Wednesday, March 07, 2007

My matrilineal line

I just learned alot about my mother's family, not least of which is a possible connection to the Plimouth Plantation in 17th c. Massachusetts Bay colony:

Sent to my sister Kate:
Hi, Kate.

It is a pleasure to meet you indeed! William Clark left many descendants but aside from yourself I have only been able to contact one other so far although I may be on the verge of a major breakthrough. William Clark was born about 1803 in Milford, New Hampshire and died April 28, 1884 in Waddington, New York. His wife, Martha Nowell (c1804, Nashua, New Hampshire-May 12, 1880, Waddington, NY) was the granddaughter of an American Revolutionary commander and possibly Plymouth plantation Pilgrims. They were probably involved in smuggling runaway slaves to freedom in Canada. They built the Clark House around 1835. Prior to that, William was a carriage maker and also owned a stagecoach run from Ogdensburg to Fort Covington. It's a good possibility that the famous stagecoach driver, Hank Monk, was driving for him at the age of 12.

William and Martha's oldest son, William Henry Clark (December 1828, New Hampshire- October 1909, Rochester, NY) married a Sarah Elizabeth (last name unknown) in 1853. She was born May 1833 in New York and died sometime between 1910 and 1920 probably in Rochester.

Their oldest son was Charles Henry Clark (July 1856, New York- July 7, 1920, Atlantic City, NJ.) He married between June 1, 1880 and 1881 a Waddington girl named Sarah (last name possibly Bower.) She was born March 1862 in NY and died between 1900 and 1909 probably in St. Louis, Missouri where her husband was a travelling salesman. In 1894, he was said to have visited every state and territory in the Union and found no place with such natural advantages as Waddington.

Their third son was William Hall Clark (November 10, 1888, Royal Oak, MI- c1917, Massachusetts.) He married Vivian Willis Albee (born April 7, 1895, Massachusetts) on May 21, 1915. She was the daughter of John and Mary A. (McLean) Albee. William served in WWI.

Their children were Jean Murray Clark (September 1917, Massachusetts- 2006, Toms River, NJ) and Helen Austin Clark (December 21, 1917- Massachusetts- May 9, 1977, Trenton, NJ.) She married James Paul Kearney (December 12, 1915, Minnesota- October 1975, NJ) and had three children. She married secondly, G. Preston Scott.

I have tons more information about the other lines which I would be glad to send you if you would be kind enough to send me your mailing address. There were several physicians, a bank executive, a zoologist, etc. It's really is a family to be proud of and I'm so honored to meet you.

The Clark House exterior is just about finished and now work is being done on the interior. We are trying to restore it to what it looked like in 1892. Eventually, we hope to have costumed guides, have a small gallery about the family and history, be a working hotel/restaurant, and training school for students wanting to learn hotel management. It was a very important building on Main Street and we hope to restore it to its original glory. You are more than welcome to visit anytime. Waddington hosts something called Homecoming every August where folks from all over the world come home for three days and celebrate. They usually open up the first floor of the Clark House and have displays, antiques and music for folks to enjoy. Homecoming this year is August 3-5. You're welcome to check out http://www.waddingtonredev.org/ for more information closer to the time. Of course, we are still hoping to have a family reunion in 2010 if everything goes according to schedule. I will be glad to keep you updated on that.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Stan. Is Scotty still alive in TR or Beachwood? -chip

8:25 PM  

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