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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: CLAY, Buckner (published 1923)
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Submitted by
Valerie Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 16, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 238-239
Kanwaha County
BUCKNER CLAY. While he has been a successful member
of the Charleston bar nearly twenty years, Buckner Clay has
a name that suggests Kentucky lineage and history. He is
in fact one of the younger members of the distinguished
Clay family of Kentucky, and the early associations of his
life and the beginning of his career as a lawyer were in
old Bourbon County.
He was born near Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, De-
cember 31, 1877, son of Col. Ezekiel and Mary (Woodford)
Clay. He is a descendant of John Clay, who came to Amer-
ica from England in the first years of the Virginia colony.
In a later generation was another John Clay, whose son,
Henry Clay, was the father of Charles Clay, born January
31, 1762. Charles Clay married Martha Green, and their
son, Gen. Green Clay, was one of the most distinguished
figures in pioneer Kentucky. He was born in Virginia, was
a soldier of the Revolution, was the first deputy surveyor
of Kentucky, for many years a member of the Legislatures
of Virginia and Kentucky, and commanded the Kentucky
militia in the War of 1812. He died in 1828. Gen. Green
Clay was the great-grandfather of the Charleston attorney.
He married Sallie Lewis, and their home was in Madison
County, Kentucky, near Richmond. Their son, Gen. Cassius
M. Clay, was a soldier, attaining the rank of major-general
in the Civil war, was an editor and publisher, and served as
minister to Russia by appointment from President Lincoln.
Brutus J. Clay, grandfather of Buckner Clay, was born
in 1808, was educated at Center College, and in 1827 set-
tled in Bourbon County and for years was a leader in
agriculture and the live stock industry of the Blue Grass
section of Kentucky. In 1853 he was elected president of
the State Agricultural Association. He entered the Thirty-
eighth Congress in 1862 as representative from his kinsman
Henry Clay's district. He died in 1878. He was twice
married, his wives being Amelia Field and Ann M. Field,
sisters. They were descendants of a distinguished family,
and it is interesting to note that one of them, John Field,
served as an officer in the British army in the western cam-
paigns, beginning in 1754, and was a participant in the
battle of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The famous Amer-
ican, Cyrus W. Field, was a member of this branch of the
Field family.
Col. Ezekiel F. Clay, father of Buckner Clay, was a son
of Brutus J. and Amelia Clay, and was born in Bourbon
County, December 1, 1840. He left college to enter the
Confederate army, became a colonel of cavalry, and was a
gallant officer until taken prisoner in the spring of 1864.
After the war he settled on his estate, known as Runny-
mede, in Bourbon County, a place he made celebrated as
the home of some of the finest Kentucky thoroughbreds.
Col. Ezekiel Clay married in 1866 Mary L. Woodford, a
daughter of John T. and Elizabeth (Buckner) Woodford,
representing another noted family of Kentuckians. The
fourth of their six children is Buckner Clay.
Buckner Clay graduated from Kentucky University A. B.
with the class of 1897, and received his degree in law from
the University of Virginia in 1900. He was admitted to
the bar at Paris, Kentucky, but in June, 1903, came to
Charleston, where for a number of years he has been the
junior member of the law firm of Price, Smith, Spilman &
Clay.
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