Charlevoix county herald., 1914-09-12
CLAY At 90 ARMED
HOME FORBR|DE,1 Is
After Wedding to General, Dora
Richardson and Famous Hus-,
band Held World at Bay
Death of Girl Wife Recalls Story
OF Kentucky occur de lion,"
Once Ambassador to Gar.

Lexington. Ky.-The situation
would have been unique enough to be
interesting. Imagine man of 80 mar
ried to a girl OF Is! But couple to
the fact that the man was Gen. Cas-
sius NJ. Clay. the Occur de Lion OF
Kentucky, onetime Ambassador to the
Court of the Car and the real pur-
chaser for US of Alaska! Add the in
teresting family feud that resulted,
with Clay actually placing al armed
guard aronud his place and demand
ing passes OF all who would enter
and you can't blame Kentuckians. for
retelling the story, now the girl wife
having passed away in Lexington,
five years after Clay's death.
Dora Richardson Clay Brock Hunt
about sixteen years ago was known
the country over as the child wife OF
Gen. Clay, famous pioneer Abolition
list.
After her marriage to Gen. Clay she
lived with the veteran statesman in
his great mansion in Madison County,
for a time, but the Clay family raised
such row that she finally left. He
agreed she should have divorce and
marry Riley Brock, nearer her own
age and of her own station in life
Gen. Clay presented them with a home
at Pinkard, and a son was named Clay
Brock
One who went to the Clay home
after the wedding thus describes the
visit:
THE man whose naked knife once
was his sufficient protection against
all the world was guarded in his cas-
tie night and day by armed servants.
Many of these had been with Gen.
Clay since before the war, and they,
one and all, were true as steel.
Approach the house and you were
met by man, black or white, who
with a most respectful bow, said
You can't go that way, sir; kindly
take this path. It's the Generals or
ders.
ITO back up the orders there was a
the thick walls were pierced with
double-barreled shotguns.
when the General tottered out
upon his lawn his hair was snow
white and very long. An old-fashioned
round comb, such as schoolgirls used
to wear, was thrust just back of his
forehead, to keep his hair out of his
eyes. The same thought occurred to
all, but no one dared ask the old man
if the comb was one left in the house
of his girl-wife, Dora.
Finally, in 1903, there were divorce
proceedings between Cassius NJ. Clay
and his child-wife.
Few people sell their wedding pres
ents at auction, but in February of
that year, dispatches from Versailles,
KY, were chroncling how the divorced
wife of the Lion of Whitehall had just
done this, and that she found it ex-
ceedingly profitable.
After Dora Clay, the girl-wife Of the
General, had become weary of being
an old mans darling and had gotten
divorce, she married young Brock.
Gen. Clay's presents were the features
of the wedding. They were numerous
and consisted of selections from the
accumulated souvenirs of long life
selections of pieces of note from all
over the world as well as the Clay
silver, heirlooms of generations. Clay
however, far from being perturbed by
| the sale, was reported as inviting the
young couple, along with their infant
to make their home at Whitehall.
Few women, it is safe to assert
have lived, in so brief life, career
| so strange and one that threw then
so much in the public eye as Dora
! Clay.