Henry Clay

Henry Clay was the 10th mayor of Windsor, serving  in 1913-1914.

Clay served as a council member in Amherstburg for several terms, then moved to Windsor and was elected as mayor in 1913. During his tenure, he called the first Henry Clayconference of municipal leaders of lake ports to discuss a proposal to construct a deep waterway from the lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. He argued that the building of the Georgian Bay canal was not in the best interest of the Province, and advocated for adopting the St. Lawrence route instead. However, he resigned his post as the mayor in 1914 when he was offered an appointment as Local Master in the Supreme Court in Sandwich.

Clay grew up in Elgin County and was a lawyer by occupation. He married Martha Victoria Lilly in 1887 in Michigan, and by 1901, they had relocated to Amherstburg. They had two children. After his term as the Mayor ended, Clay became the president of the Essex County Bar Association, and registrar of the Supreme and Surrogate courts. Clay passed away in 1926 from ulcer complications at the Hotel Dieu Hospital.

Sources:

Henry Clay, Former Mayor, Dead. (1926, June 02). The Border Cities Star, Vol. 16, no. 79. Retrieved April 18, 2018