Adeline Clayton was wife to the ninth governor of Arkansas and a caring mother who would see her children rise to greatness, but suffer great loss as well. She was born Adeline McGraw in Livingston County, Kentucky and named after her maternal grandmother. Her parents were John C. and Lucy Jane McGraw. They would have a total of five children, but only three would live into adulthood. After running the Gordon House at Smithland, Kentucky for a number of years, Mr. McGraw moved his family to Helena, Arkansas around 1855 and took charge of the Commercial Hotel. The Commercial was one of the nicest hotels to stay in Helena and located along Front Street near the river. The McGraw family soon became well known among social circles in this fast growing river town where Thomas Hindman, James Tappan and Patrick Cleburne had established themselves. When war broke out, John McGraw joined the Second Arkansas Infantry that was organized by Thomas Hindman. He was not in the regiment long and moved up the ladder with Hindman, who soon became general. Rising to the rank of captain, he followed General Hindman back to the Trans-Mississippi, where McGraw remained. Not much else is known about his war record, but he was living at Helena when the conflict ended.
On December 14, 1865, his daughter Adeline married Brigadier General Powell Clayton of the U.S. Army at Helena. Apparently, the two had met while he was stationed in Helena during the war. Clayton had started off as a captain in the First Kansas and received a commission as lieutenant colonel in the Fifth Kansas Cavalry after Wilson's Creek. He was soon promoted colonel and commanded a brigade at the Battle of Helena on July 4, 1863. Clayton soon accompanied Steele's expedition that took Little Rock and he commanded forces at Pine Bluff, when it was attacked. On August 1, 1864, he was promoted to brigadier general and mustered out a year later commanding a cavalry division. After seeing so much of the state, the young officer decided to leave the military and remain in Arkansas. He soon purchased a plantation near Pine Bluff that he would own for the rest of his life. With his economic plans settled, he then chose to marry the hotel owner's daughter from Helena. Sadly, Adeline's father had passed away two months earlier. They then moved back to Pine Bluff.
Powell Clayton assisted in creating the Republican Party of Arkansas and was elected governor in 1868. Adeline followed her husband to the state capital of Little Rock, where they would begin a family. His administration faced numerous challenges including violence from the Ku Klux Klan and a fractured Republican party. He did form the Arkansas Industrial University, which would eventually become the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville though. After surviving an impeachment attempt by his own party, Clayton was elected to the United States Senate by the legislature. He would hold that office until March 1877, when Democrats, who now had control of state government, nominated someone else.
The Claytons returned to Arkansas from Washington D.C. and settled at Eureka Springs in 1882. Although he would not serve another elected office, Powell Clayton remained leader of the Republican party in Arkansas. After working to get William McKinley elected president in 1896, he was appointed United States minister to Mexico. Clayton was then named the first ambassador to Mexico in 1899 and retained that position until he resigned in 1905. After returning home, he and Adeline moved to Washington D.C. General Powell Clayton died August 25, 1914 at Washington and is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
The will of Powell Clayton allowed for his children to each receive $25,000 and Adeline to get the remainder of his estate. With this wealth, she traveled frequently. However, Adeline became very ill in late 1916 and died on January 16, 1917 at Oxted, England, where her daughter lived. This was two weeks after the death of her son, Major Powell Clayton. Adeline McGraw Clayton had lived a long and eventful life. She had seen the Civil War first hand and married a general who would become governor and ambassador. From a small river town in Arkansas, Adeline had lived to see the world and resided in Cuba, England and our own nation's capital. She had indeed came a long way from Helena.
Adeline and Powell Clayton would have five children. One son, Glover, passed away in 1875 as a child and is buried at Little Rock. His other son, who was born in 1871, would follow his father into the military. He was named Powell Clayton, Jr. After rising to the rank of major, young Clayton was assigned to the Sixteenth Cavalry on the Mexican border. Tragically, he died from injuries sustained falling from his horse on a drill field in 1916. It was this accidental death that Adeline never recovered from. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Adeline and Powell's oldest daughter was named Lucy, who was born in 1868. She would marry Samuel Goode Jones, who was also a military man, in 1893. Jones eventually became a brigadier general before his death in 1944. Lucy and General Jones are buried at Arlington Cemetery. Charlotte, who was born in 1876, would marry Baron Ludovic Alfred Lislin of Belgium, while living in Mexico. The Baroness would pass away in 1944 at their large estate in Belgium. Kathleen, who was born in 1878, would also marry into royalty. In 1906, she married Grant Duff Sir Arthur Cuninghame at Washington, D.C. It was at their home in England that Adeline passed away.
Sources:
State Rights Democrat (Helena, Arkansas) 12 June 1856, Thu. Page 4
Pine Bluff Daily Graphic (Pine Bluff, Arkansas) 17 Jan 1917, Wed. Page 3
Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) 6 Feb 1916, Sun. Page 38
Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia) 26 Aug 1914, Wed. Page 7
The Fresno Morning Republican (Fresno, California) 18 January 1917, Thu. Page 10
Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas) 27 Dec. 1916, Wed. Page 3
Findagrave.com
ancestry.com
Moneyhon, Carl H. (University of Arkansas) 2021. Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
https://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/powell-clayton-94/