Clifford Clemens, the present efficient deputy sheriff of Williams County and former city marshal of Bryan, the judicial center of this county, claims the county as the place of his nativity and is a representative of one of its old and highly esteemed families. He was born in the little Village of Williams Center, on May 30, 1868, and is a son of Ephriam and Mary (Lane) Clemens, both natives of Crawford County, this state, and both young folk at the time of the removal of the respective families to Williams County, Mrs. Clemens having been eight years old when her parents came to this county. Ephriam Clemens gained his rudimentary education in Crawford County and was a lad of fourteen years when his parents’came to Williams County and established their home on a farm near Bryan. He was a carpenter in this county, where both he and his wife continued to reside until their death and where both were earnest members of the United Brethren Church at Williams Center. Mr. Clemens was one of the loyal young men who represented this county as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and in later years he vitalized the more gracious associations of his military career by maintaining active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, his political allegiance having been given to the republican party. Of the three surviving children the subject of this sketch is the youngest; Stella is the wife of William Imes, and Nora is the wife of Charles Brown.
The childhood and early youth of Clifford Clements were marked by the associations of the home farm, and his early educational discipline was received in the public schools of Williams Center. At the age of eighteen years he learned the barber’s trade at Bryan, and thereafter he conducted a barber shop at Lima, Allen County, for twenty years. In 1904 he returned to Bryan and here engaged in the work of his trade, in which he continued until his election to the office of city marshal, in which he served four years, his original election having occurred in 1913 and his re-election in 1915, having given him the largest majority ever received by any candidate for municipal office at Bryan. He finally resigned the office of marshal and thereafter he served as probation officer at Bryan until June 11, 1919, when he resigned, to accept oppointment to his present position, that of deputy sheriff. Mr. Clemens is a staunch supporter of the principles of the republican party, is affiliated with Bryan Lodge, No. 221, Knights of Pythias, and both he and his wife are members of the Pythian Sisters, in which Mrs. Clemens has not only passed the official chairs of the local organization but also served a number of terms as district deputy.
In 1893, while a resident of Lima, Mr. Clemens was united in marriage to Miss Lillie May Smith, who was born and reared in Allen County. They have no children. Mrs. Clemens is an active member of the United Brethren Church at Bryan, and is popular in the social activities of her home village.
Source: Bowersox, Charles A. ed. A standard history of Williams County, Ohio: an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development , 2 vols. Publisher Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co. 1920.