Their eldest son, Wallace William Clements was born on September 2, 1889, and followed his father's footsteps and graduated from the University of Michigan.

[4] Fortunately, Clements was able to make many of his purchases in the “golden age” for collectors as the decades of the 1880s through the 1920s saw the breakup of aristocratic British estates which contained many great libraries.

In the United States many large private libraries were also sold which allowed Clements to make a series of major purchases.

Among some of his notable purchases were Christopher Columbus's letters and reports to the king and queen of Spain describing the first voyage to discover a world that did not then exist on any map.

Seeing the opportunity to create a memorial for himself, he envisioned this library to be exclusively for him, his close friends, and the advanced scholars and researchers in the country.

Clements provided a suitable home for his collections in the style of Italian renaissance, based on Vignola's casino for the Villa Farnese in Caprarola, Italy.

Between 1925 and 1930, William Clements acquired the papers of British generals Thomas Gage and Sir Henry Clinton, Cabinet Minister Lord George Germain, and the Hessian General Von Jungkenn, creating the largest archive in the United States of manuscripts and maps relating to British conduct of the American War.

Clements also collected song sheets, newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, sermons, school primers, and slave documents, all of which could be examined together to adequately study the past.

[7] Later in his life, Clements was elected to serve as a Regent of the University of Michigan as a Republican succeeding Frank W. Fletcher of Alpena in 1909.

During his tenure as a regent, his knowledge of engineering and business made him a leader in rebuilding the central campus as part of the "committee of five."

This committee, composed of President Burton, Professor John Shepard, Regent Benjamin Hanchett, Albert Kahn, and William Clements, oversaw a great expansion to the Michigan campus after World War I.

Clements was responsible for the 1922 building of the Bay City Public library, "through both personal donations and activities to obtain supplementary funds from the Carnegie Foundation.