Pages 671-672
Benjamin Franklin Clayton, is actively occupied as school master and farmer of Houston Township. A native of Arkansas, he was born in Conway County, June 20, 1858, to the union of William Clayton and Eliza McBurnett. The father gave his attention to tilling the soil, with good success. He was of English descent, was born in Kentucky, and died in Conway County Ark during the war. Benjamin's mother came originally from Alabama, being the daughter of Thomas McBurnett; she died in 1872. In the family there were four children, two now living: Benjamin and Richard T. The subject of this sketch, the third child, was reared principally in Conway County, receiving his early education in Arkansas, which he supplemented by a course, in 1874, in Carroll County GA. In 1870 he began teaching in his native county, and has followed this occupation five terms. He has 120 acres of land, about sixty five under cultivation. In 1886 his fitness for the position led to his election as justice of the peace, and he was re-elected in 1888, proving an able and efficient officer. He was school director of his district two years. In politics he is a Democrat, having cast his first presidential vote for Hancock. In 1881 Mr. Clayton married Miss Betty Bird, who died in 1882, and in 1883 Lizzie Johnson, a native of Tennessee, became his wife. She died in 1886 and in August 1888 Mr. Clayton married Katie Latham, whose birth occurred in Missouri in 1871. They have one child, Lillie. Mr. Clayton's farm is well improved, and on it is a living spring of water. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.