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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Charles W. Clay is a name well known in business circles throughout Pulaski County, for it stands as the representative of a man who is noted for his enterprise. Mr. Clay was born in Granville County, N. C, in 1831, and is a son of Pleasant and Mary (Malory) Clay, born in North Carolina in 1796 and 1803, respectively. The parents were from Virginia and North Carolina, where they were married. The father became a prosperous and highly respected farmer, dying there in 1876, and the wife following him in 1887. Pleasant Clay was a son of Peter Archie Clay, of Mecklenberg, Va., an old Revolutionary soldier, of Scotch-Irish parentage, who died in North Carolina, as did also Charles Malory, the father of Pleasant Clay’s wife. Charles W., the oldest child of four sons and two daughters, received very little education in his youth, but upon reaching maturity he obtained knowledge by his own efforts. He commenced clerking at fourteen years of age, and continued in that capacity until twenty-two years old, when he started in business on his own account. In 1856 he was married to Miss Fannie, fourth daughter of Col. James and Edna (Rowland) Stirk, of Pennsylvania and North Carolina, respectively, and settled down with his bride in Granville County, N. C., whence they moved to Arkansas in 1869. Six children were born to this union: Sophia (widow of John Skinner Fletcher, deceased, now wife of Dr. Richard Chennault, of Arkansas), and wife of Dr. F. P. Keller, of Texas, Thomas I. (who married Miss Bettie Thompson, of Alabama) and James Stirk Clay (the youngest of the four living children). In 1869 Mr. Clay came to Pulaski County and commenced farming at a point on the river, where he resided for seven years. He then moved to his present home, about eighteen miles west of Little Rock, where he owns a splendid tract of land, and has placed some 100 acres under good cultivation. In addition to his farm, he is interested in ginning and milling. He is a man of great integrity and fine business qualities, and a representative citizen of Pulaski County. He served as justice of the peace for several years, and at the present time is holding the office of deputy assessor. Previous to that time he was deputy sheriff, and has filled every office with distinction. Mr. Clay has been a member of the A. F. & A. M. since his twenty-first year, and at the present time belongs to Mary Williams Lodge No. 307, of which he has been treasurer for a number of years. He is also a member of the Agricultural Wheel, and, with his domestic wife a member, attends the Missionary Baptist Church.

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This family biography is one of 156 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Pulaski County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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