Powell Clayton
U. S. Brigadier General, 1861-1865
Governor, Arkansas, 1868-1871
U. S. Senator, Arkansas, 1871-1877
U. S. Ambassador to Mexico, 1987-1905
Born: August 7, 1833, Bethel, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Died: August 25, 1914, Washington, D. C.
- Attended the common schools and Partridge Military Academy, Bristol, Pennsylvania.
- Studied civil engineering in Wilmington, Delaware.
- Moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he practiced his profession.
- Appointed City Engineer in 1857.
- At the outbreak of the Civil War entered the Union Army as Captain of the First Regiment, Kansas Volunteer lnfantry.
- Appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Fifth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, December 28, 1861.
- Commissioned Colonel, March 7, 1862.
- Commissioned Brigadier General of Volunteers, August 1, 1864.
- Mustered out, August 24, 1865.
- Moved to Arkansas and became a planter.
- Elected Governor of Arkansas, 1868.
- Elected from Arkansas as a Republican to the U. S. Senate, serving from March 4, 1871 - March 3, 1877.
- Moved to Little Rock, Arkansas.
- Member of the Republican National Committee.
- Delegate to the Republican National Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1872, and at St. Louis, Missouri, 1896.
- Ambassador to Mexico, 1897-1905.
- Lived in retirement until his death in 1914.
Buried: Arlington National Cemetery, Fort Myer, Virginia.
(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)