John M. Clayton (Arkansas)

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, Arkansas, 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

Clayton was born on a farm in Bethel Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Bethel Township, Pennsylvania to John and Ann Glover Clayton. The Clayton family was descended from early Quaker settlers of Pennsylvania. Clayton's ancestor William Clayton (Governor), 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.

At birth, Clayton was named John Tyler Clayton by his father who was a strong Whig Party (United States), 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.

During the American Civil War, Civil War, he served as a Colonel in the Army of the Potomac where he engaged in several Military campaign, 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 List of Governors of Arkansas, Governor of Arkansas the next year.

Career

In 1871, Clayton was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives representing Jefferson County, Arkansas, Jefferson County. In 1873, he served in the Arkansas Senate representing Jefferson, Bradley County, Arkansas, Bradley, Grant County, Arkansas, Grant and Lincoln County, Arkansas, Lincoln Counties, also serving as Arkansas Senate, 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 (politician), 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 of the United States, President Ulysses S. Grant declared Baxter the rightful governor.

Clayton remained involved in Arkansas politics in the years after Reconstruction era of the United States, Reconstruction. With the support of African American, black Republican voters, he became sheriff of Jefferson County in 1876, being reelected to five successive, two year terms. In 1888, he ran to represent Arkansas's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, going up against incumbent Democratic Party (United States), Democrat Clifton R. Breckinridge. The election became one of the most election fraud, 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, Arkansas, Conway County, four masked and armed White people, 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 and Breckinridge was unseated and the seat declared vacant. His assassin was never found.

Personal life

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

See also

*List of assassinated American politicians
*Clayton family
*List of unsolved murders (before the 20th century), List of unsolved murders
*List of members-elect of the United States House of Representatives who never took their seats

References

External links

* Barnes, Kenneth C. ''Who Killed John Clayton? Political Violence and the Emergence of the New South, 1861–1893''. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1998.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, John M.
1840 births
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