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.

All the suspects were arrested and all alcohol was recovered and turned over to federal authorities.

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.