Person:Charles Clay (7)

"Mr. [Charles W.] 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... 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." {'A Standard History of Oklahoma', Joseph B. Thoburn, The American Historical Society, Chicago and New York, 1916, <http://www.rootsweb.com/~okgenweb/books/thoburn/bios3/clay_charles.txt>}

 "The testimony of the defendant C. W. Clay in support of the motions to quash was, in substance, that he bought the land in controversy for a home and held it and had lived on it as such since January 11, 1921; that it is the only home he has; that owing to the mental condition of his wife she would not live on the farm; that he improved the land, fenced it, and built a barn and smokehouse on it; that he killed and cured meat and preserved fruit on the farm; that he farmed the land by hired help; that he went to Ardmore only occasionally; that he had had a stove and bed on the farm since 1921; that Mrs. Clay would come out to the farm and carry in vegetables; that he did not own the property in Ardmore where Mrs. Clay was living and running a rooming house; that the rooming house did not make enough to support her; that he frequently told people that he bought the land in question for a home ; that he was a member of the school board in the country school district for a while since 1921, and that he received his mail on the farm. Several witnesses testified that he lived a great part of his time on the farm, and that in serving process on him on one occasion a constable went to the residence in Ardmore where Mary Clay lived, and that she informed him that Mr. Clay lived on the farm. It is admitted that the Clays have no children and that their family consists of the two." {Clay et al. v. First National Bank in Ardmore et al., Supreme Court of Oklahoma, Decided: 05/22/1934; <http://wyom.state.wy.us/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=38977>}
 In the 1920 census for Ardmore, ward 1, Carter Co., Oklahoma, Charles W. Clay is 51 born Kentucky (parents same), county surveyor; wife Mary E. is 51 born Illinois (father Tennessee, mother Illinois). {ed 39, sh 6b, p. 148}