Ralph Clayton Portrait

Removal of

Ralph Clayton’s Portrait

Photo Editor Lily Kleinhenz examines the history of Ralph M Clayton, and why the City of Clayton has decided to relocate a portrait of the City’s founder.

Ralph Clayton, the man responsible for the formation of the City of Clayton and its role as the seat of St. Louis County was also a slaveholder and Confederate sympathizer. Because of this complicated history, the current Mayor’s Commemorative Task Force and the Board of Aldermen have determined it would be best to relocate and contextualize the portrait that hung in City Hall.

Beginning just a little over a year ago in October of 2020, the Mayor’s Commemorative Task Force was created in hopes of bringing Clayton’s rich history to its citizens, and making the information more accessible to the people. One of their first projects was removing and relocating the portrait of Ralph Clayton from the city hall, which was commissioned in the 1930s for honoring Clayton’s accomplishments in the City Hall building.

“It is important that he be recognized for those things, but the other side of Ralph Clayton was that he was a Confederate sympathizer, and he was also a slave owner. Because of that, you have to ask yourself, does that portrait have a place of honor in our legislative chambers, where we are enacting laws and making decisions that affect people’s lives and is that the heart of city government? Is that where it belongs?” said Mayor Michelle Harris.

Moving to St. Louis from Bath County, Virginia in 1821, Ralph Clayton established himself as an entrepreneur, hard worker, and a pillar of the community. According to Clayton historian Sarah Umlauf, Clayton built his two-story log home near present-day Clayton Road and Brentwood Blvd. He used his farming skills to plant cherry trees on his 700 acres of land and used the wood to make furniture. As well as his farming skills, he also cured leather on his property for the manufacture of shoes, and made and sold coal. Religion was also a huge part of Clayton’s life, “while Ralph Clayton was an industrious man, he was also a very religious man. He was a devout Methodist and was said to have memorized the bible. He also hosted Methodist tent revivals on his property,” said Umlauf.

Unfortunately, coming from the South, Clayton was a slaveholder. Although Umlauf hasn’t been able to connect Clayton with specific incidents during the Civil War, it is clear that there were Confederate military recruiters staying in the area.

Evidence of a camp of Confederate soldiers was found off what is now Clayton Road. It is reasonable to presume that Ralph Clayton not only knew about these illegal activities but was supportive of them, especially considering that his son William D. Clayton fought for the confederacy.

Further research Umlauf conducted from the Slave Schedule of 1860 showed that Clayton held one enslaved person, a 35-year-old black man. Clayton also had a “servant” in his home but since that person was listed on the census, they were considered a free person and

Ralph M. Clayton, founder of the City of Clayton.

not enslaved.

After he donated a large amount of land and played a critical role in securing the City of Clayton as the county headquarters, the City of Clayton was named after Ralph Clayton. Because of his influential decisions made over 200 years ago, the city of Clayton has become a center of economic development. “We certainly do have a lot of attorney offices because the county courts are here. A lot of people come to and fro to see people at the county and they may get lunch or dinner, so he had a lot of foresight. He knew at the time that Clayton, being the county seat, would bring prosperity to the area,” said Mayor Michelle Harris.

The Board voted unanimously to rehome

the portrait and recontextualize it. Mayor Harris says the response from the community has been by and large positive but that there has been some pushback on the removal.

“I have had a few emails from people who really question if this is something we should be doing and to those folks, I would simply say we aren’t really taking anything away from the community and we aren’t erasing any part of our history. What we are doing is adding, adding a more full and rich story to our history for everyone to see and hear,” said Mayor Harris.

Harris also believes that as well as honoring Clayton for his contributions, we also need to make his history more accessible to the community. “We want to tell his whole story and we can’t do that when the portrait is hidden away in the council chambers above the Mayor’s chair. No one can get up there to see or read anything about him, it needs to be in an accessible place for the community to see and be informed about.” Now that the portrait has been removed, the question now is what will replace it? “There have been some suggestions thrown around. One is to use a piece of art from the St. Louis Art Fair that is held in Clayton, another is to put a big logo of the City of Clayton with our mission statement underneath it”, said Mayor Harris. Some, like Umlauf, believe it should remain empty.

The Mayor’s Commemorative Task Force plans on looking for other ways to bring Clayton’s rich history to the citizens. They will be looking at traditionally black neighborhoods that were moved, as well as the Osage who occupied this area for many decades, the Filipino population that was here for the 1904 World Fair and more.

You have to ask yourself, does that portrait have a place of honor in our legislative chambers?

- Mayor Michelle Harris

ARCHIVES FROM SARAH UMLAUF

LILY KLEINHENZ PHOTO EDITOR