Lambert Clingman Clayton was born August 4, 1807 in what is now southern Iredell County. The Clayton farm was located on Lambert’s Creek near where it emptied in to the Catawba River. The location is now under Lake Norman. Lambert C. Clayton’s father was George Clayton Jr. His mother, Margaret Thompson Clayton, died when Lambert was four or five years old. His father died in 1814, when he was seven years old. Young Clayton was sent to live with an older brother who lived near Old Fort in Burke (now McDowell) County.
Lambert Clingman Clayton’s brother worked for John Burgin Sr. (1774–1837). John Burgin was a blacksmith and a tanner as well as a farmer. Burgin’s farm was located a few miles from Old Fort. Lambert Clayton was indentured to John Burgin until he was 27 years old in 1834, when he married Elizabeth “Eliza” Burgin. Eliza was born September 3, 1817 near Old Fort in Burke (now McDowell) County, the youngest child of John Burgin Sr. and Leah Elizabeth Mann Burgin (1777–1862). Clayton had married his boss’s 17-year-old daughter.
The young couple moved to what is now Henderson County. Three years later Eliza’s father died and she received 1000 dollars, which was a lot of money in 1837. Eliza and Lambert Clayton moved to Fairview a short time later. They bought a farm down on Cane Creek not far from the current site of Cane Creek Middle School.

Clayton soon became one of Fairview’s most well-to-do citizens due to his wife’s inheritance. On the 1840 census of Buncombe County, Lambert Clayton had five slaves, three males and two females. He could afford to have a cobbler make shoes specifically for each of his children. It has been passed down that his wife Eliza Clayton would get on a horse, put the smallest child in her lap, one in front of her, another in back of her and ride to Old Fort to have a pair of shoes made for each child.
Eliza Clayton was born with only one hand. Her left hand was missing. Despite this handicap, Eliza was able to spin, kit and sew. She had what was called a “bird clasp” which she fastened to the table to hold her knitting.
Lambert Clayton continued to prosper; by 1860 he owned eleven slaves and was at the economic high point of his life. The Civil War soon broke out, and before the war was over Clayton’s three oldest sons had to go off to war. When the tide of the war began to turn in favor of the Yankees and Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Lambert Clayton became overcome with the fear that if his slaves were freed and left him, he would be ruined. Despite his wealth he was very insecure, perhaps as a result of his parents dying when he was a child and being left an orphan. It has been said that Clayton even chained some of his slaves (likely the men) up at night for fear they would run off. Babe Freeman remembered seeing chains attached to the chimney in the attic of the old Clayton house when he was a boy. I don’t know why he thought that would do any good. They could just as easily run off in the day. What could he do but shoot them and if he did that, his slaves would be dead and be of no more use to him as if they had run off.
But Lambert C. Clayton’s slaves never ran off, for the same reason most other peoples slaves didn’t. The slaves had nowhere to go. They owned no land, had no money or skills other than common labor, which was scarce. The poor white families that lived around them may have been free, but their standard of living was little if any better than those of the slaves themselves.
The economy of the South was in ruins after the Civil War. Clayton’s former slaves may have stayed around but he had little for them to do. Then in the summer of 1866 a large flood hit Fairview and washed away almost all of Lambert Clayton’s crops. He could not handle the disaster. Clayton got his rifle, tied a string to the trigger and killed himself. Eliza Clayton, with only one hand and the help of her children, ran the farm by herself. Elizabeth Burgin Clayton died March the 15, 1909 at the age of 92. She was buried next to her husband in Sharon Methodist Cemetery in Fairview.
Lambert Clingman and Elizabeth Burgin Clayton had ten children.
An unnamed infant was born and died in 1836.
Elizabeth Ann Clayton was born in Fairview September 28, 1837, married Dr. George Washington Fletcher May 4 (1829–May 3, 1901) and died February 25, 1921. Both are buried in Calvary Episcopal Cemetery in Fletcher.

John Clayton was born in Fairview in 1839, married Louise Wilson and lived in Bakersville in Mitchell Co.
Leah Malinda Clayton was born in Fairview January 12, 1842 and married Joseph R. Garren June 5, 1859. Joseph Garren (June 24, 1838–March 7, 1923) was the son of David Garren (1801–1894) and Margaret Whitaker (1807-1891). Malinda died Aug. 30, 1890 and is buried with Joseph Garren in Old Salem Cemetery in Fletcher.

George Marion Clayton was born in Fairview March 13, 1843, married Lydia Lusk, and died in Asheville February 16, 1913. He is buried in Sharon Methodist Cemetery in Fairview.
Benjamin Clayton was born in Fairview in 1843. He married Ellen Davidson.

Robert Clingman Clayton was born in Fairview in 1850. His first wife was  Elizabeth Young (1855–1887), his second Nancy Elizabeth Young, his first wife’s cousin. He and his first wife are buried in Sharon Methodist Cemetery.

An unnamed Clayton twin lived from June 12–June 15, 1852.The second unnamed Clayton twin lived from June 12–June 18, 1852.   These twins are the first two graves in Sharon Cemetery.
Sarah “Sally” Clayton was born in Fairview September 2, 1855 and married Jonathan Williams (Dec. 21, 1846–May 24, 1911) on November 18, 1875. Jonathan Williams was elected Mayor of Hendersonville 3 times: in 1883, 1891 and 1902. He served 2 terms as Sheriff of Henderson County and 2 terms in the NC Legislature. He was a Republican. Sarah “Sallie” died Dec. 25, 1895. Both are buried in Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville.

Local historian Bruce Whitaker documents genealogy in the Fairview area. Contact Mr. Whitaker by phone at 628-1089 or email [email protected].