Joel Clayton

Joel Henry Clayton (c. 1812 – 10 March 1872) was an English-born American pioneer best known as the founder of Clayton, California. He emigrated from Derbyshire, England, to the United States in 1837 and eventually settled in the Diablo Valley of California, where in 1857 he laid out the town of Clayton.^[1][2] He became a prominent landowner and community leader in the San Francisco Bay Area. His descendants and local historians in Clayton recall and celebrate his contributions to rounding the town as well his efforts in developing the town’s early schools and church.^[3]

Joel Henry Clayton was born in the mining village of Bugsworth which is now called Buxworth in Derbyshire, England, probably in 1812. He was the eldest of twelve children of John and Mary (Nee Bate) Clayton. His father was a coal miner and small farmer at Brierley Green Farm in Bugsworth. Clayton was baptized on January 10, 1813, at St. Matthew’s Church in nearby Hayfield. He received his early education locally and learned the trades of block cutting and wood carving before emigrating to America which some in the family had done before and considered tradition. Other family members later followed him to America, and the Claytons ultimately settled in the valley at the foot of Mount Diablo, where they founded the town of Clayton.^[4]

In 1837, at age 25, Joel Clayton left England and arrived in the United States. He first settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, and shortly thereafter moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he joined his uncle, Peter Bate. In Pittsburgh, Clayton worked in the manufacture of oil cloth. In 1839 he Travelled to St. Louis, Soon after, his parents and siblings crossed the Atlantic and joined him; the extended family initially settled in Galena, Illinois. Joel Clayton then engaged in lead mining in Jo Daviess County (New Diggings) of Illinois.

Around 1842, Clayton moved westward to Wisconsin. He worked on the headwaters of the Platte River in present-day Grant County, WI extracting zinc from ore. In 1845 he settled in the village of Mifflin in Iowa County, Wisconsin. There he built a water-powered flour and gristmill called Mifflin Mill and platted the new village of Mifflin. Clayton became the founder of Mifflin and served as its first township chairman and postmaster. He lived in Mifflin until 1850, when he decided to seek new opportunities in California.

Clayton arrived in California in 1850, during the Gold Rush era. He initially brought a party of practical miners and a large drove of livestock into the Sierra foothills. His first California camp was in Santa Clara County, where his mining party was allowed to spread out on their own terms. By the end of that year he had moved to Stockton, where he ran a butcher shop. In 1853 he relocated to San Francisco and established a dairy (milk ranch) on a 25-acre tract bounded by Broadway, Webster, Clay and Pierce streets.

After a year in San Francisco, Clayton sold his dairy and travelled north into the Washington Territory to Bellingham Bay on Puget Sound, where he worked in the local coal mines. In 1856 his wife and three small children joined him in California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. By that time Clayton had left Washington territory, and the family reunited near Los Angeles at San Fernando Pass, 30 miles from Los Angeles. Although Clayton had spent time in various enterprises, he ultimately returned north in search of new prospects.

In 1857, Joel Clayton moved his family to the Diablo Valley in Contra Costa County. There he purchased land and laid out a new town. He originally named the settlement “Garibaldi” in honor of the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, but legend holds that a coin toss between Clayton and his partner Charles Rhine resulted in the name Clayton prevailing over Rhinesville. Clayton initially bought 40 acres from early settler E. J. Clark in Mitchell Canyon, then expanded his holdings to about 1,400 acres through additional purchases and homestead filings. He became one of the town’s largest landowners and was also involved in the nearby Black Diamond Coal Mines at Nortonville.^[5]

As town founder, Clayton established the community’s first public institutions. He built a general store and helped organize a church (known as Endeavor Hall) for the settlers. Importantly, he donated two acres for the town’s first public school. In 1857 he sold this land to the County for one dollar with the stipulation it become a school site. Clayton’s “Mt. Diablo School” opened on that site in 1863. This act of donating land for education was typical of his contributions to the new community.

Joel Clayton married Margaret Ellen McLay of Hazel Green, Wisconsin, on August 28, 1841. Margaret was born November 27, 1820, in Fintry, Stirlingshire, Scotland; her family had emigrated to the United States before 1840. The Claytons had nine children in all. Three were born in Wisconsin and three at Fort Tejon in southern California while Clayton ran a horse ranch and stage stop. Tragically, many of their children died in childhood: six in all including two of the three born in Clayton. The four surviving sons and daughters were Elizabeth Jane Clayton, Benjamin Franklin Clayton, Charles Joel Clayton, and Henry Alfred “Hallie” Clayton.^[1]

Joel and Margaret Clayton were respected community members. Aside from the school property, he held interests in local mines and businesses, and she often accompanied him on travels or managed family affairs. (Margaret Clayton later donated documents and memories that helped record the town’s history.) The couple’s personal legacy is also reflected in Clayton’s ongoing twinning with Buxworth (Bugsworth), England – the village of Joel’s birth. In modern times, Clayton and Buxworth maintain a sister‑city relationship to honor this historical connection.

Joel Clayton died on March 10th, 1872 at the age of 60, of pneumonia at Somersville in Contra Costa County.^[5]He was buried in Live Oak Cemetery in Concord. Margaret Clayton survived him by many years; she died April 28, 1908, in San Francisco and was buried beside her husband.

Clayton’s legacy lives on in the town he founded. The city of Clayton honors its pioneer by name and through historic sites. In 1995 a monument was erected at the original school site noting Joel Clayton’s gift of land. In 1998 the Clayton Historical Society placed a granite marker at the Clayton resting place, commemorating “these two important and courageous pioneers” to Joel and Margaret Clayton. The ongoing Clayton–Buxworth sister city relationship also acknowledges Clayton’s English origins. The town of Clayton, California, grew from the mining and ranching activities envisioned by Joel Clayton and today remembers him as its founding father.