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John Kay Clement – Provost Marshal of 14th District of Pennsylvania
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on November 14, 2019
John Kay Clement was briefly mentioned here in a post entitled “Additions to Veterans’ List,” published 18 May 2013:
John Kay Clement (1820-1882) ——– 3rd Pennsylvania Infantry (Emergency of 1862), Company D, Private (12 Sep 1862 – 25 Sep 1862). Enrolled: Sunbury. Provost Marshal of 14th District of Pennsylvania (1862-1864). Residence: Sunbury. Occupation: Lawyer.
The Veterans’ Card from the Pennsylvania Archives (above) confirms his Civil War service in the emergency regiment of 1862. His connection to the Lykens Valley area of Pennsylvania is more through his service as Provost Marshal. The Lykens Valley was part of the 14th Congressional District of Pennsylvania.
One of the duties of a Provost Marshal was insure that the draft went smoothly and that draft dodgers and deserters were appropriately disciplined according to the applicable laws.
The original files of all the Provost Marshals of Pennsylvania during the Civil War are housed in the Philadelphia Branch of the National Archives and are available to researchers by appointment.
An on-line biography taken from an 1899 text published in Chicago gives additional information on John Kay Clement’s genealogical background as well as his career:
GENERAL JOHN KAY CLEMENT, deceased, was one of the most prominent criminal lawyers of the state of Pennsylvania, and participated in many of the most famous cases tried in the section in which he lived. He lived at Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pa., where he acquired a very extensive practice, mainly criminal, and was for many years a well-known figure in the public eye. He was a son of Evan C. Clement and Hannah [Kay] Clement, and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1820. Gen. Clement descended from a prominent family of Quakers in England, the earliest ancestor of whom we have any record being Gregory Clement, who was one of the famous body of Regicides and with four others was hanged. When Gregory was arrested in 1660, his son James Clement escaped and emigrated from his native country to America, landing on Long Island. He subsequently located in Camden County, New Jersey, near Camden, where he founded the village of Clementon nearly 150 years ago. He became a large landowner and surveyor and his descendants continued at that occupation for a number of generations following.
His companion in the pathway of life was Sarah Field and among the children who blessed their union was one Jacob. Jacob Clement married Ann Harrison and they were the parents of Samuel Clement, the great-grandfather of our subject.
Samuel Clement, the great-grandfather, married Rebecca Collins, a grand-daughter of Francis Collins, who came to America in 1688, locating in New Jersey, where he became a man of distinction. He served for a time in the capacity of a judge and was a member of the Provincial Legislature of New Jersey:
Samuel Clement, the grandfather of our subject, married Mary Foster and they reared Evan C. Clement, the father of our subject, who was born in Camden County, New Jersey.
In connection with his father, Evan Clement engaged in the manufacture of glass and became a man of considerable means. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, serving with the rank of sergeant-major. He was a life-long resident of Camden County, dying there in 1827, at the age of thirty-seven years. He was united in marriage with Hannah Kay, a daughter of John Kay, who was a great-grandson of John Kay, the first settler of the name, who was several years speaker of the Provincial Assembly of New Jersey. John Kay, the father of Mrs. Clement, married Kesiah Thorne, a daughter of Capt. Joseph Thorne, a soldier of the Revolutionary War.
Gen. John Kay Clement, the subject of this biography, was but seven years of age when his father died and, as the latter had failed a short time previous to death, John was thrown upon his own resources at that youthful age. He received his early education in the Friends’ School at Philadelphia, and at the age of eighteen years entered upon the study of law, a profession for which he proved himself eminently fitted. He studied in the office of his cousin, Richard Howell, of Camden. New Jersey, and at the age of twenty-one years was admitted to the bar at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1841. Shortly thereafter he removed to Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, making his home first at Minersville and subsequently at Pottsville. While residing in that county he was made brigadier-general of the state militia, and he also practiced law there until 1854, when he moved to Sunbury, Northumberland County. Being a man of unusual power and eloquence as a speaker and pleader, he had by this time attracted considerable attention as a lawyer, and in 1859 he was elected district attorney of Northumberland County.
He was re-elected to that office in 1871, and received an appointment to the same office in 1877. He practiced law to the exclusion of everything else, making a specialty of criminal law, up to the time of his death, and he took rank among the leading criminal lawyers of this state. From 1871 to 1878 he was engaged as counsel for the prosecution or defense in every important case brought to trial and his efforts in almost every instance were attended by success. “Bear” Dolan, the first “Molly Maguire” convicted, was prosecuted by him in 1872; and Peter McMannes, the last one tried, was defended by him.
Besides being an eloquent speaker, Gen. Clement excelled as a man of great reasoning power and his knowledge of the law was almost unlimited. Politically he was a Democrat prior to the Civil War, but subsequently he staunchly supported the principles of the Republican party, and for some years was a member of the Sunbury Council. Gen. Clement took an active part in the Civil War, showing great patriotism and devotion to the cause for which the government was fighting. He was captain of the Pottsville Light Artillery, which organization still exists as Company F, 4th Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania and he served in the First Battle of Bull Run as aide to Col. Cameron.
In 1862 he was made Provost Marshal of the Fourteenth District of Pennsylvania and served efficiently until 1864. During the war he also served as a private in Company D of the 4th Pennsylvania Emergency Troop.
On May 18, 1854, Gen. Clement formed a matrimonial alliance with Mary S. Zeigler, of Sunbury, a daughter of Isaac Zeigler and Mary [Eyer] Zeigler. She is now living in Sunbury at the advanced age of seventy-two years. Five children blessed their home, only one of whom survives. Gen. Clement passed to his eternal reward on October 15, 1882.
Finally, the National Tribune, the G.A.R. newspaper of Washington, D.C., publlished the following obituary on 26 October 1882:
Gen. John Kay Clement, died at Sunbury, Pennsylvania, on the 15th Inst. During the war he was Provost Marshal for the district from 1862 to 1864. He was prominent in the formation in the Washington Artilleryists, of Pottsville, of which he was Captain, prior to the Mexican War, in which they volunteered for service but were refused, Pennsylvania’s quota being full. This organization was one of the first defenders in 1861, and is now [1882] headquarter guard to Major-General Hartranft.
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News clipping from Newspapers.com.
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