Anna Gratz Clay, of Noted Jewish Family, Dies at 82

The death of Mrs. Anna Gratz Clay at her home in Lexington, Ky., at the age of 82, closes a chapter of perhaps the most interesting Jewish family history in the annals of America.

Anna Gratz Clay was a niece of Rebecca Gratz, who it is said was the model for Rebecca, the heroine of Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe,” from a description given Scott by Washington Irving, an intimate friend of the Gratz family.

Anna Gratz Clay was the daughter of Benjamin Gratz, whose father before him was one of the outstanding personalities in the history of Philadelphia. In fact the story of the activities of the Gratz family would be a history of the great adventures in the progress of American commerce and trade and of the patriotic participation in the civic development of the country’s needs. Benjamin Gratz was the only one of that distinguished Philadelphia family to migrate to the West, settling in Lexington, where he immediately became actively prominent. He was a trustee of Transylvania University, a member of the first city council of Lexington, a director of the Bank of Kentucky, and an incorporator of the Orphan Asylum.

Mrs. Clay has not only left behind her an invaluable tradition, but her home was a veritable storehouse of exquisite articles of glass and chinaware, furniture, paintings, letters (a great many of which were written by Rebecca Gratz) and documents that are precious beyond computation because of their historical interest and the long continuity of ownership by those who played important roles in the days before the Revolution.