Subscribers of Netflix who’ve watched the 2024 series, “Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War” certainly are familiar with the name Ike Clanton. The legend of western folklore and arch nemesis of Wyatt Earp has been retold in a new way through the documentary series but most locals have no clue that a nephew of Ike Clanton is buried in the Ceres Memorial Park.
William Weaver Clanton, who died in 1975 and is buried in the cemetery’s older section along Highway 99, was the son of John Wesley Clanton (1841-1916) who was a brother of Ike Clanton who survived the celebrated gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone. Another brother of John Clanton was William Harrison “Billy” Clanton, who was shot to death in the gun battle, probably by Morgan Earp.
William Weaver Clanton was the grandson of Newman Haynes “Old Man” Clanton, the patriarch of the Clantons of Tombstone fame.
Victims of the OK Corral shootout are buried in the Tombstone’s Boot Hill Cemetery, a mecca for tourists who remain fascinated with the October 26, 1881 gunfight.
William Clanton had another interesting link to California history. His mother was Nancy Rose Kelsey Clanton, the daughter of Nancy Kelsey (1823-1869) who was purportedly the first white woman to travel into California in 1841. Her entry into California came as a member of the Bartleson-Bidwell Party. Nancy Kelsey later was dubbed the Betsy Ross of California because she stitched together the California Republic flag during the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846. Kelsey reportedly used a piece of three-foot by five-foot piece of cloth, a strip of red flannel from a petticoat and berry juice for ink. Her flag was raised over Sonoma, Calif., during war with Mexico, signaling an end to Mexican rule. The episode became known as the Bear Flag Revolt. Kelsey’s flag flew for 24 days, until July 7, when the U.S. Navy sailed into Monterey and raised the Stars and Stripes to claim California.
In his mother’s May, 1948 obituary, William Clanton was listed as a Madera farmer. That same obituary notes the fascinating life of Nancy Rose Kelsey: “As a child in Texas she rode in a carriage with General U.S. Grant, saw Indians scalp an older sister, watched her father dig gold from dry ground with a butcher knife near Placerville and shared in other pioneer adventures.”
William Clanton, a retired foreman for a Madera cotton ranch, died at the age of 99 on May 8, 1975 in a Modesto nursing home. He had moved to Modesto after living in Madera since 1890.
According to a Jan. 19, 1966 Fresno Bee article that featured his photo posing with his granddaughter, William Clanton was freighting – an old term for hauling supplies by horse-drawn wagon – from Mount Bullion to Mariposa under a contract he snagged in 1898. He later hauled supplies for the building of the dam at Bass Lake east of Oakhurst.
Curiously, a May 8, 1975 Modesto Bee article announced that William was to be buried in the Madera District Cemetery. How he ended up buried in Ceres is shrouds in mystery.
Clanton is buried among members of the Gardner family who could be complete strangers. His father died in 1916 and is buried at the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery under a Confederate soldier grave marker, while his mother is at rest in the Mountain View Cemetery of Fresno.
