity, by W.F. T. MCKEE, father of Arnold MCKEE, of Middlebury. Besides other improvements, a large flouring mill was built about 1845, but, owing to the insecurity of the foundation, Eel River soon insinuated and undermined it, so that the machinery way all taken out and removed, the building afterward toppling over into the river. On the opposite bank of the river, at this place, was the famous Buckeye grocery, kept in a cabin built wholly of buckeye timber by Riley LUTHER. Owing to the opposition of the people of the county to the permanency and security of the canal Feeders and the final failure of the canal itself, the projectors and proprietors of the town never realized their anticipations. It had long since been wholly vacated, and but little remains of the Feeder Dam structure.”