Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1903 — “SAGE OF WHITEHALL." [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

“SAGE OF WHITEHALL."

General Caaatua M. Clay, Noted Ken'tuckiaa, Who la l>ead. Death came to General Cassius Marcellus Clay, warrior, statesman, abolitionist, author, and notgd duelist, at

his home, White Hall, In Madison Counly, Kentucky. His demise was due to general exhaustion. The stirring life which General Clay led bad begun to tell on’him in late years. He believed that a conspiracy to assassinate him had been formed and some years ago fortified his home at White Hall and entered a life of exclusion that ended only a few weeks ago.

One of the final scenes In the life es this remarkable man was enacted ill a courtroom at Richmond, Ky., when he was declared insane. A week previously Dora Richardson Brock, the divorced child wife of the aged Kentuckian, had declared her intention of going on the stage. It is alleged General Clay had been insane for several years, and his mdd love for a 16-year-

old girl, who was 13 when she married him, Is held to have been largely responsible for his condition. At the time of the strange marriage General Clay was 90 and Dora Richardson was 13. He was cultured, a man of repute in the affairs of the nation, the scion of a famous family, and the possessor of wealth. She v was Illiterate, untutored In the ways of the world, content amid her lowly surroundings. General Clay treated his wife as a child and sought to amuse her and make her happy. He bought her dolls,

picture books, toy furniture, and the many other things which have been made to amuse children. Finally the old man purchased his young wife a doll about twenty Inches long and filled with mechanical contrivances that caused it to talk and cry and laugh. The general's attempt to educate his wife were futile. She read a little and wrote a little, but she had net taste for books and art. After a few months she ran away to the home of her brother, where she received the attentions of a farmer boy. General Clay divorced her, and she married the young man, whose name was Riley Brock. Afterward Brock was killed by a train, and the love of the aged soldier nnd diplomat for the young country girl then sprang to life again, and he sought to have her return to Whitehall as his wife in ns ardent a fashion as when she first left him to go back to her brother's humble shack In the woods. Hls children Interfered, however, and prevented the reconciliation. By the proceedings In the Insane court they blocked hls ffinn to leave his whole estate to DortTOichardson. He was confined to hls home with a nurse and guards.

GENERAL CASSIUS M, CLAY.