Sheriff Robert Ingersoll Clay

Robert Ingersoll Clay

Sheriff Robert Clay succumbed to a gunshot wound in his knee sustained two days earlier while trying to stop a gang of five subjects from stealing whiskey from a train in a rail yard in Wesley.

As his deputies surprised the group, one of his deputies struck a subject in the head with the butt of his shotgun as the subject attempted to shoot at the sheriff. The impact caused the gun-stock to break and misfire. The blast struck Sheriff Clay in his knee and severed an artery. He was taken to a local hospital where a blood transfusion was given and he succumbed to his wound two days later.

Sheriff Clay served as Sheriff in Tazewell County since 1902 and previously served as a police officer and chief of police in Perkin. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.