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REV. CHARLES W. CLAY
Vol. 3, p. 1246

Carter County elected Charles Westley Clay to the office of county
surveyor, and his administration in this important post is fully
justifying the choice of the votes of the county.

Mr. Clay was born near Carlisle, Nicholas County, Kentucky, on the
15th day of April, 1868, and is a son of Matthew Reed Clay and Mollie
(CAMPBELL) Clay, the former of whom was born at Carlisle in 1838, and
the latter of whom was born in Mason county, that state, in 1842, her
death having occurred at the old homestead in Nicholas County, in
1875. Matthew R. Clay maintained his home in Kentucky from the time
of his nativity until his death, which occurred on the 27th day of
July, 1888, his active career having been one of close and effective
identification with the fundamental industries of agriculture and
stockgrowing. He was a man of strong individuality, leal [sic] and
loyal in all the relations of life, and he has been for many years
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. Of the children of the first
marriage the eldest is John W., who is a prosperous farmer in
Nicholas County, Kentucky; Charles W. of this review, was the next in
order of birth; Mattie is the wife of Franklin W. SHANKLIN, a farmer
of Nicholas County; Silas D. resides upon and operates the old
homestead farm in that county; Virgie is the wife of Robert H.
RATLIFF, who is a substantial farmer near Seward, Kansas; and
Elizabeth is the wife of John M. RATLIFF, a farmer near Waldron,
Indiana.

For his second wife Matthew R. Clay married Elizabeth SHROUT, who
was born and reared in Nicholas County, Kentucky and whose death
occurred in 1883. The only child of this union is Oliver Sidney, who
is a farmer and auctioneer at Waldron, Indiana.

Adverting to the genealogical history of the Clay family it may be
stated that the subject of this review is a descendant of John Clay,
a Welshman who was captain in command of a British vessel on which he
crossed the Atlantic and was in Virginia in 1676. He took part in the
historic Bacon Rebellion and on this account was made an English
outlaw, the English Government offering a price for his arrest. He
never returned to England but dismantled his ship and took refuge in
the mountains of Virginia. His property in England was confiscated
and is still held by the government, as he was never brought to trial.

George Campbell, the maternal grandfather of Charles W. Clay, was
the son of Robert Campbell, Jr., who was a brother of Rev. John P.
Campbell, the first Presbyterian clergyman in Nicholas County,
Kentucky. This pioneer minister was the grandfather of Hon. James E.
Campbell, former governor of the State of Ohio. The paternal
grandmother of Mr. Clay was a second cousin of Governor Morton, chief
executive of the State of Indiana during the Civil War, and she was a
kinswoman also of Hon. Levi P. Morton, former governor of the State
of New York, and of former Governor Throckmorton of Texas.

Charles W. Clay acquired his early education in the common schools
of his native county, and in 1885 he entered the Kentucky Wesleyan
College, at Millersburg, in which institution he continued his
studies for three and one-half years. For five years he was a
successful teacher in the rural schools of his native state, and in
1895 he joined the Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, as a minister of which he served two years as pastor
of charges at Whitesburg and Hindman; one year as a pastor of the
church at East Pulaski; one year in a pastoral charge at
Preachersville; and two years as pastor of the church at Clay City.

In 1901 Bishop Key, of Sherman Texas, assigned Mr. Clay to the
Indian Mission Conference of Indian Territory, this being the nucleus
of the present East Oklahoma Conference. In this conference Mr. Clay
was in ministerial service one year on the Lebanon circuit, was
pastor at Lone Grove two years, at Hartshorn, four years and at
Tahlequah one year. For one year he served as missionary among the
Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Indians, commonly designated as the wild
tribes, and in the mean while he found much requisition for his
services as a surveyor, a profession for which he had fitted himself
while attending college in Kentucky. In 1909 his alma mater, Kentucky
Wesleyan College, conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of
Science, a well-merited though somewhat tardy recognition, as he had
left the institution only a few months prior to the graduation of the
class of which he was a member.

In 1910 Mr. Clay established his permanent home at Ardmore, and has
since followed surveying as his vocation, though he is still
frequently called upon to officiate in his capacity as a clergyman,
his service as a minister having been zealous, self abnegating and
fruitful during the long period of his active labors in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in the faith of which he was reared. Mr.
Clay has never deviated from the line of strict allegiance to the
Democratic party and has served as county surveyor of Carter County
since July 1913. He was re-elected to this office in November 1914,
for a term of two years, and his official headquarters are maintained
in the county courthouse. While a resident of Kentucky he served
eight years as deputy clerk of the courts of Nicholas County. He is
still affiliated with the lodge of Knights of Pythias at Moorefield,
Kentucky, and is past chancellor commander of the same.

On the 20th of October, 1897, in the City of St. Louis, Missouri,
was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clay to Miss Mary E. SEAGO,
daughter of John Seago, who was a resident of that city at the time
of his death and who was a descendant of a French Huguenot who fled
his native land and came to America, to escape the persecution
incidental to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Mr. And Mrs.
Clay have no children, but in their hospitable home the children of
the community, as well as their elders, are ever assured of a genial
welcome.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Marti Graham, October 9, 1998.