Daniel Clays Saloon and Billiards

circa 1880s
Bingham, UT  
Wall & Clays - The Comstock Saloon

circa 1890s
Salt Lake City, UT  
 
I acquired these chips From Marty Hearne And Vicki Jones who are the step-grand children of Fred D. West.  Marty And Vicki inherited the chips from Fred D. West on his passing.  Fred's father, Fred T. West, married a girl in Bingham, Utah in the late 1890’s named Mary Ann Clays.  Mary Ann Clays’ father was a guy named Daniel Clays—a saloon operator in Bingham and the Salt Lake City area from the 1880’s until around the time of his death in 1909 (age 59).  We believe that Fred D.’s ivories originally belonged to his grandfather (Fred D would have been 11 years old when his grandfather died).
 

Daniel Clays moved from Ohio to Utah around 1870.  Most of Dan’s life was spent either operating saloons or managing mining interests.  He has been credited with unearthing the largest gold nugget ever found in Utah (not sure whether that record still holds).
   
As early as 1875 he was operating a saloon in Bingham: Description of Bingham from1881
 

                               Pic of Daniel Clays

 From 1882 Bingham directory                                              
                                                       
 

Below are a couple of newspaper articles reporting of a shootout at Daniel Clays' saloon on September 9, 1886.  Note that the shootout was over a faro game.  I wonder if the chips shown above were on the table at the time.  Peter Clay (a known gambler) was Daniel's brother.
 
In the early 1890’s Daniel Clays was one of the proprietors of the Comstock Saloon in Salt Lake City