Finding aid to the John William Clay Business Records

JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 Memorial Avenue
Lynchburg, Virginia 24501
(434) 846-0501
JOHN WILLIAM CLAY BUSINESS RECORDS, 1874-1881
The collection includes business records, 1874-1881 of John William Clay (1844-1911)
of Campbell County, Virginia, consisting of an account daybook (1874-1876) and ledger (18801881), documenting the operation of a general merchandise business in Marysville, Campbell
County.

JOHN WILLIAM CLAY (1844-1911)
John William Clay was born 17 December 1844 in Halifax County, VA., the son of John
T. Clay and Susan A. E. Doss. He married 25 November 1868 in Campbell County, Catherine
Thomas Payne, born 29 August 1829 in Halifax County, the daughter of Baldwin Matthews
Payne and Catherine Coles. Clay was a resident of Marysville in Campbell County and was a
farmer and miller, operated a general merchandise and liquor concern, and was County Treasurer
for Campbell County. At the time of his death on 25 June 1911, he had large land holdings in
Campbell County, a flour mill and corn mill on the Hardware River in Albemarle County, and a
house and lot in Roanoke, VA.
[Will of John W. Clay, Campbell County (VA) Will Book 13, p. 380; Faye Royster Tuck, Yesterday – Gone Forever
(Halifax, Va.: Author, 2004), p. 174-176; Virginia Business Directory and Gazetteer 1877-78 (Richmond: Randolph
& England, 1878); Chataigne’s Virginia Business Directory & Gazetteer, 1880-1881 (Richmond: Buaughman
Bros., 1881), p. 143.]

MS1168