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John M. Clayton (Arkansas politician)

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John Clayton
Member-elect of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from Arkansas's 2nd district
Died before taking office
Preceded byClifton R. Breckinridge
Succeeded byClifton R. Breckinridge
Personal details
Born
John Middleton Clayton

(1840-10-13)October 13, 1840
Bethel Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedJanuary 29, 1889(1889-01-29) (aged 48)
Conway County, Arkansas, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
SpouseSarah Ann
Children6
RelativesPowell Clayton (brother)
Thomas J. Clayton (brother)
W. H. H. Clayton (twin)

John Middleton Clayton (October 13, 1840 – January 29, 1889) was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for Jefferson County from 1871 to 1873 and the Arkansas State Senate for Jefferson County. In 1888, he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives but lost to Clifton R. Breckinridge. Clayton challenged the results and was assassinated in 1889 during the challenge to the election. He was declared the winner of the election posthumously. The identity of his assassin remains unknown.

He was the brother of Arkansas Governor and U.S. Senator Powell Clayton, President Judge of the Thirty-Second Judicial District of Pennsylvania Thomas J. Clayton and twin-brother to U.S. Attorney W.H.H. Clayton.

Early life

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Clayton was born on a farm in Bethel Township, Pennsylvania, to John and Ann Glover Clayton.[1] The Clayton family was descended from early Quaker settlers of Pennsylvania. Clayton's ancestor William Clayton emigrated from Chichester, England, was a personal friend of William Penn, one of nine justices who sat at the Upland Court in 1681, and a member of Penn's Council.[2]

At birth, Clayton was named John Tyler Clayton by his father who was a strong Whig party supporter. However, after the death of President William Henry Harrison and what he described as "John Tyler's treacherous abandonment of the party", Clayton's father renamed him John Middleton Clayton.[3]

During the Civil War, he served as a Colonel[4] in the Army of the Potomac where he engaged in several campaigns in the east. In 1867, he and his family moved to Arkansas where he managed a plantation owned by older brother, Powell Clayton, who would become the Governor of Arkansas the next year.[4]

Career

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In 1871, Clayton was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives representing Jefferson County. In 1873, he served in the Arkansas Senate representing Jefferson, Bradley, Grant and Lincoln Counties, also serving as Speaker of the Senate pro tempore for part of his term. He served on the first board of trustees of Arkansas Industrial University, today the University of Arkansas, when it was chartered in 1871. Two years later, Clayton helped Pine Bluff, Arkansas, secure the Branch Normal College, today the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Clayton became involved in the Brooks-Baxter War of 1874 which was fought over the disputed election for the governor's office between Joseph Brooks and Elisha Baxter. Clayton, a supporter of Brooks's, raised troops in Jefferson County and marched them to Little Rock, Arkansas, where they fought Baxter supporters. He remained loyal to Brooks to the end of the conflict when President Ulysses S. Grant declared Baxter the rightful governor.

Clayton remained involved in Arkansas politics in the years after Reconstruction. With the support of black Republican voters, he became sheriff of Jefferson County in 1876, being reelected to five successive, two-year terms.

Federal election and death

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In 1888, he ran to represent Arkansas's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, going up against incumbent Democrat Clifton R. Breckinridge. The election became one of the most fraudulent in Arkansas's history. Clayton lost the election by a narrow margin of 846 out of over 34,000 votes cast. However, in one case in Conway County, four masked and armed white men stormed into a predominantly black voting precinct and, at gunpoint, stole the ballot box that contained a large majority of votes for Clayton. Losing under such circumstances, Clayton decided to contest the election and went to Plumerville, Arkansas, to start an investigation on the matter. On the evening of January 29, 1889, an unknown assailant shot through the window to the room he was staying in at a local boardinghouse and killed him instantly. He was later declared the winner of the election, Breckinridge was unseated, and the seat declared vacant. His assassin was never found.

Personal life

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Clayton married Sarah Ann and together they had six children. Clayton is interred in Bellwood Cemetery in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Goodley, George Walter (1987). Bethel Township Delaware County, Pennsylvania Thru Three Centuries. p. 63.
  2. ^ Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Volume 6. Philadelphia. 1917. pp. 12–13. Retrieved 3 September 2018.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Clayton, Thomas Jefferson (1892). Rambles and Reflections. Chester, Pennsylvania: Press of the Delaware County Republican. p. 408. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  4. ^ a b Barnes, Kenneth C. (1998). Who Killed John Clayton? Political Violence and the Emergence of the New South, 1861-1863. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 60. ISBN 9780822320722. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  5. ^ Barnes, Kenneth C. "Clayton, John Middleton (1840-1889)". www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
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U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member-elect of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Arkansas's 2nd congressional district
1888–1889 		Succeeded by
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