U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Clayton, Ulysses Arnett (b. 1843) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Genealogical and Personal History of the Upper Monongahela Valley West Virginia Author: James Morton Callahan New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1912 Volume III, Page 1369-1370, Ulysses Arnett Clayton Ulysses Arnett Clayton, son of John W. and Harriet J. (Boggess) Clayton, was born November 15, 1843, in Marion county, Virginia, now West Virginia. The foundation of his education was laid in the old- fashioned subscription schools, after which he began his business career at Mannington as a shoe merchant. He continued thus for three years, when he formed a partnership with State Senator Furbee, engaging in the lumber business; the firm operated two mills and bought large quantities of lumber from other mills which they put upon the market. In 1878 Mr. Clayton purchased Senator Furbee's interest in the business and conducted it alone until the year 1884; during that year he bought a planing mill in Fairmont, and returning to that city in 1885, he operated the plant until it was burned in 1890. He rebuilt at once on the site of the old mill a larger and better one, better equipped and more extensive than any other in West Virginia; and this he operated successfully until February, 1895, when he sold it on account of the illness of his wife. He had confined himself exclusively to mill work, employing more than a score of men and superintending every department himself as far as it was possible. After selling his mill Mr. Clayton purchased on May 1, 1895, an interest in the Burt Oil Company and in the Burt Manufacturing Company, being elected a director in both concerns. The oil wells, located in Wayne county, Kentucky, not proving to be the paying proposition anticipated, he became interested in real estate and coal in Fairmont, in which business he continues at the present time. During the civil war Mr. Clayton was among the number of Union soldiers who marched and fought under General Philip Sheridan in his famous campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. He enlisted August 16, 1862, in Company H, Fourteenth West Virginia Infantry, was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and saw much hard fighting in the famous campaign from Winchester to Cedar Creek when the Confederate army under General Early was almost annihilated. Besides the "battle month" campaign in the Shenandoah, Mr. Clayton saw other service and participated in other important battles and skirmishes; he served until the end of the war and was honorably discharged at Wheeling, June 25, 1865, hostilities having ceased. In his political convictions Mr. Clayton was a member of the Republican party until 1884, since which time he has been in sympathy with the Prohibitionists, whose ticket he has voted, and upon which he has himself twice been a candidate for congress. He is greatly interested in the work of temperance reform, and for twelve years he has been chairman of the state central committee of the Prohibition party of West Virginia; during this period the vote of the party has increased from twelve hundred to five thousand. Mr. Clayton was instrumental in having prepared and passed by the West Virginia legislature in about 1900 a bill which became a law, providing for the appearance of the name of the Prohibition party on election ballots at annual elections in the state, without petition, as is required by other minority political organizations; the party had then been in the field for ten years. Since 1904 Mr. Clayton has served on the national Prohibition committee. He is also interested in Free Masonry, being a member of the Masonic order and belonging to Lodge No. 31, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Mannington, West Virginia. He belongs also to the Presbyterian church at Fairmont. On November 24, 1869, Mr. Clayton was married to Elizabeth Burt, daughter of Frank H. and Maria Burt, of Mannington, Marion county. She died June 10, 1895, in Tennessee. Ten years afterward, on July 26, 1905, he married Miss Anabel Kelley, a native of Prince George county, Maryland. She is the daughter of William Henry Kelley, who was born in Maryland in 1825. Mrs. Clayton's mother was Miss Elizabeth Vaughn, born in Alexandria, Virginia, daughter of John and Katherine (Johns) Vaughn, and great-granddaughter on the maternal side of John Johns, a revolutionary soldier from Essex district, North Carolina. Mrs. Clayton prior to her marriage was teacher of art in the State Normal School, Fairmont, West Virginia. Some of her paintings were on exhibition at the St. Louis World's Fair. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional Information: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Death Certificate, Marion County WV #911 Anabel Verina Kelley Clayton died 6-Apr-1917 marital-status: married born: 15-Jun-1867, Prince George County, Md cause: Rupture of Aortic Anurism dau-of: William Henry Kelley and Elizabeth Mary DaVaughn burial: Baltimore Md --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1900 Census, Mairon County WV ED:52, Fairmont District, Fairmont Ward 3 Sheet 15A, Line 48 CLAYTON, Ulysses A (56), Widow, born-Nov-1843, Va-Va-Va, Real estate agent --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1880 Census, Marion County WV ED:90, Page No. 61 Mannington District, Lines 17-18 CLAYTON, Ulissis A (36), Sawyer, WV-Va-Va ", Elizabeth (33), Keeping House, Mass-Conn-Mass --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1870 Census, Marion County WV Town of Mannington, Page No. 10, Lines 5-11 CLAYTON, Harriet J (51), Keeping-house, $600/$200, WV ", Martha M (18), without-occupation, WV ", Lizzie A (16), without-occupation, WV ", Ella May (13), at-home, WV ", George B M (8), at-home, WV ", Ulisses A (27) Farm-hand, $1000/$0, WV ", Lizzie (24) Keeping-house, Massachusetts ---------------------------------------------------------------------