Next Sunday, July 4, will not only be the anniversary of the national Independence day but that day will be an annual even in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Silas Clay, of Lena, for on that day they will celebrate the 68th anniversary of their wedding. Mr. and Mrs. Clay plan only a family gathering in the modest little home of the north side of Lena, where their relatives may assemble to enjoy the day and extend felicitations. Open house for their many friends will be held from 2 to 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon. Despite their ages, 91 and 86, respectively, Mr. and Mrs. Clay are in good health. Mr. Clay each day spends many hours cultivating corn and vegetables in his small tract of land, which he calls his "forty". Mrs. Clay, although having suffered a broken leg on last January 29, is able to be about the house and frequently enjoys a stroll about the spacious lawn and in the garden; and, she says, "I travel on by own power, I wouldn't us crutches." Mr. Clay was born December 11, 1845, in the first brick house built in Freeport and located near the site of the old post office, the son of David and Mathilda Clay. When he was five years of age he moved with his family to a farm in Rush township, south of Warren, in Jo Daviess county, where the young Mr. Clay remained until his marriage in 1869. Mrs. Clay, formerly Miss Mary Derr, the daughter of Reuben and Eliza Derr, was born a short distance west of what is now Lena, on September 11, 1850. When she was eleven years of age she moved with her parents on a farm about six miles south of Warren, in Jo Daviess county, where she remained until she was married. It was on July 4, 1869, 68 years ago next Sunday, that Silas Clay and Mary Derr were united in marriage by the Rev. Michael Simmons, a Universalist minister, at his parsonage in Jo Daviess county, Mr. and Mrs. Silas Clay then moved on the present Harbach farm one mile west of Warren, Jo Daviess county, where they remained two years, returning then to the old Clay farm where the young man had grown up. The couple remained there until 1876, migrating to California to "stake out a claim". They were obliged to return to Illinois in the fall of that year because of Mr. Clay's health. He then bought a farm in Jo Daviess county on which they continued to make their home until 1900 when they moved to Lena. Lena has been their home ever since. Mr. and Mrs. Clay have one living son, Kerlin B. Clay, 67, who lives with them, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. A daughter Cora M. Clay, died in 1897. The 67 year-old son is not in hood health, and declares, "it makes me sick to see dad work in the garden all day when I can't do anything." Mr. Clay recalls when the Illinois Central railroad was built through Lenz in 1854. Lena was originally planned to be laid out where Louisa is now located about a mile and a half west of Lena. The people who then lived in the settlement now known as Lena provided more money toward the purchase of land for the railroad, Mr. Clay said, and so the village was laid out where it now stands. The fathers of both Mr. Clay and Mrs. Clay were blacksmiths in the early days, and Mr. Clay's father operated a blacksmith shop where the Illinois Central depot now stands. He frequently shod horses which pulled the stage coaches operating between Chicago and Galena. Mr. Clay recalls having driven oxen to break prairie lands in this region. He was one of the few living persons who attended the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport. Mr. Clay is in splendid health and derives great enjoyment from his garden, flowers and lawn. Mrs. Clay sustained three fractures in the last ten years. About ten years ago she broke a leg. She suffered a fracture in the same place last January. About five years ago she broke an arm. Yet she is able to be about the house and appears in good health and spirits. Both enjoy the company of visitors. Contributed by Karen Fyock - dated Lean June 30