Stover PipeLine #4,
February, 1976
 

Dear Stovers,

   Thanks for the additional A.J. Stover items.  I learned from Dorothy that Bert did visit his father in Portland in 1907 shortly before A.J.(Stover) died.

   Since Pipeline #3, I received Henry Clayton's military and pension records from the National Archives.  So, with renewed interest in Clayton, I'll summarize what I've learned about Henry.
   First, though, let me issue a plea for Joseph Clayton information.  I have quite a bit of factual data, but know very little of his personality or character.  Dad told me he remembered Grand- dad Clayton for his lengthy table prayers.  Also, Joseph's opionion that they's never build a road over the hill straight south of Poole, because there would never be an automobile powerful enough to climb it.  I have some recollections from Gram May and know that Joseph had distinct political and social values...  Have you any stories, recollections, or impressions to share about Joseph or his wife?  They would be appreciated!

   On with Henry:
   Henry Clayton was born in Wayne Co., Ohio, in 1823.  (Most references imply 1823; however, one says 1808, and others vary from 1818 to 1821.)  He married young, literally, to Margaret Young (I assume that her nick- name was "Lucy") about 1840.  They had four children: Henry, Martha, Mary, and Joseph, the youngest, born in 1845.
   In 1846, at age 23, Henry enlisted for service in the Mexican War from Wooster, in Wayne County, Ohio.  Can you imagine a young family man with five dependents enlisting in the Mexican War ??  Henry returned after a year of service.  Shortly after, about 1850, Margaret Young died, cause unknown.  At least two of the children were "bound out;"  Joseph was raised by Thomas Alexander (and/or an Elliot family), and Mary lived with a McConnell family who moved to Iowa.  Henry moved to Warsaw, Indiana, in 1852 and engaged in farming.  Henry remarried, not sure when; his second wife, Rachel, died in 1886.
   Henry enlisted for service in the Civil War July 25, 1862, at age 39, from Warsaw, Indiana.  (Joseph enlisted from Ohio in August of 1861)  Henry suffered a gunshot wound in his right foot on June 15, 1864, at the Battle of Peach Tree Creek near Lost Moutain, Georgia.  His foot required amputation and he spent several months in the military hospital in Nashville, Tennesse.  He was discharged with full disability on March 17, 1865, at Indianapolis, Indiana.
   Henry's leg apparently bothered him the rest of his life.  He applied for an increase to his $24 per month pension in 1886, claiming that his leg below the knee had decayed, and bothered him so much as to be impossible to perform any kind of labor, and making it difficult for him to even move about.
   By 1889, Henry was divorced from his 3rd wife, Elizabeth.  In 1889, he married for the fourth time, to Sidney A. Dorsey.

   Gram recalled "Ella Taylor" as one of his wives.  Joseph traveled east to Ohio at one time to find his family.  He visited his father and step- mother (and step- sister or half- sister).  There was some remark about blood not running thicker than water.  Did this visit take place after 1880?  Or before 1886?

   In spite of his injury, Henry lived to a respectable age of 75.  He died July 25, 1898, in Goshen, Indiana.  His widow Sidney applied for Widow's pension in 1899.  Her only signature on the necessary declaratons was a scrawled "X," probably not uncommon in those days...

   Would like to hear from you !!

Next,PipeLine #5, Ellen Wamsley, Reuel Ewer, Sam Higgins, the Higgin's homestead...

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