Clayton, Eli (1833-1893)

CLAYTON

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 2/11/2023 at 22:27:18

Eli Clayton
(September 28, 1833 - May 21, 1893)

Eli Clayton was born Sep 28, 1883 in Derbyshire, England. According to his baptismal record Mar 3, 1834 in the Glossop Parish, County of Derby, England, he was the 8th son in a family of 12 children born to John and Mary Clayton. The family left England from Liverpool on the ship named the Denmark, and arrived in the port of New Orleans on Nov 14, 1839. They moved to Wisconsin where his parents died, both buried in Mifflin Cemetery, Mifflin, Iowa County, Wisconsin.
Eli married Hannah Woodward in Grant County, Wisconsin on Nov 8, 1856. They had seven children in Wisconsin from 1857 to 1873: Mary, Ralph Wesley, William R., John, Sherman Grant, Eli, and Charles Joel. The family moved to Wright Township of Pottawattamie County, Iowa in 1874 and in August of 1881 were delighted with another boy born to them, J. G. Clayton. According to a newspaper article, in 1880 Mr. Clayton owned about 1200 acres of land (nearly 2 square miles), was feeding about 300 head of cattle and a large number of hogs of good stock. In October of 1881 a “wind and rain storm” came through the county and leveled all his sheds and outbuildings to the ground – including two windmills. A History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by Keatley, 1883, p.311, “the most prominent citizen in the township [Wright Township] is Eli Clayton, the owner of one of the largest farms in the county, and President of the Board of Supervisors.” An article from the Oakland Acorn, Oakland, Iowa states that
“Mr. Clayton is in many ways one of the finest men we ever met; affable and unostentatious in manner; strictly conscientious in principle; with fine scholastic attainments he possesses the intrinsic qualities of a perfect gentleman in every respect.”
The family moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1887 where Eli was manager of the Iowa and Nebraska Insurance Company. They moved back to Iowa, residing in Atlantic, Cass County, by 1891. Eli Clayton died from cancer on May 24, 1892 at his home in Atlantic, Iowa, aged 59. He was buried in Atlantic Cemetery, Atlantic, Iowa. His wife died in 1895 in Atlantic and was buried in the cemetery with him.