Clyde, an incorporated city of Cloud county, is located on the Republican river at the junction of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Missouri Pacific and the Union Pacific railways, 15 miles east of Concordia, the county seat, and not far from the eastern boundary of the county. It is the oldest town in the county, the original site of 40 acres having ben[sic] purchased from W. H. Page early in 1866 for $300 and soon afterward the town was laid out. Cowell & Davis had opened a store on the site before the town was platted. It was first named Shirley, which was also the original name of the county, but in a little while the name was changed to Clyde. For a time the growth was slow, but since the advent of the railroads it has been more steady and substantial, and in 1910 the population was 1,057.

For a city of its size, Clyde is one of the most progressive and metropolitan in character in the state. It has well kept streets, an electric light plant, waterworks, a fire department, a sewer system, 2 banks, 2 theaters, 2 weekly newspapers (the Republican and the Herald), a commercial club, good hotels, a graded school system, several fine church edifices, a flour mill, a creamery, grain elevators, marble and granite works, and annually ships large quantities of grain, live stock, watermelons and alfalfa. Its international money order postoffice has five rural routes which supply a large district with daily mail, and the mercantile establishments of the city enjoy a large and profitable patronage. Telephone connection is maintained with the surrounding towns.