Clayton Historical Association

10/24/2026

In the early days of our country, and before, if you misbehaved and broke certain laws, you were sentenced to a period of time in the town square of center, to the pillory aka stocks.

The accused had to wear a sign noting their particular crime against the community. These included: “common brawler”, defrauder of the poor” “wanton Godspeller”, “false swearer”, and “lewd vagrant.”

Stop by Clayton Historical Association booth at the Clayton Harvest Festival in downtown and have your photo taken in the CHA pillory… and choose your “crime”!

10/24/2026

Clayton Historical Association is at the Clayton Harvest Festival in front of the Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library!

Stop by our tent to say hi, read a little Clayton’s history, buy a America 250 Heritage Festival T-shirt for $15.

For a donation you can get a commemorative fan, a soft drink, chips or crackers!

10/23/2026

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/grave-matters-a-brief-on-access-and-maintenance-rights-to-grave-sites-on-private-land

Across North Carolina, one often sees gravestones standing alone or in small clusters in various states of maintenance among the rows of tended farm fields and mowed pastures. Sometimes these are enclosed, sometimes not. Many of these family burial sites serve as final resting places for ancestors w...

10/18/2026

Bunker Hill Cemetery, Clayton NC.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/861347626821225/

10/16/2026

10/03/2026

Well, the video of the Reading of the Declaration of Independence video at the "America 250 Heritage Festival: Celebrating Clayton's Story" is finally finished and is included in the "What A Day" blog recap https://www.historyofclayton.org/post/what-a-day of the event from September 12 on the Clayton Historical Association website!

10/02/2026

CLAYTON HISTORIC GHOST WALK UPDATE:

We're incredibly grateful for the enthusiastic response to our recent call for Ghost Walk actors and volunteers.

Building on the success of our Ghost Walks in 2019 and 2025 and inspired by the community support shown during the America 250 Heritage Festival just a few weeks ago, the Clayton Historical Association has decided to develop the next "Clayton Historic Ghost Walk" for Spring 2027. This gives us an opportunity to welcome more volunteers, actors, sponsors, and community partners while creating an even richer experience that celebrates Clayton's unique history.

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to bringing our community together once again to share the stories that make Clayton such a special place. In the meantime, join us at our booth at the Clayton Harvest Festival October 24 on Main Street in Downtown Clayton, NC!

09/14/2026

What a day!

The "America 250 Heritage Festival: Celebrating Clayton’s Story" was a great success on Saturday, with more than 500 people joining us at Town Square in Downtown Clayton, NC to experience some of the sights, sounds, skills and stories of life in and around 1776.

Throughout the afternoon, visitors enjoyed demonstrations and exhibits featuring **blacksmithing, pitch and turpentine, beekeeping, historic tools, a Native American display, North Carolina folklore, birds of prey, an African apothecary, spinning, period clothing, and ragdoll making.

Camp Flintlock brought even more of 1776 to life with quill-and-ink writing, tomahawk throwing, fife and drum music, and a colonial store.

The Clayton Historical Association hosted three tents filled with Clayton artifacts and local history, while Clayton's Deep River Brewing debuted its limited-run commemorative b**r created with CHA, “Gregory’s Ordinary American Lager.”

Another highlight of the day was our "Reading of the Declaration of Independence", presented twice—at noon and again at 2:30 p.m. The rain arrived during the second reading, but it certainly didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of our readers or the audience who stayed to hear the Declaration proclaimed!

We’ll be posting a video of the complete 2:30 p.m. reading on the Clayton Historical Association website within the next few days, so watch for an announcement.

We hope these photos give you a sense of what a special day it was. And if you were there and took pictures, we’d love to see them! Please share them with us at [email protected].

Thank you to everyone who came out Saturday, and a very special thank-you to the volunteers, members and Board of Directors who gave their time and energy to make the festival happen.

Finally, the "America 250 Heritage Festival: Celebrating Clayton’s Story was made possible through the generous support of our sponsors:

Duke Energy
Town of Clayton, NC Government
HomeTowne Realty
“Aila’s Journal,” historical fiction by Charles M. Clemmons

Thank you to our sponsors, participants, volunteers—and especially the 500+ people who came out to celebrate Clayton’s story with us!