Friend CLAY ¹⁶

  General Notes:

BURIAL: The next information on Ira's location is found in a list "1835 Males Over the Age of 21 in Delaware County,Ohio". This list shows Ira living in Bennington township,which was a part of Delaware prior to 1848, then becoming Morrow County. Another link to Bennington township can be found in a grave listing published in the book "Tombstone Inscriptions and Other Records of Delaware County,Ohio" by Esther Weygant Powell in 1972. On page 313 ,in a cemetery referred to as the Vining cemetery, which is located in Bennington township, on the East side of route 61 about 1 3/4 miles north of the cross road at Fargo the following inscription was copied on May 27,1948.

The stone reading... Clay,Friend, son of Ira & Lucy, died Feb.27?,1837?(possibly 1867?)

I believe that this was a child who died at birth, or as a small child, due to the location at this cemetery. The name Friend was probably used because most of the population of this community were of the Quaker religion and referred to each other as Friends. Also Friend could have died as an infant before being properly named. I believe 1837 is the proper date due to the area and other documents which place Ira and Lucy in this area at this time . When visiting the cemetery in 1988 the stone was no longer there. It appeared as though they had cleaned up the cemetery and only the readable stones appeared to be reset in concrete. The 1948 description of the cemetery states the condition of the cemetery at that time, had many fallen stones and many unmarked graves. Update : 11-13-2005. This is now located next to Bennington Glen Nursing Home. Pat Clay was moved to this nursing home following a fall she had on November 10th, 2005 and entered Hospice at this location until move to Ohio Veterans Home in 2008.