Processed by: Archives Staff ; machine-readable finding aid created by:Eric Weig
Clay family papers, 1818-1898
1895-1898
University of Kentucky Special CollectionsLexington, Kentucky 40506
Organized: letters then scrapbook. Arrangement is somewhat chronological.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Clay family papers, 1818-1898, 1895-1898, 1F78M-817, Special Collections, University of Kentucky.
1 reel
Sidney Payne Clay (1800-1834) was the son of General Green Clay. He attended Princeton College (Princeton, New Jersey). He was the brother of Cassius Marcellus Clay (1810-1903). Sidney Green Clay (ca. 1872-1916) was the great nephew of the famed emancipationist. He married May Lindsay Stoner (ca. 1873-ca. 1972), daughter of Col. and Mrs. R. G. Stoner of Bourbon County, Kentucky in 1895.
This collection consists primarily of materials related to the elopement of Sidney Green Clay and May Lindsay Stoner. Several Clay family letters date from 1818 and 1832. The earliest (June 1818) is a letter to his mother, Mrs. Green Clay, from Sidney Payne Clay while he was at Princeton. He describes his daily routine as a student. There is also a letter to his father discussing student life. An 1832 letter from Cassius M. Clay to his brother, Sidney Payne Clay, requests advice about joining a church. A scrapbook dated 1895 to 1898 contains clippings, personal correspondence, telegrams and other miscellaneous material, most related to Sidney and May Clay's elopement. In 1895 the couple eloped to Iowa.