Bertram Tracy Clayton
Barbour County native Bertram Tracy Clayton (1862-1918) was a colonel, civil engineer, and one-term U.S. Representative for New York (1899-1901). Born into a wealthy and politically powerful Alabama family, Clayton achieved renown in his military career. He served in the Dakotas, the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War, and World War I, in which he was killed in battle at the age of 55.
Bertram Tracy Clayton was born on his family’s plantation near Clayton, Barbour County, on October 19, 1862, to Henry Delamar Clayton Sr. and Victoria Virginia Hunter Clayton; he was one of 13 children. His father served as a major general in the Confederate Army as well as an attorney, plantation owner, circuit judge, state legislator, and president of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County. Bertram Tracy Clayton’s older brother, Henry Delamar Clayton Jr., was a notable attorney, U.S. Representative for Alabama, and U.S. District Court judge and is best known for authoring the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.
Clayton attended the University of Alabama before being appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated in 1886, alongside classmate John J. Pershing, who would later serve as a renowned commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I. After graduating from West Point, Clayton served as a second lieutenant in the Eleventh Infantry at Fort Bennett, in the Dakota Territory (the site is now in present-day South Dakota). In 1887, Clayton married rich socialite Louise Brasher, daughter of William Brasher, who owned the Brasher Oil Cloth Company in Brooklyn, New York. The couple had two sons. In April 1888, Clayton resigned from the army to move to Brooklyn to work as a civil engineer. After several years working at his father-in-law’s company, he worked with the municipal water system.
Throughout most of his years in Brooklyn, Clayton served in the National Guard. In 1895, he organized Troop C of the New York National Guard. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Troop C was mustered into service, and Clayton served as a captain. He subsequently took command of the Troops A, B, and C in the New York Cavalry. Clayton and his troops served with distinction in the Puerto Rico campaign.
Clayton was elected as representative for New York’s Fourth District to the 56th U.S. Congress, serving from 1899 to 1901. A Democrat, he beat out Republican incumbent Israel F. Fischer. During that term, he served alongside his brother, Henry Delamar Clayton Jr., a U.S. representative for Alabama from 1897 to 1914. At the time, Republicans held the House majority, and Republican president William McKinley was serving the second half of his first term. The most significant laws passed during Clayton’s congressional term were the Gold Standard Act and the Foraker Act.
Although most Democrats voted against the Gold Standard Act, favoring the “free silver” policies championed by William Jennings Bryan, Clayton voted in favor of the act. Notably, only 11 Democrats voted in favor of the bill, and eight of those Democratic representatives were from New York. The Gold Standard Act fixed the gold value of the dollar, affirmed the ability of citizens to exchange their paper currency for gold, and further solidified the Gold Standard that had existed in the United States since the Coinage Act of 1873. Northeastern business interests tended to support the gold standard, whereas southern farmers tended to oppose it.
Alongside most House Democrats, Clayton voted against the Foraker Act. Signed by Pres. McKinley in April 1900, this law established a civil government in Puerto Rico; it was instrumental in shaping how the United States would administer the new territories gained at the end of the Spanish-American War. The Foraker Act determined that Puerto Ricans would not be granted U.S. citizenship and that the territory would be under the absolute rule of a governor appointed by the U.S president, along with an 11-member executive council, mostly made up of U.S. appointees. It allowed for a 35-member House of Delegates checked by a governor with unrestricted veto power. It also set a 15 percent tariff on goods exported to the United States. The bill was controversial, and it was challenged in several notable Supreme Court cases.
In 1900, Bertram and Louisa Clayton separated. In a scandal detailed by several newspapers, Louisa Clayton sued for legal separation, claiming that Bertram subjected her to cruelty and abusive language and denied her financial support. She also noted that, against her wishes, he had sent her children away from her to live with his relatives in Alabama. In response, he accused his wife of accumulating huge debts, heavy drinking, and abuse towards their children. He also accused her of marital infidelity, which he later proved after hiring a private investigator. Their marriage finally ended in 1902.
After losing his reelection bid to Republican Harry Alred Hanbury in 1900, Clayton returned to regular military service. He would continue to serve for the rest of his life, and his civil engineering background and experience with water supply issues would serve him well in his role as quartermaster. He was appointed captain in the U.S. Regular Army on April 17, 1901, and dispatched to the Philippines, where he served until 1904, through the end of the Philippine-American War in 1902 and in the years following.
In 1904, he returned to serve as quartermaster on the home front in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the following years, he would serve as quartermaster in Washington, D.C., beginning in 1907, and at West Point, beginning in 1911. In 1907, he married New Orleans native Mary Elizabeth “Mamie” D’Aubert (then known as Mary Watson, after her first husband, who had died in 1904). Throughout his career, he was often sent to bases all over the country to provide water supply and construction expertise. In 1916, he was ordered to oversee construction work in the Panama Canal Zone.
Clayton’s rank and position as quartermaster would have generally kept him away from combat. But, when the United States joined World War I in April 1917, he asked to be sent to France. That July, he arrived in France, assigned as quartermaster for the First Infantry Division, known as the “Big Red One.” The division was under the command of Alabamian William Sibert, who would be replaced by Alabamian Robert Lee Bullard in December 1917. In March 1918, Clayton was promoted to the rank of colonel. On May 30, 1918, he was killed by an enemy bomb at Noyer, Department of Oise, France. One of the first American officers killed in France, he also was the highest-ranking West Point graduate killed in the war. Gen. John J. Pershing served as one of the pallbearers at his funeral. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
