Powell Clayton

Powell Clayton
9th Governor of Arkansas
In office July 2, 1868 – March 4, 1871
Preceded by	Isaac Murphy
Succeeded by	Ozra Amander Hadley as Acting Governor
United States Senator from Arkansas
In office March 24, 1871 – March 3, 1877
Preceded by	Alexander McDonald
Succeeded by	Augustus Garland
Personal details
Born	August 7, 1833 Bethel, Pennsylvania
Died	August 25, 1914(1914-08-25) (aged 81) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Adaline McGraw
Profession	Engineer, planter, politician, entrepreneur
Military service
Service/branch	Union Army
Years of service	1861 - 1865
Rank	Brigadier General
Unit	1st Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry 5th Cavalry Regiment
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Powell Clayton (August 7, 1833 – August 25, 1914) was an engineer, a Union Army general in the American Civil War, and the first Reconstruction Governor of the State of Arkansas. He was appointed as Ambassador to Mexico during the administrations of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Early life

Clayton as a young man

Clayton was born in Bethel, Pennsylvania, to John and Ann Glover Clayton. He was a direct descendent of William Clayton, originally from Chichester, England. Clayton the immigrant was a close friend of George Fox, founder of the Quakers, and William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. John Clayton was an orchard keeper and carpenter. John and Ann Clayton had ten children in all; six died in infancy.

The young Clayton attended a private military academy in Bristol, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. He later attended engineering school at Wilmington, Delaware.

He moved to Kansas in 1855 and served as an engineer at Leavenworth, Kansas. On April 29, 1861, he is recorded as having a company of militia at Fort Leavenworth. His brothers William and John followed him to the West and, at one point, they all worked in Arkansas.

Civil War

In May 1861 Clayton was formally mustered into the Union Army as a captain of the 1st Kansas Infantry. In December 1861, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 5th Kansas Cavalry and later to colonel in March 1862. During the war he served primarily in Arkansas and Missouri, fighting in several battles in those states.

Occupation of Pine Bluff

During the morning and early afternoon of October 25, 1863, Clayton commanded federal troops occupying Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He successfully repulsed a three-pronged confederate attack of the forces of General John S. Marmaduke. His troops had piled cotton bales around the Pine Bluff courthouse and surrounding streets to make a barricade for the Union defenders, and it worked. Confederate losses were 41 killed, wounded, and captured. Clayton was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers on August 1, 1864.

Arkansas life and career

Marriage and family

Powell decided to stay in Arkansas, likely because he fell in love. He married Adaline McGraw of Helena.

Together with his brother William (W.H.H. Clayton), they purchased a plantation in Jefferson County, Arkansas, in the Mississippi Delta, formerly a base of cotton plantations and production. As in other southern states, violence did not end with the war. Hostilities continued and intensified as whites used lynchings, other physical attacks and intimidation against emancipated freedmen to repress black voting and maintain white supremacy. They intimidated white Republicans as well to regain political power. Other planters told Powell that they would pretend to go along with Reconstruction but would win back what they had lost through peaceful means. Powell at first tried to stay out of the conflicts. When his neighbors became more threatening, he decided to enter politics.^{[citation needed]}

Political career

In 1868 Clayton was elected as the first Republican governor of Arkansas. His tenure was marked by soaring state debt (despite a state surplus when he took office), corruption, and violence. He was forced to declare martial law at the beginning of his term because of racial tensions. Many members of his administration, and colleagues in his party were charged with corruption {{!<--by whom?-->}} while he was governor. Clayton was impeached by the legislature but was never formally convicted of a crime.^{[citation needed]} He was reportedly involved with the tampering of a US senate election between Thomas Boles and John Edwards; at the time the office was filled by election by the state legislature. Clayton was not convicted of any charges.^{[citation needed]} His administration is mainly blamed for the Brooks–Baxter War.^{[citation needed]}

He worked with the legislature to improve the infrastructure in Arkansas: building railroads and new levees, as well as replacing levees destroyed during the war. While these improvements temporarily increased the debt, they were needed investment for a state that had been underdeveloped before the war. The legislature established free public schools for the first time and funded the construction of some buildings. Because so little public investment had been made before, financing such projects was controversial.

On September 9, 1868 Clayton lost his left hand while hunting outside Little Rock when his rifle discharged.

Powell Clayton was persuaded to resign and accept election to the United States Senate after trying to ensure that the state would be stable under the appointment of an acting governor. While in the Senate, he worked with President Grant and his brother, William H.H. Clayton, the US Attorney in Arkansas, to have Judge Isaac Parker reassigned from Utah to Fort Smith, Arkansas, a frontier area with a high rate of violence and crime. The legendary “Hanging Judge,” along with U.S. Attorney Clayton, are credited with bringing law and order to the region.^{[citation needed]} W.H.H. Clayton was later instrumental in bringing statehood to Oklahoma.^{[citation needed]}

After Clayton returned to Arkansas, in 1882 he established a home at the developing resort town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. He and Adaline lived in what is now the Crescent Cottage Inn.

As President of the Eureka Springs Improvement Company (ESIC), Clayton worked to develop commercial and residential structures, many which still exist. ESIC was most successful in having a railroad built to Eureka Springs, the key to making it accessible as an attractive tourist destination. The ESIC built the Crescent Hotel in connection with development of the railroad, and it became a major resort hotel. It is now one of Eureka Springs most notable landmarks. A poem on the fireplace in the lobby of the Crescent Hotel is attributed to Clayton Tourism rose dramatically in Eureka Springs after the railroad was completed; it became the center for a variety of entertainments.

His brother, John Middleton Clayton, was assassinated in 1889 in Plumerville, Arkansas, in Conway County. He had disputed the election results of a Congressional race with Clifton R. Breckinridge, a Democrat.^{[citation needed]}

Later life

Powell Clayton at age 79 at the 1912 Republican Presidential Convention in Chicago

Powell Clayton was appointed as Ambassador to Mexico in 1897 by President William McKinley and served in that position until 1905. In 1912 he moved to Washington, D.C..

Clayton was the author of The Aftermath of the Civil War in Arkansas, published posthumously in 1915.

Clayton died in Washington, D.C., and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

See also

• List of American Civil War generals

References

• Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture entry: Powell Clayton
• Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Biography at the National Governors Association
• Powell Clayton at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

External links

• Grave Stone at Arlington National Cemetery

Political offices
Preceded by Isaac Murphy	Governor of Arkansas 1868–1871	Succeeded by Ozra Amander Hadley Acting Governor
United States Senate
Preceded by Alexander McDonald	United States Senator (Class 2) from Arkansas 1871–1877 Served alongside: Benjamin F. Rice, Stephen W. Dorsey	Succeeded by Augustus H. Garland
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Matt W. Ramsom	United States Ambassador to Mexico 1897–1905	Succeeded by Edwin H. Conger