Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-06-23
NOT A DESCENDANT
or HENRY CLAY

To the Editor of The Journal:
/ noticed a special in yesterdays Con-
stiution from Chicago announcing the
marriage of Col. Ezekiel Clay to Mrs.
Florence Lockhart, both of Paris, KY,
my old home. Brutus ]. Clay, member
of the Atlanta bar, is a son or the above
Clay referred to. The point in the an
nouncement was that he was direct de-
scendant of Henry Clay. This is an error.
The Cassius NJ. Clay family is not related
to the illustrious H. Clay's family and
never claimed any except possibly in the
most remote degree. Col. Ezekiel Clay's
grandfather was a representative from the
District of Kentucky in the Virginia leg
islature. when Henry Clay was a mite Of
boy in the slashes of Hanover county,
near Richmond.
In point of illustrious ancestry the Cas-
sius N. Clay family, or might better
say the Gen. Greene Clay family, stands
the higher. Gen. Greene Clay at the age
of twenty went to Kentucky, entered a
surveyors office (this was in III, the year
that Henry Clay was born), soon became
deputy, which gave him the remarkable
insight of the valuable lands that were
being entered and surveyed, and in that
early day he laid the basis of his great
fortune locating and entering the largest
acreage in Madison and Barbour counties
that was entered by any one man on his
own account. Gen. Clay was of heroic
stamp. In the war of 1872 he led an
army of three thousand men to the relief
of Gen. William Henry Harrison, who
was besieged at Fort Meigs. and saved
him from surrender Harrison moved on
and left Clay in command of the fort,
which was soon afterward unsuccessfully
attacked by a large British and Indian
force, Proctor and Tecumseh being among
them. Harrison, on his return, compli-
mented him for his gallant defense of the
fort. After the war he entered upon the
cultivation of his large landed estate, and
at the time of his death was perhaps the
richest man in Kentucky.
Henry Clay's father was a Baptist min
lister perhaps of the primitive type and
possessed but nttle Of this worlds goods.
He died in 1852 leaving a widow and seven
children, and an encumbranlce upon his
estate His mother possessed great force
of character, quite above the ordinary in
intelligence and of fervid piety. Ten years
later she married man by the name OF
Watkins. They emigrated shortly after
marriage to Kentucky. Before going she
placed her son Henry in small retail
store in Richmond. He was then about
16 years old, and all the schooling he ever
received was at a log-school house, taught
by teachers who selected themselves.
Peter Tinsley, then clerk in the high
court of chancery at Richmond. observed
in the lad clerk something far above the
ordinary, took him into his office. He re-
NAMED with Tinsley for years. He enter
ed the law Office of General Brooke, the
attorney general, afterwards governor Of
Virginia During Clay's service with Tins
ley he attracted the attention of Chancel-
lor Wythe, who made him his amanu-
ensis and in appreciation of his services
gave him much wholesome advice and
wise counsel that was doubtless his strong
anchorage in future years. But l did not
expect to write but one or two para
graphs when commenced. in one OF
which expected to say I doubted If
Green Clay's family felt that it was any
feather in their cap to be direct descend
ant of Henry Clay They were two dis
tinct families. without common heritage